Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/804

 PERUZZI

738

PESARO

Except for some journeys to Perugia, Venice,, and Tano, Floren(c was liis centre of operations for that period. To it belong the "Crucifixion" and Mie "Cietliseinane" of tlie Florence Accadeniia; the fa- mous "Pietil" of the same museum; the "Talcing down from the C^ross" of the Pitti (1495); the "Vision of St. Hernard" in the Museum of Municli; but the most wonderful of these works is the great fresco of the "Crui'ifi.xion" in Sta Maddalena de Pazzi (1496). The beauty of the faces, the stirring gravity of the scene, the finish of the colouring, and the perfection of the landscape rank tliis picture first among Perugino's works in Italy. The triptych of the "Nativity" (1500) at London isa miniature of this fresco almost equal to it in beauty. Perugino shows himself an incomparable landscape artist in the pictures of his best period; he was an eminent master of the painting of the atmos- phere. He derives his expression from the rarest artistic qualities, from a finished composition, spacing of figures, use of oils, and deep, harmonious colouring, thereby achieving an effect of depth and fullness. In his masterpieces, though he transforms the reality to a great extent, he is nevertheless very true to nature. He copies the nude quite as accurately as the most able of the Florentines, as is seen in the wonderful "St. Sebastian" of the Louvre, and he is capable of the most exact and close veracity, for example, the two admirable heads of Carthusians at the Florence Acca- deniia, which suffice to place him in the front rank of jiortrait painters. Perugino is one of the greatest and most popular artists of Italy and his work is dis- tinctive for the creation of the "pious picture".

The decoration of the Cambio, or Bourse of Perugia (1499), marks the beginning of a period of decline. The effect of this hall decorated with fres- coes on the four walls and with arabesques on the ceiling is very charming, but the conception is ex- tremely arbitrary, and the composition worthless and insignificant. Ancient heroes, prophets, and sibyls all have the same disdainful expression; the whole is neutral, abstract, vague. The artist replaces all semblance of thought, conscience, and effort with an appearance of sentiment which is merely senti- mentality. Thenceforth Perugino is a deplorable ex- ample of a great artist who destroys himself by subordination to mere handicraft. Unquestionably he had a sublime period in his life, when he first endowed incomparable plastic bodies with an un- looked-for expression of the infinite and the divine, but he soon abused this oft-repeated formula, the arrangement became purely schematic, the figures stereotyped, the colouring sharp and acidulous, and all emotion evaiiorated. The only part of his genius that persisted to the end was an eye enamoured of the skies and light. This decline was clearly evident in 1504, when Isabella d'Este ordered the artist to paint the "Combat of Love and Chastity", now in the Louvre. At this time art was achieving its most glorious con- quests, as testified by the two famous cartoons of Leonardo and Michelangelo (1.506) at Florence. The works of his last twenty years, frescoes and altar- pieces, are scattered through Umbria, at Perugia, Spello, Siena etc. They add nothing to his glory. The ceiling which he painted for Julius II in 1508 in the Camera dell' Incendio at the Vatican has at least a higli decorative value. In 1521 the old artist worked once more in collaboration with Raphael. The latter had left an unfinished fresco at S. Spirito at Perugia and after his death Perugino was commissioned to finish it. Nothing shows more clearly the moral differ- ence between these two geniuses, the wonderful pro- gress and self-development of Raphael, the immobility and intellect iial apathy of his master. The latter died of the pest at the age of seventy-eight.

Vasabi. Lf Vilf.e<\. Milanebi (Florence. 1878); Mabcresi, Jl Cambio di Pernpin (Pratro, 18.53): Passavant, Raphael d" Urbin el am pire (Paris, 1860) ; Bssai aur tee peintree de VOmbrie (1860);

MOBELI.1, Italian painters (London, 1892-3); Brhnamonti, Pietro Perugino in Rivinta Contemporanea (1889); HKAfJUlROLi.i. Notizie e dorumentiinediti intorno a PietrnVanurri (PcruRJa, IS74)" BcniKHABDT, Art Guide to Painting in Ilnlii (I...riilrin, lS7tl): Bboussolle, Pileri/taoes ombriens (Paris. IS'Mil /a Jnin<-<.i- lie Prrugin (Paris, 1901); BekensoN, Central Ilnlian immlrra (London. 1S97); Williamson, Peruuino (London, I<in:i).

Louis GiLLET.

Peruzzi, B.\ldassare, architect and painter, b. at Siena, 7 March, 14S1; d. at Rome, G Jan., 1.5;j7. He derived Miurli benefit from the years of apprenticeship under Biamante, Raphael, and Sangallo during the erection of St. Peter's. An evidence of his genius for independent work is the Palazzo Massimi alle Colonne, which he began in 1535. Almost all art critics ascribe also to him the Villa Farnasina. In this, two wings branching off from a central hall, a simple arrangement of pilasters, and a beautiful frieze on the exterior of the building, airy halls, and a few splendid rooms are combined in excellent taste. The paintings which adorn the interior are for the most part by Peruzzi. The decoration of the facade, the work of Peruzzi, has almost entirely perished. To decorate this villa on the Tiber a number of second-rate artists were employed, and just as the style of the villa in no wise recalls the old castellated type of country-house, so the paintings in harmony with the pleasure-loving spirits of the time were thor- oughly antique and uninspired by Christian ideas. It seems that Raphael designed the composition of the story of Amor and Psyche as a continuation of the Galatea. On a plate-glass vault Peruzzi painted the firmament, with the zodiacal signs, the planets, and other heavenly bodies, his perspective being so skilful as to deceive even the eye of Titian. The close prox- imity of Raphael's work has overshadowed Peruzzi in the ceiling decoration of the Stanza d'Eliodoro in the Vatican. While Raphael designed the mural paint- ings and, it may be, the entire plan for the decoration of the hall, it is certain that the tapestry-like frescoes on the ceiUng are to be ascribed to Peruzzi. Four scenes represent God's saving omnipotence as shown in the case of Noe, Abraham, Jacob, and Moses. The manifestation of the Lord in the burning bush and the figure of Jehovah commanding Noe to enter the ark were formerly considered works of Raphael. But some time before, Peruzzi had produced for the church of S. Croce in Gierusalemme a mosaic ceiling, the beau- tiful keystone of which represented the Saviour of the world. Other paintings ascribed to him are to be found in S. Onofrio and S. Pietro in Mostorio. That Peruzzi improved as time went on is evident in his later works, e. g., the "Madonna with Saints" in S. Maria della Pace at Rome, and the fresco of Augustus and the Triburtine Sibyl in Fontegiusta at Siena. As our master interested himself in the decorative art also, he exercised a strong influence in this direction, not only by his own decorative paintings but also by furnishing designs for craftsmen of various kinds.

Redtenbacher, Peruzzi und seine Werke (Karlsruhe. 1875); Weese, BaUlaseare Peruzzi's Anteil an dem malerischen Schumcke der Villa Farnesina (Leipzig, 1894): Richteb, Siena (Leipzig): Steinmann, Rom in der Renaissance (Leipzig): Grcner, Fresco Decorations and Stuccoes of Churches and Palaces in Italy (London, 1854).

G. GlETMANN.

Peaaro, Diocese of (Pesaurensis), in central Italy. The city is situated at the mouth of the river Foglia, on the Adriatic Sea. The industries of the town include fisheries, agriculture, the manufacture of majolicas, the working of sulphur and lignite coal mines, bituminous schist, and marble. The cathedral (San Francesco) has a beautiful Gothic portal and a "Coronation of the Madonna", by Bellini; the church of San Domenico is a work of Fra Paolo Belli; in the latter is the mausoleum of the poet Giulio Perticari. The Palazzo Ducale was begun by Laurana before 1465, and was finished by the Gengas, father and son.