Perugino

Renaissance painter Pietro Perugino (c. 1446-1523), born Pietro Vannucci in Città della Pieve, Umbria, developed qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Best known today as Raphael's teacher, he was considered "the best painter in Italy" by 1502. His work anticipated High Renaissance ideals in compositional clarity, sense of spaciousness, and economy of formal elements. Raphael's father, Giovanni Santi, called him "divine painter" in a poem.

Perugino trained in Florence, possibly under Piero della Francesca, and joined Andrea del Verrocchio's workshop around 1470 alongside Leonardo da Vinci, Ghirlandaio, and Botticelli. In 1480-1482, he led the wall decoration of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. His fresco Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter demonstrates his mastery of perspective and spatial harmony. The Assumption of the Virgin he painted on the altar wall was later covered by Michelangelo's Last Judgment. After 1500, his art declined as he repeated earlier compositions. Raphael studied under him in Perugia from 1499-1503, absorbing his spatial sensibility before surpassing him. Works hang at the National Gallery in London and the Uffizi Gallery.