PERUGINO: BEGINNING AND END
After the major exhibition held earlier this year in the National Gallery of Umbria, Perugia, the commemoration of Perugino's fiftieth anniversary follows on at both Citta della Pieve (his birthplace) and Fontignano, where he contracted the deadly bubonic plague and died in 1524.
Pietro Cristoforo Vannucci (better known by his nickname “Perugino”- a person from Perugia), the artist who was to revolutionize Italian renaissance art was born in the small town of Città della Pieve, which still conserves several of his masterpieces. The exhibition, rather quaintly entitled “- and he was baptised Pietro”, opened on the 1st July and runs until the 30th September 2023, is divided between three prestigious historical venues – the Palazzo della Cogna, the Civic Diocese Museum of Santa Maria dei Servi, and the Oratory of Santa Maria dei Bianchi. One entry ticket covers all three venues.
The little known village of Fontignano, instead offers a more poignant visit to see the artist's tomb - a marble urn on a pedestal set up in 1929 when his remains were discovered buried near the small church of the Annunciation where the artist had his workshop during the last years of his life. According to Giorgio Vasari, the biographer of the Italian Renaissance artists, Perugino was not given burial inside the church because he was an atheist. The walls of the church were originally covered in five frescoes painted by the maestro, but four were removed and sold in the 19th century. The remaining one, damaged by damp and some clumsy attempts at restoration, features a Madonna and Child and is dated the year before Perugino's death. The fragment has been chosen to illustrate a commemorative stamp issued by the Italian Post Office in honour of the event.
Info: www.peruginocittadellapieve.it
www.umbriatourismo.it/it/-/la-tomba-del-perugino-a-fontignano
Fontignano – La Chiesa dell'Annunziata: Tel.+39.340.23734406