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Overview

Pietro Vannucci, called Perugino after the city in which he often lived, collaborated with other celebrated painters in one of the most prestigious commissions of the late fifteenth century -- the decoration of the walls of the Sistine Chapel in 1481-1482. He headed active workshops in Perugia and Florence, where he would eventually be overshadowed by his greatest pupil, Raphael.

Perugino's Crucifixion with Saints, painted for a chapel in the Dominican church in San Gimignano near Siena, shows Christ hanging on the cross with Mary and Saint John the Evangelist at his feet. In the two side panels, Saint Jerome with his lion, and Mary Magdalene gaze up at the figure of Christ. However, the work does not attempt to depict the actual event or place, but is a visual meditation on the theme of the Crucifixion. The serene mood is reflected in the landscape, which also reveals the influence of Flemish painting which had recently been introduced into Florence.

From the late seventeenth to the early twentieth century Perugino's Crucifixion was thought to be the work of his pupil Raphael. When it was discovered that the donor of the triptych died in 1497, when Raphael would have been only fourteen, Perugino's authorship once again became clear.

Provenance

Probably commissioned by Bartolommeo Bartoli (or di Bartolo), Bishop of Cagli [d. 1497];[1] by gift from him to the church of San Domenico, San Gimignano; seized 1796/1797 by Napoleonic troops; acquired 1796/1797 by Dr. Buzzi, and sold soon thereafter to Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Galitzin [1772-1821], Russian ambassador to Rome; by inheritance to his son, Theodore Alexandrovich Galitzin [d. 1848], Palazzo Galitzin, Rome; by inheritance to his nephew, Sergei Mikhailovich Galitzin [1843-1915], Moscow; displayed from 1865 at the Museum of Western European Painting of Prince S.M. Galitzin, Moscow;[2] purchased 1886 with the Galitzin collection by the Imperial Hermitage Gallery, Saint Petersburg; purchased April 1931 through (Matthiesen Gallery, Berlin; P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London and New York; and M. Knoedler & Co., New York and London) by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 5 June 1931 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[3] gift 1937 to NGA.

Exhibition History

1983
Raphael and America, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1983, no. 52, pl. 7.
2002
The Flowering of Florence, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2002, no. 4, repro.
2004
Golitzyn Museum in Volkhonka Street, State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, 2004.
2023
Il meglio maestro d’Italia: Perugino e il suo tempo, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia, 2023, no. II.8, repro.

Bibliography

1935
Bertini-Casosso, Achille. "Perugino." In Enciclopedia Italiana. 36 vols. Rome, 1929-1939. Rome, 1935: 26:pl.219
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 148-149, no. 27.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 239, repro. 164.
1949
Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 25, repro.
1951
Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 54-57, repro.
1952
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 36, color repro.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 23.
1959
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Early Italian Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number Three in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 32, color repro., as The Crucifixion with Saints.
1960
The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 24.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 88, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 100.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:122, color repro.
1968
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:333. 3:pl.1097.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 88, repro.
1969
Camesasca, Ettore. L’opera completa del Perugino. Milan, 1969: 90, cat. 22.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 262, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:360-361; 2:pl. 259.
1979
Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 32, pl. 15.
1984
Scarpellini, Pietro. Perugino. Milan, 1984: 33, 34, 36, 60, 80, 81-82, cat. 38, pl. 5, fig. 56
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 106, no. 77, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 302, repro.
1989
Todini, Filippo. La pittura umbra dal Duecento al primo Cinquecento. 2 vols. Milan, 1989: 1:273.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 91, 92, color repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 23, repro.
1997
Antenucci Becherer, Joseph. "Perugino in America: Masterpieces, Myths, and Mistaken Identities." In Joseph Antenucci Becherer, ed. Pietro Perugino: Master of the Italian Renaissance. Exh. cat., The Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, 1997: 108-110, 114, fig. 40.
1997
Neverov, Oleg, and Mikhail Piotrovsky. The Hermitage: Essays on the History of the Collection, Saint Petersburg, 1997, p. 166, repro.
1998
Christiansen, Keith. "The View From Italy." In From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Edited by Maryan W. Ainsworth and Keith Christiansen. Exh. cat, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998. New York, 1998: 41-43, fig. 22.
2003
Boskovits, Miklós, David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2003: 552-556, color repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 34-35, no. 24, color repro.
2004
Neverov, Oleg Yakovlevich. Great Private Collections of Imperial Russia. New York and Saint Petersburg, 2004: 42-43, ill. 41.
2004
Nuttall, Paula. From Flanders to Florence: The Impact of Netherlandish Painting, 1400-1500. New Haven and London, 2004: 239.
2006
Hartt, Frederick, and David G. Wilkins. History of Italian Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, 2006: 377-378, color fig. 14.19.
2009
Odom, Anne, and Wendy R. Salmond, eds. Treasures into Tractors: The Selling of Russia's Cultural Heritage, 1918-1938. Washington, 2009: 131, 135 n. 62.
2011
Fiedler, Susanne, and Torsten Knuth. "Vexierbilder einer Biographie: Dr. Heinz Mansfeld (1899-1959)." Mecklenburgische Jahrbücher 126 (2011):308.
2011
Hojer, Annette. “‘Die wahre Methode ihrer Ausführung’: Peruginos Landschaften und das Naturideal des Humanismus.” In Andreas Schumacher, ed. Perugino. Raffaels Meister. Exh. cat. Alte Pinakothek, Munich, 2011: 56-58, fig. 28.
2011
Kustodieva, Tat'jana. Museo Statale Ermitage: La pittura italiana dal XIII al XVI secolo. Milan, 2011: 18.
2011
Schumacher, Andreas. “‘Il Perugino’: Ein umbrischer Klassiker in Florenz.” In Andreas Schumacher, ed. Perugino. Raffaels Meister. Exh. cat. Alte Pinakothek, Munich, 2011: 19.
2013
Semyonova, Natalya, and Nicolas V. Iljine, eds. Selling Russia's Treasures: The Soviet Trade in Nationalized Art 1917-1938. New York and London, 2013: 138, 139, 212-213, repro..
2019
Campbell, Stephen J. The Endless Periphery: Toward a Geopolitics of Art in Lorenzo Lotto’s Italy. Chicago and London, 2019: 288 n. 68.
2023
Martelli, Cecilia. “Dopo il successo della Sistina: le opere di Perugino degli anni ottanta.” In Marco Pierini and Veruska Picchiarelli, eds. Il meglio maestro d’Italia. Perugino e il suo tempo. Exh. cat., Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia, 2023: 256, 264-266, figs. 17-19.

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