The Società del 1496: Supply, Demand, and Artistic Exchange in Renaissance Perugia

Abstract

In May 1496 five local artists opened a shared workshop in Perugia, creating a painters’ cooperative, known as the Società del 1496. An analysis of the formation and operation of their enterprise, their active civic roles, individual and collaborative works and their costs, as well as their interrelations with the more famous painters active in the city—Perugino, Pintoricchio, and Raphael—provides a more complete picture of the society's integral position in Renaissance Perugia. What emerges is a greater understanding of how communal artistic production was designed to meet the increasing demand for art in central Italy around 1500.

Notes

1. Richard Goldthwaite, Wealth and the Demand for Art in Italy, 1300–1600 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993).

2. Ibid., 1.

3. See, for example, Bruce Cole, The Renaissance Artist at Work: From Pisano to Titian (New York: Harper and Row, 1983); Anabel Thomas, The Painter's Practice in Renaissance Tuscany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995); and Carmen Bambach, Drawing and Painting in the Italian Renaissance Workshop: Theory and Practice, 1300–1600 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). Issues of demand are addressed in the recent work of Michelle O’Malley; see, for example, O’Malley, “Quality Choices in the Production of Renaissance Art: Botticelli and Demand,” Renaissance Studies 28, no. 1 (2013): 4–32, and idem, Painting under Pressure: Fame, Reputation, and Demand in Renaissance Florence (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014).

4. Fiorenzo Canuti, Il Perugino (Siena: La Diana, 1931; reprint, Foligno: Editoriale Umbra, 1983), vol. 2, 239, doc. 384; also Pietro Scarpellini, Perugino, rev. ed. (Milan: Electa, 1991), 65.

5. Sylvia Ferino Pagden, “The Early Raphael and His Umbrian Contemporaries,” in Raphael before Rome, Studies in the History of Art 17, ed. James Beck (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1986), 95.

6. Francesco Federico Mancini, “Un episodio di normale ‘routine’: L’affresco cinquecentesco dell’Oratorio di Sant’Agostino a Perugia,” Commentari d’Arte 1, no. 1 (1995): 37–39; idem, “Considerazioni sulla bottega umbra del Perugino,” in Pietro Vannucci il Perugino: Atti del convegno internazionale di studio, 25–28 ottobre 2000, ed. Laura Teza (Perugia: Volumnia, 2004), 332; Elvio Lunghi, “Perugino e i suoi imitatori,” 32, and Laura Teza, “Un dipinto in società: Perugino, Berto di Giovanni e la Bottega del 1496,” 47–49 (see 48 for “parassiti perugini”), both in Pietro Vannucci e i pittori perugini del primo cinquecento, I Lunedì della Galleria, 2004, ed. Paola Mercurelli Salari (Perugia: Quattroemme, 2005).

7. Alberto Sartore, “Perugino's Contract for the Collegio del Cambio Frescos,” Burlington Magazine 155, no. 1325 (August 2013): 528–33. I wish to thank Alberto Sartore for generously sharing his work with me before its publication.

8. Archivio di Stato, Perugia, Archivio Notarile, Notary Rubino di Giacomo, prot. 378, fol. 298r. The document was mentioned in Walter Bombe, Geschichte der Peruginer Malerei bis zu Perugino und Pintoricchio (Berlin: B. Cassirer, 1912), 95, 314; and Mancini, “Oratorio di Sant’Agostino,” 47–48 n. 49, gives a full transcription by Lidia Mazzerioli. My sincere thanks to Daniel P. Solomon, Department of Classical Studies, Vanderbilt University, for providing an English translation of the account.

9. Massimo Montella, ed., Perugia, Musei, Città, Luoghi dell’Umbria (Perugia: Electa Editori Umbri, 1993), 53; and Umbria, Guida d’Italia del Touring Club Italiano, 6th ed. (Milan: Touring Club Italiano, 1999), 139.

10. The location of the workshop thus accorded with local practice and was not necessarily a move to oppose or compete with Perugino's shop, as was suggested by Mancini, “Oratorio di Sant’Agostino,” 38. Sartore, “Perugino's Contract,” 530–31, describes the location of the shop relative to the Collegio del Cambio.

11. It is not known for certain that Perugino operated a shop in Perugia before 1501 (although it is rather likely) or, if he did, where it was located. Documentary evidence attests that at least by 1485, Perugino did not yet have a separate workshop in Perugia but was operating from his home; Mancini, “Considerazioni sulla bottega umbra,” 329–30. Sartore, “Perugino's Contract,” 531, proposed that the space rented by the society in 1496 was intended to be Perugino's workshop, a matter that is discussed below. For Giannicola's work with Perugino in Florence, see Sheri F. Shaneyfelt, “Giannicola di Paolo's Collaboration with Pietro Perugino at the Cenacolo di Foligno, Florence,” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 73, no. 4 (2010): 573–86. Giannicola's workshop in the Piazza del Sopramuro is recorded from May 1509 through September 1533; the space was rented from the Capitolo del Duomo, to which he paid four florins and forty soldi per year, apparently consistently for the entire twenty-four-year period; see Sheri F. Shaneyfelt, “The Perugian Painter Giannicola di Paolo: Documented and Secure Works,” 2 vols. (PhD diss., Indiana University at Bloomington, 2001), vol. 1, 23–24; for Eusebio da San Giorgio, see Umberto Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori nell’Umbria (Spoleto: Claudio Argentieri, 1923), 104.

12. The Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Augustine and Sebastian was commissioned in 1508 and completed in 1510 by Berto and Sinibaldo for the confraternity oratory at S. Agostino; see n. 66 below. The Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Peter, Catherine of Alexandria, Agatha, and Paul was commissioned in 1506 from Eusebio for S. Agostino, Perugia, and completed in 1509; see n. 121 below.

13. Eusebio's collaboration with Berto in the predella for this altarpiece is discussed at some length further below; see also nn. 96–97 below.

14. Richard Goldthwaite, “Economic Parameters of the Italian Art Market (15th to 17th Centuries)” in The Art Market in Italy, 15th–17th Centuries, ed. Marcello Fantoni, Louisa C. Matthew, and Sara F. Matthews-Grieco (Modena: F. C. Panini, 2003), 423–44, at 428. For a comparative study on the population and distribution of wealth in Perugia during the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century and the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, see Sarah Rubin Blanshei, “Population, Wealth, and Patronage in Medieval and Renaissance Perugia,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 9, no. 4 (Spring 1979): 597–619.

15. Scarpellini, Perugino, 95, cat. no. 90; Francesco Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria: Dipinti, sculture e oggetti dei secoli XV–XVI, Cataloghi dei Musei e Gallerie d’Italia (Rome: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1985; reprint, Rome: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1989), 101–2, cat. no. 86; and Paola Mercurelli Salari, entry for “Madonna della Consolazione,” in Perugino: Il divin pittore, ed. Vittoria Garibaldi and Francesco Federico Mancini (Milan: Silvana, 2004), 266–67. For a more comprehensive consideration of the pricing of Perugino's altarpieces (including the relation between price and the relative size of the work), see Michelle O’Malley, “Quality, Demand, and the Pressures of Reputation: Rethinking Perugino,” Art Bulletin 89, no. 4 (December 2007): 691; O’Malley clarified (693) that while this work was priced low overall, it was actually somewhat expensive if one considers its cost as a function of its size.

16. In fact, this sum was cited by at least one scholar as evidence arguing against Perugino's full authorship of the painting; Walter Bombe, Perugino: Des Meisters Gemälde in 249 Abbildungen (Berlin: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1914), 143–44. Most experts regard this work as by Perugino, or by Perugino with the collaboration of an assistant, usually identified as Raphael. For further sources on the Resurrection of Christ, now in the pope's private library at the Vatican, see Scarpellini, Perugino, 99, cat. no. 100.

17. Oil on panel, 105⅞ by 102 in. (296 by 259 cm), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseilles; Scarpellini, Perugino, 105–6, cat. no. 125.

18. Oil on panel, 73 by 60 in. (185.5 by 152.5 cm), National Gallery, London, inv. no. 1075; Scarpellini, Perugino, 115–16, cat. no. 156; and O’Malley, “Rethinking Perugino,” 691.

19. O’Malley, “Rethinking Perugino,” 687–90, suggests that Perugino may have painted specific works for lesser fees because of such factors as the status of the patron, intended location and resulting visibility of the work, and even competition with Pintoricchio and, later, Raphael.

20. Some of these issues are discussed in Goldthwaite, “Economic Parameters,” 432–37; see also Andrew Blume, “Botticelli and the Cost and Value of Altarpieces in Late Fifteenth-Century Florence,” in Fantoni et al., The Art Market in Italy, 151–61, who rightly cautions (155) against evaluating the price of a work based only on its size and number of figures.

21. The artist's reputation as a determinant in value is also an important factor to consider; see O’Malley, “Rethinking Perugino,” 674–93.

22. Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 154. For Sinibaldo's later Annunciation, tempera on panel, 91¾ by 56¼ in. (233 by 143 cm), signed and dated 1528, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia, inv. no. 334, see ibid., 157–58, cat. no. 144.

23. Ludovico served terms as prior of the city in 1501, in the fourth and fifth bimesters of 1503 (a bimester is a two-month term, thus, from July through October 1503), in the fourth bimester of 1518, and the first trimester of 1524 (a trimester is a three-month term, thus, from January through March 1524); Umberto Gnoli, “Documenti inediti sui pittori perugini,” Bollettino d’Arte del Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione 9, nos. 5, 10 (1915): 308; and idem, Pittori e miniatori, 186. Berto was prior in the second trimester of 1524; idem, “Documenti inediti,” 123; and idem, Pittori e miniatori, 74. Eusebio held the post of prior in 1509; idem, Pittori e miniatori, 104.

24. The Perugian priors each served two-month terms until 1487, when Pope Innocent VIII changed the length of service from two to three months, with the intent of creating a more stable governing body. However, after October 1488, the three-month terms were dropped, until they were once again officially reestablished by Pope Julius II in 1512. Christopher F. Black, “The Baglioni as Tyrants of Perugia, 1488–1540,” English Historical Review 85 (1970): 250–53, 255–56.

25. Ibid.

26. For further information on the Camerlenghi and priori in Perugia, see ibid., 251.

27. Ludovico served as camerlengo in 1487, in the second semester of 1510 (a semester is a six-month term, thus, from July through December 1510) and in the first semester of 1522. Lattanzio held the same office in the second semester of 1506, 1515, and 1520, the first semester of 1525, the second semester of 1529, and the first semester of 1532. Sinibaldo was camerlengo in the second semester of 1512, the first semester of 1523 and 1535, and the second semester of 1540 and 1548. Berto held this post in the first semester of 1499 and 1504, and the second semester of 1514 and 1522. Eusebio served as camerlengo very early in his career, in the first semester of 1494 and 1510, the second semester of 1516, 1526, and 1536. See Gnoli, “Documenti inediti,” 308 (Ludovico), 307 (Lattanzio), 311–12 (Sinibaldo), 123 (Berto), 124–25 (Eusebio); and idem, Pittori e miniatori, 186 (Ludovico), 180 (Lattanzio), 321–22 (Sinibaldo), 74 (Berto), 103–4 (Eusebio).

28. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 104, 322; and Black, “The Baglioni as Tyrants of Perugia,” 251.

29. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 113, 136, 146, 190, 321.

30. Laura Teza, “Precisazioni su Eusebio da San Giorgio,” Commentari d’Arte 5, no. 14 (September–December 1999): 17–19; Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 147–48, cat. no. 135; and Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 104–5, 186–87, 321–22.

31. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 321; and Mancini, “Oratorio di Sant’Agostino,” 38, 48 n. 60, in which the works Lattanzio executed for the church and confraternity are detailed in the transcribed payment record as angels, candlesticks, and a tabernacle.

32. In an account dated April 30, 1527, Giannicola's work was valued at thirty-five gold ducats; Umberto Gnoli, “Giannicola di Paolo, nuovi documenti,” Bollettino d’Arte 12, nos. 1–4 (1918): 36, 42–43; and idem, Pittori e miniatori, 75, 137, 322.

33. Gnoli, “Documenti inediti,” 125, 312; and idem, Pittori e miniatori, 104, 322.

34. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 322.

35. For a transcription of the Matricole, see Luigi Manzoni, Statuti e Matricole dell’Arte dei Pittori delle città di Firenze, Perugia, Siena nei testi originali del secolo XIV (Rome: E. Loescher, 1904), 59; see also Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 186.

36. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 186.

37. Ludovico was in turn likely the master of Bernardino di Mariotto dello Stagno (act. ca. 1498–1566), who left the city to work for two decades in San Severino Marche. For Ludovico, see Maria Grazia Bernardini, Museo della Cattedrale di Perugia, vol. 1, Dipinti, sculture e arredi dei secoli XIII–XIX, Cataloghi dei Musei e Gallerie d’Italia (Rome: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1991), 28, cat. no. 10; and Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 68–70.

38. Tempera on canvas, 89¾ by 71⅝ in. (228 by 182 cm), signed and dated, “a. d. mcccclxxxviiii. lodovicvs angioli fecit.” The painting was at one time in S. Simone del Carmine, and later in Perugia Cathedral. Bernardini, Museo della Cattedrale di Perugia, 28; see also Filippo Todini, La pittura Umbra dal Duecento al primo Cinquecento (Milan: Longanesi, 1989), vol. 1, 23; and Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 186. Saint Clare in this work is sometimes identified as Martha.

39. Shaneyfelt, “The Perugian Painter Giannicola di Paolo,” vol. 2, 50, and app. 2, 601–13.

40. Tempera on panel, 61⅜ by 58¼ in. (156 by 148 cm), Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia, inv. no. 265. It was in the apartment of the prior at S. Domenico before its entry into the Perugia Galleria in the 1860s. Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 76, cat. no. 59; Fausta Gualdi Sabatini, Giovanni di Pietro detto Lo Spagna (Spoleto: Accademia Spoletina, 1984), vol. 1, 350; and Shaneyfelt, “The Perugian Painter Giannicola di Paolo,” vol. 2, 551–52.

41. For these records, most from the Archivio Communale, Perugia, see Gnoli, “Documenti inediti,” 121, 307–8; and idem, Pittori e miniatori, 186.

42. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 186.

43. Mancini, “Oratorio di Sant’Agostino,” 37, suggested that the active involvement of the painters of the Società del 1496 in Perugian civic affairs between 1501 and 1510 was part of their greater scheme to combat Perugino's dominance in the city; the argument is repeated in Mancini, “Considerazioni sulla bottega umbra,” 332. However, these were five important artists living in Perugia during this time, and they would have sought and obtained such offices regardless of the popularity of Perugino, and they did. All five occupied public office with no less frequency after Perugino's death in 1523; Sinibaldo Ibi, for example, held office twenty-five years later, in 1548.

44. Gnoli, “Documenti inediti,” 121; and idem, Pittori e miniatori, 180.

45. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 180.

46. Gnoli, “Documenti inediti,” 121, 307; and idem, Pittori e miniatori, 180.

47. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 180; and Mancini, “Oratorio di Sant’Agostino,” 46 n. 12.

48. Gnoli, “Documenti inediti,” 123, 307; and idem, Pittori e miniatori, 285. The payment Lattanzio collected was routine, the equivalent of about one and one-half florins (six lire and twelve soldi).

49. Bishop Baglioni's marble tomb in the cathedral is dated 1451 and attributed to Urbano da Cortona; it is a major monument in the church.

50. Mancini, “Oratorio di Sant’Agostino,” 29–48. The attribution of this fresco to Raphael, by Filippo Todini, in “Una Crocifissione del giovane Raffaello a Perugia,” Studi di Storia dell’Arte 1 (1991): 113–44, is just not tenable and has not been accepted in subsequent literature.

51. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 180; and Mancini, “Oratorio di Sant’Agostino,” 38.

52. Mancini, “Oratorio di Sant’Agostino,” 30–32.

53. Ibid., 36.

54. Richard Goldthwaite, “The Empire of Things: Consumer Demand in Renaissance Italy,” in Patronage, Art, and Society in Renaissance Italy, ed. F. W. Kent, Patricia Simons, and J. C. Eade (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 154.

55. Mancini, “Oratorio di Sant’Agostino,” 39.

56. For a recent discussion of Pintoricchio's artistic formation with the Caporali, see Maria Rita Silvestrelli, “Genealogia di Bernardino di Betto: Perugia tra il 1450 e il 1480,” in Pintoricchio, by Pietro Scarpellini and Silvestrelli (Milan: Federico Motta, 2004), 25.

57. For a more complete discussion, see Pietro Scarpellini, “Nemo propheta in patria,” in Scarpellini and Silvestrelli, Pintoricchio, 211. For the S. Maria dei Fossi Polyptych, see Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 91–94, cat. no. 77; and Maria Rita Silvestrelli, “Il ritorno a Perugia (1495–1502),” in Scarpellini and Silvestrelli, Pintoricchio, 193–96.

58. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 180. Tempera on silk, 41 by 28⅜ in. (104 by 72 cm); Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 94–95, cat. no. 78; and Silvestrelli, “Il ritorno a Perugia,” 197.

59. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 180; and Mancini, “Oratorio di Sant’Agostino,” 37, 48 n. 56.

60. Shaneyfelt, “The Perugian Painter Giannicola di Paolo,” vol. 1, 23–24, docs. 78, 205.

61. Mancini, “Oratorio di Sant’Agostino,” 38, mentioned the rather small compensation of two florins that Lattanzio received in 1514 from the confraternity for a fresco he painted at S. Feliciano near Lake Trasimeno as evidence of such a reciprocal agreement; see also Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 180.

62. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 180; and Mancini, “Oratorio di Sant’Agostino,” 36, 48 n. 57.

63. Mancini, “Oratorio di Sant’Agostino,” 38, 48 n. 59.

64. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 321.

65. Tempera on canvas, 78 by 66½ in. (198 by 169 cm), signed and dated, “sinibaldvs perusinvs pinxit mccccciii,” Museo Civico, Gubbio. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 321, states that the work was created for Gubbio Cathedral, and traditionally it was thought to have been commissioned by the confraternity of the Misericordia. This patronage is mentioned as possible, but with the provenance uncertain, in Francesco Santi, Gonfaloni umbri del Rinascimento (Perugia: Volumnia, 1976), 37. It has recently been proposed that it was ordered by the commune of Gubbio as a replacement for an earlier, similar banner and immediately given to the Augustinian sisters of S. Spirito; see Francesco Ortenzi, entry for “Gonfalone con Sant’Ubaldo Benedicente (recto) e Madonna della Misericordia (verso),” in Pintoricchio, ed. Vittoria Garibaldi and Francesco Federico Mancini (Milan: Silvana, 2008), 314–15, cat. no. 77; the new patron for the banner was proposed by Ettore Sannipoli and Fabrizio Cece, Il Gonfalone di Sinibaldo Ibi: S. Ubaldo Benedicente e la Madonna della Misericordia (Gubbio: L’Arte Grafica, 2003), 8.

66. The altarpiece is dated on the Madonna's throne, “a.d. mcccccx.”; Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 154–55, cat. no. 140; and Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 321.

67. For the S. Agostino altarpiece, see Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 154, who mentions that the artists were to receive fifty-four florins for the work, whereas Mancini, “Oratorio di Sant’Agostino,” 30, 46 n. 23, indicates that in 1508 Berto received a payment for fifty-six florins and provides an excerpt from an archival account concerning the payment. For Sinibaldi's later Annunciation, see Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 157–58, cat. no. 144.

68. Tempera on panel, 67⅜ by 49⅝ in. (171 by 126 cm), signed and dated 1543, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia, inv. no. 352; Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 158, cat. no. 145. It also bears the strong influence of Eusebio da San Giorgio.

69. Fausta Gualdi, “Contributi a Berto di Giovanni pittore perugino,” Commentari: Rivista di Critica e Storia dell’Arte 12, no. 4 (October–December 1961): 254; and Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 75.

70. Manzoni, Statuti e Matricole dell’Arte, 58, 63.

71. Transcription from Canuti, Il Perugino, vol. 2, 174–75, doc. 219: “a Maestro Pietro de Castel de la Pieve … florenorum cinque, soldi cinquanta … levò Ruberto di Giovanni”; see also Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 73. For the Pala dei Decemviri, see Canuti, vol. 2, 171–75, docs. 209–20; and Scarpellini, Perugino, 63, 89–90, cat. nos. 65–66. At this time, the soldo was valued at ninety soldi per florin.

72. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 74, 103. In 1497 Berto had accepted a commission alone for the trumpet banners but apparently included his fellow painters in the next two such commissions. Berto and Eusebio were paid four florins per banner, for a total of sixteen florins, for their work in 1499.

73. The artists received five monthly payments from July through December 1502, totaling sixteen florins, fifteen soldi; Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 74, 103, 208 (see 208 for the little that is known regarding Nicolò da Cesena, recorded from 1502 to 1528). However, Gnoli, “Documenti inediti,” 308, 311, indicates the artist was Roberto di Giovanni, known as Roberto da Montevarchi, rather than Berto di Giovanni. These are two different artists, both followers of Perugino, with much less known about the former.

74. For the most recent transcription of this contract, which survives, see John Shearman, Raphael in Early Modern Sources, 1483–1602 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), vol. 1, 86–92, doc. 1505/2. See also Vincenzo Golzio, Raffaello nei documenti, nelle testimonianze dei contemporanei e nella letteratura del suo secolo (Vatican City: Panetto e Petrelli, 1936), 11–14; the contract was signed by Berto and Raphael on December 12, 1505.

75. For information on this altarpiece, now in the Palazzo Comunale at Narni, see Jean K. Cadogan, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Artist and Artisan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 255–56, cat. no. 31, fig. 242.

76. The artists’ receipt of the total amount was contingent on their work equaling that of Ghirlandaio at Narni, and if it surpassed it, they could potentially be paid even more.

77. Also noted by Shearman, Raphael in Early Modern Sources, vol. 1, 90; and Tom Henry and Carol Plazzotta, “Raphael: From Urbino to Rome,” in Raphael: From Urbino to Rome, by Hugo Chapman, Henry, and Plazzotta (London: National Gallery, 2004), 34.

78. This is discussed further by Shearman, Raphael in Early Modern Sources, vol. 1, 89.

79. See ibid., vol. 1, 253–54, for the renegotiated contract dated June 21, 1516.

80. Ibid.

81. Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 153, cat. no. 139; and Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 76, further suggest that Giulio Romano may have given the designs for the predella panels of this altarpiece to Berto.

82. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 74–75; and Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 153. Little is known of Giovanni Battista di Giacomo di Lorenzo Fabene, who was a miniature painter in Perugia; Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 150. Berto painted two additional panels for the predella with the figures of Saints Clare and Francis, both now lost.

83. The altarpiece was dismantled in 1750. The Coronation: oil on panel, 139⅜ by 91⅜ in. (354 by 232 cm), Vatican Museums, inv. no. 40359. The predella: oil on panel, each approx. 23⅛ by 21⅞ in. (58.7 by 55.5 cm), Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia, inv. nos. 294, 295, 303, 304; Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 153–54, cat. no. 139. Since Berto was responsible only for the predella, the complicated genesis of the main panels of the Monteluce Altarpiece is not addressed here. For further information, see Tom Henry and Paul Joannides, “Raphael and His Workshop between 1513 and 1525,” in Late Raphael (Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 2012), 49–50; Alberto Maria Sartore, “‘Begun by Master Raphael’: The Monteluce ‘Coronation of the Virgin,’” Burlington Magazine 153, no. 1299 (June 2011): 387–91; and Shearman, Raphael in Early Modern Sources, vol. 1, 752–55, docs. 1523/11, 1523/12, and 794–97, docs. 1525/4, 1525/5.

84. Teza, “Un dipinto in società,” 48.

85. Giorgio Vasari, Le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori et architettori, ed. Gaetano Milanesi (Florence: G. C. Sansoni, 1906), vol. 3, 494, 587, 590–91, 595, vol. 4, 317, vol. 6, 17. A fairly recent contrary opinion on the timing of Raphael's sojourn in Perugia was provided by Henry and Plazzotta, “Raphael: From Urbino to Rome,” 23, 26, who suggest that Raphael did not move to Perugia before 1502 and that he most likely worked in the circle of Perugino only in 1502–3.

86. Raphael's Coronation, oil on panel (transferred to canvas), 107⅛ by 65 in. (272 by 165 cm), Vatican Museums, inv. no. 40334; one of the predella panels is Adoration of the Magi (Fig. 13). See Donal Cooper, “Raphael's Altarpieces in S. Francesco al Prato, Perugia: Patronage, Setting and Function,” Burlington Magazine 143, no. 1182 (September 2001): 554–61; and Roger Jones and Nicholas Penny, Raphael (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983), 14–16.

87. Tom Henry, “Berto di Giovanni at Montone,” Burlington Magazine 138, no. 1118 (May 1996): 325–28.

88. The Birth and Marriage panels are the same size, whereas the Assumption panel is significantly less wide. The central panel and the three predella panels are all recorded together in the Odoardi collection in Ascoli Piceno, in the Marches, at the turn of the nineteenth century, with a provenance from S. Francesco at Montone. Baldassarre Orsini, Vita, elogio e memorie dell’egregio pittore Pietro Perugino e degli scolari di esso (Perugia: Stamperia Badeulliana, 1804), 208–11; idem, Descrizione delle pitture, sculture, architetture ed altre cose rare della città di Ascoli nella Marca (Perugia: Stamperia Baduelliana, 1790), 72–79; and Henry, “Berto di Giovanni at Montone,” 326.

89. For the Fano Altarpiece, which depicts the Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints John the Baptist, Louis of Toulouse, Francis, Peter, Paul and Mary Magdalene, with a Pietà lunette above (tempera on panel, 59 by 98⅜ in. [150 by 250 cm]) and complete predella below (tempera on panel, 11 by 102¾ in. [28 by 261 cm]), see Scarpellini, Perugino, 91–93, cat. nos. 71–73.

90. Berto's Assumption of the Virgin panel measures 9½ by 19⅛ in. (24 by 48.5 cm), while Perugino's Fano Assumption measures 9⅞ by 19⅝ in. (25 by 50 cm); see Maria Giannatiempo López, entry for “Natività della Vergine, Vergine Assunta che dà la cintola a San Tommaso, Sposalizio della Vergine,” 122–23, and Maria Rosaria Valazzi, entry for “Storie della vita di Maria: Natività della Vergine, Presentazione al tempio, Sposalizio della Vergine, Annunciazione, Assunzione e dono della cintola,” 118–21, both in Raffaello e Urbino, ed. Lorenza Mochi Onori (Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2009).

91. Giannatiempo López, “Natività della Vergine,” 122.

92. Three drawings are associated with the predella panels of the Fano Altarpiece, two of which are quite possibly by Berto. (1) The Assumption of the Virgin, metalpoint and pen, 12½ by 20½ in. (31.7 by 52.2 cm), Albertina, Vienna, inv. no. 73; Veronika Birke and Janine Kertész, Die italienischen Zeichnungen der Albertina: Generalverzeichnis, vol. 1, Inv. 1–1200 (Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 1992), 39–40; Sylvia Ferino Pagden, Disegni umbri del Rinascimento da Perugino a Raffaello (Florence: Olschki, 1982), 78; Gualdi, “Berto di Giovanni,” 257; and Oskar Fischel, “Die Zeichnungen der Umbrer,” Jahrbuch der Königlich Preuszischen Kunstsammlungen 38 (1917): pt. 2, 160. (2) The Birth of the Virgin, pen and brown ink, with brown wash, heightened with white, over stylus underdrawing, 10⅛ by 19⅜ in. (25.8 by 49.2 cm), Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, inv. no. 2542; Nicholas Turner, European Master Drawings from Portuguese Collections (Lisbon: Centro Cultural de Belém, 2000), unpag., cat. no. 1. (3) The Marriage of the Virgin, pen and brown wash with white, 10¼ by 20 in. (26 by 50.8 cm), Albertina, Vienna, inv. no. 70; Birke and Kertész, Die italienischen Zeichnungen der Albertina, 37–38, inv. no. 70. All three sheets are advanced compositional drawings that are the subject of ongoing analysis by this author.

93. As also discussed by Ferino Pagden, “The Early Raphael,” 101. Raphael is known to have shared drawings with Berto di Giovanni, Domenico Alfani, and Timoteo Viti, and we should probably add Eusebio da San Giorgio to this list. Raphael's sharing of drawings with other artists and their “exploitation” by the “parassiti perugini” are also discussed in Teza, “Un dipinto in società,” 48.

94. The drawing by Raphael (pen over stylus, 13⅞ by 11⅜ in. [35.3 by 28.8 cm], Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, inv. no. 565) was dated to about 1512 by Joannides. Penni's modello (pen, with brush, wash, and white heightening over black chalk, with some stylus work, 12½ by 10⅝ in. [31.9 by 27.1 cm], Musée du Louvre, inv. no. 3883) was attributed to Penni after Raphael by both Fischel and Joannides, as cited below. It is dated to 1516, the time of Berto's visit to Rome. For a more complete discussion of these two related drawings, see Paul Joannides, The Drawings of Raphael (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 98–99, pl. 33 and 215, cat. nos. 329–30; and Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 150. Professor Joannides has written further on these related drawings recently, and I appreciate his sharing his unpublished work with me.

95. Contrary to the theory published in John Shearman, “The Chigi Chapel in S. Maria del Popolo,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 24, nos. 3–4 (1961): 159–60. While these pictures are not related compositionally, the S. Agnese Coronation was actually given to the S. Maria di Monteluce sisters in 1801 in return for their hospitality at the time of the suppression of the S. Agnese convent.

96. The main panel and the predella, tempera and oil on wood, (center panel) 84½ by 81½ in. (214 by 207 cm), (Adoration of the Magi predella panel) 15½ by 24¼ in. (39.5 by 61.5 cm), Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia, inv. nos. 309–18; Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 149–51, cat. no. 137.

97. That the predella was painted by two artists was suggested as early as Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle and Giovanni Morelli, “Catalogo delle opere d’arte delle Marche e dell’Umbria (1861–62),” in Le Gallerie Nazionali Italiane: Notizie e documenti, vol. 2 (Rome: Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, 1896), 289; for Cavalcaselle, the second hand was Eusebio's; Teza, in “Un dipinto in società,” 50, agreed. See also Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 150–51.

98. Raphael's Coronation predella measures 15⅜ by 74¾ in. (39 by 190 cm) in its entirety; Fabrizio Mancinelli, entry for “Predella from the Oddi Altarpiece,” in The Vatican Collections: The Papacy and Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1982), 152–53.

99. Joannides, The Drawings of Raphael, 46–47, pl. 7, 145, cat. no. 52; and Per Bjurström and Börje Magnusson, Italian Drawings: Umbria, Rome, Naples, Drawings in Swedish Public Collections 6 (Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, 1998), unpag., no. 526.

100. As also noted by Joseph Archer Crowe and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle in Raphael: His Life and Works (London: J. Murray, 1882–85), vol. 1, 156; and Ferino Pagden, “The Early Raphael,” 95–97. See also Fausta Gualdi Sabatini, entry for “Madonna col Bambino in trono e i Santi Antonio da Padova, Giovanni Evangelista, Nicola da Tolentino e Sant’Andrea,” in Urbino e le Marche prima e dopo Raffaello, ed. Maria Grazia Ciardi Duprè dal Poggetto and Paolo dal Poggetto (Florence: Salani, 1983), 327–28, cat. no. 99; and Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 104–5.

101. The predella contains five scenes from the Life of Saint John the Evangelist and measures in its entirety 10 by 55⅛ in. (25.5 by 140 cm); Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 151–52, cat. no. 138.

102. The drawing was mentioned in Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 76, and assigned to Berto in Fischel, “Die Zeichnungen der Umbrer,” pt. 2, 152, but to Raphael by Gualdi, “Berto di Giovanni,” 263. For further information and a complete bibliography, see Bjurström and Magnusson, Italian Drawings: Umbria, Rome, Naples, unpag., no. 398.

103. In 1480 his brother Nicolò was of age, whereas Eusebio had not yet attained his majority; Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 103; and Maria Rita Silvestrelli, “Eusebio da San Giorgio,” in La pittura in Italia: Il Cinquecento, ed. Giuliano Briganti, vol. 2 (Milan: Electa, 1988), 707–8.

104. Vasari, Le vite, vol. 3, 596; see also Giorgio Vasari, Le vite de’più eccellenti pittori, scultori et architettori, trans. Gaston du C. de Vere as Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, vol. 1 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996), 597.

105. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 103–4. Eusebio received twenty florins and ten lire (about twenty-one and two-thirds florins) for the Saint Benedict and some plasterwork on a tabernacle in the church.

106. On panel, 43¼ by 31½ in. (110 by 80 cm). Remo Serafini, La chiesa parrocchiale di Santa Maria Maddalena in Castiglione del Lago (Castiglione del Lago: Leader Offset Perugia, 1993), 89–95.

107. Ottorino Gurrieri, “La tavola di Castiglione del Lago: A proposito di una attribuzione e di una polemica,” Bollettino della Deputazione di Storia Patria per l’Umbria 71 (1974): 131–35.

108. The contract for the S. Pietro Polyptych was signed March 8, 1495; Gnoli, “Documenti inediti,” 306; idem, Pittori e miniatori, 104; and Scarpellini, Perugino, 93–94, cat. nos. 78–80. The three narrative panels in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, depict the Adoration of the Magi, the Baptism of Christ, and the Resurrection of Christ, and each measures 12¼ by 23¼ in. (31 by 59 cm). While Eusebio has been suggested as Perugino's collaborator in the Adoration, Raphael's hand has been observed especially in the Baptism, thought to be the finest of the three predella panels, but also in the Resurrection; see Scarpellini, ibid., for bibliography. Eight smaller panels from this predella depicting individual saints also survive; five are still in the church of S. Pietro, Perugia, and three are in the Vatican Museums. At least two of these seem to be by Giannicola di Paolo, namely, Saint Herculanus in Perugia and Saint Benedict at the Vatican.

109. Sheri F. Shaneyfelt and Annette Rupprecht, “School of Pietro Perugino, St. Sebastian,” in Studying and Conserving Paintings: Occasional Papers on the Samuel H. Kress Collection (London: Archetype Publications, in association with the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 2006), 132–42.

110. For the document of March 24, 1507, see Silvestro Nessi, “Il quadro del Pintoricchio nella chiesa O.F.M. Conv. di Sant’Andrea di Spello,” Miscellanea Francescana 77 (1977): 200–201, app. 1, and for the altarpiece itself, 192–205; see also Maria Rita Silvestrelli, “‘Pictor egregius’ a Siena,” 240–41, and Pietro Scarpellini, “Gli ultimi dieci anni (1503–1513),” 272–73, both in Scarpellini and Silvestrelli, Pintoricchio.

111. Tempera on panel, 125¼ by 101⅛ in. (318 by 257 cm). Ciambella's contribution in gilding the work is documented in 1510; Gnoli, “Documenti inediti,” 306; and Nessi, “Il quadro del Pintoricchio,” 204–5, app. 4. Although the original frame is now lost, the altarpiece itself remains in S. Andrea.

112. This is in part based on Vasari's statement that “Pinturicchio was aided by many pupils and assistants, all of the school of Pietro [Perugino]”; Vasari, Lives, trans. de Vere, 571; and Scarpellini, “Gli ultimi dieci anni,” 248. However, there is little agreement among specialists as to which figures or passages were painted by artists other than Pintoricchio, and Raphael's contribution is often thought to have been only the preparatory drawings. The two famous, surviving examples are both usually dated to about 1502–3: The Journey of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini to Basel, 27¾ by 16⅜ in. (70.5 by 41.5 cm), Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, inv. no. 520E, and Cardinal Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini Presents Eleanor of Portugal to Emperor Frederick III, 20⅞ by 15⅜ in. (53.1 by 39.2 cm), Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum, New York, inv. no. 1996.9; see Joannides, The Drawings of Raphael, 48–49, pl. 8, and 146–47, cat. nos. 56, 59.

113. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 104.

114. Nessi, “Il quadro del Pintoricchio,” 194, 200–201, doc. March 24, 1507.

115. For sources, see Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 104–5; Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 145–46, cat. no. 133; and Corrado Fratini, entry for “Adorazione dei Magi,” in Dipinti, sculture e ceramiche della Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria: Studi e restauri, ed. Caterina Bon Valsassina and Vittoria Garibaldi (Florence: Arnaud, 1994), 253–55, cat. no. 60.

116. Fiorenzo Canuti, “La patria del pittore Giannicola con notizie e documenti sulla vita e sulle opere,” Bollettino della R. Deputazione di Storia Patria per l’Umbria 22, fasc. 2–3, nos. 57–58 (1917): 310, doc. 59; Teza, “Eusebio da San Giorgio,” 13–14; Francesca Abbozzo, entry for “Adorazione dei Magi,” in Perugino a Firenze: Qualità e fortuna d’uno stile, ed. Rosanna C. Proto Pisani (Florence: Polistampa, 2005), 94–95, cat. no. 6; and Francesco Ortenzi, entry for “Adorazione dei Magi,” in Garibaldi and Mancini, Pintoricchio, 308–9, cat. no. 74.

117. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 103; and Teza, “Eusebio da San Giorgio,” 14, 20 n. 3, who provides the archival reference for the contract and a transcription.

118. Alberto Maria Sartore, “Novità documentarie sui Perugineschi,” in Mercurelli Salari, Pietro Vannucci e i pittori perugini, 95–96. The painting depicts the Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints John the Baptist and Benedict and was commissioned for the oratory altar of the confraternity of S. Benedetto, Perugia; see Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 146–47, cat. no. 134.

119. See Teza, “Eusebio da San Giorgio,” 19–20; and idem, “Un dipinto in società,” 49–50. Altarpiece: tempera on panel, 99 by 62¼ in. (251.5 by 158 cm), Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia, inv. no. 347; predella: tempera and oil on panel, 9⅞ by 36⅞ in. (25 by 93.5 cm), Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia, inv. no. 289; Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 148–49, cat. no. 136 (altarpiece), 123–24, cat. no. 103 (predella). The Madonna and Child hovering in the sky with the Madonna reading a book in this altarpiece is adapted from Raphael's early Solly Madonna now in the Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin.

120. Fratini, “Adorazione dei Magi,” 253–54; and Teza, “Eusebio da San Giorgio,” 16.

121. Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 147–48, cat. no. 135.

122. Ibid., 147; Teza, “Eusebio da San Giorgio,” 17; and Giulio Urbini, “Eusebio da San Giorgio,” Augusta Perugia 1 (1906): 52. The date of commission was listed erroneously as 1509 in the biography of Ludovico d’Angelo in Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 186, but is correct in the passages regarding Eusebio, 103. It is worth noting that the size of a work is not always a consistent factor in determining its price, as discussed in O’Malley, “Rethinking Perugino,” 676.

123. Teza, “Eusebio da San Giorgio,” 17–19; Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 147–48; and Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori, 104–5, 186–87, 321–22.

124. A recent source is Linda Wolk-Simon, Raphael at the Metropolitan: The Colonna Altarpiece (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006), 4–33. Konrad Oberhuber, in “The Colonna Altarpiece in the Metropolitan Museum and Problems of the Early Style of Raphael,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 12 (1978): 55–91, argued for an earlier dating of the work, suggesting that it was begun toward the end of 1501 or the start of 1502. The lunette, not illustrated here, is in oil on panel, 25½ by 67½ in. (64.8 by 171.5 cm).

125. Vasari, Le vite, vol. 3, 583–84; Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, 103–4, cat. no. 88; Scarpellini, Perugino, 48, cat. no. 110; Vittoria Garibaldi, entry for the “Pala Tezi,” in Garibaldi and Mancini, Perugino: Il divin pittore, 270–73; and idem, entry for the “Vergine con il Bambino, san Nicola da Tolentino, san Bernardino da Siena, san Girolamo, san Sebastiano (Pala Tezi),” in Garibaldi and Mancini, Pintoricchio, 298–99.

126. Tempera on panel, 7⅛ by 47⅝ in. (18 by 121 cm), Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, cat. no. 146A; Scarpellini, Perugino, 102, cat. no. 111. It has been attributed to Perugino and various collaborators, including Gerino da Pistoia, Mariano di Ser Austerio, Berto di Giovanni, Eusebio da San Giorgio, and Giannicola di Paolo.

127. In fact, an analysis of the underdrawings of the Madonna and Child through electronically superimposed infrared reflectograms revealed that the Madonna and Child group in the Tezi Altarpiece is a proportionally scaled reduction of the same figures in The Madonna della Consolazione by a consistent 12 percent. This is described as “one of the most complex aspects of image transferral within Perugino's corpus of works” in Roberto Bellucci and Cecilia Frosinini, “The Myth of Cartoon Re-use in Perugino's Underdrawing: Technical Investigations,” in The Painting Technique of Pietro Vannucci called Il Perugino, ed. Brunetto Giovanni Brunetti, Claudio Seccaroni, and Antonio Sgamellotti (Florence: Nardini, 2004), 77–80, at 77.

128. Scarpellini, Perugino, 48, 102, cat. nos. 110–11, suggested that the altarpiece was entirely the work of collaborators, associating it with the Società del 1496 and Eusebio in particular, and attributed the altarpiece itself to Perugino and Eusebio (painted by the latter from Perugino's design) and the predella to a collaborator of Perugino, perhaps Berto di Giovanni. In the catalog of the 2004 exhibition held at the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia, Perugino: Il divin pittore, Vittoria Garibaldi sought to reestablish Perugino's full authorship of the main panel of the Tezi Altarpiece based on the new reading possible after the work's recent cleaning and restoration; this was mentioned again in her discussion of the work in the catalog for the Pintoricchio exhibition of 2008, yet, in each case, the altarpiece is still assigned to “Perugino and collaborators”; see citations in n. 125 above. However, the recent cleaning of this work does not negate the less-refined paint application and the overall compositional dependence on established Peruginesque types. Lunghi, “Perugino e i suoi imitatori,” 32–33, suggested that the Tezi Altarpiece was executed by one of the artists of the Società del 1496, whom he identified as Berto di Giovanni, and that Berto falsely signed the work as by Perugino (“Pietro di Cristoforo da Castro Plebis”) in the ghirigori of the Madonna's cloak. While the date of 1500 (“MCCCCC”) on the bottom left of the Madonna's cloak is clearly visible, and some individual letters can be discerned at the bottom center just above her foot, there is no such inscription revealing authorship, unless one's visual and interpretative analysis is incredibly creative.

129. Tempera and oil on canvas, 84⅝ by 54 in. (215 by 137 cm), Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia, inv. no. 278; Paola Mercurelli Salari, entry for “Gonfalone della Giustizia,” in Garibaldi and Mancini, Perugino: Il divin pittore, 282–83; and Scarpellini, Perugino, 105, cat. no. 122.

130. Francis Russell, “Perugino and the Early Experience of Raphael,” in Beck, Raphael before Rome, 192, suggested, based on stylistic considerations, that Perugino may have “subcontracted” the main panel of the Tezi Altarpiece to Eusebio without any mention of the Società del 1496.

131. Goldthwaite, “Economic Parameters,” 427–28, discusses how drawing and replication were used by fifteenth-century painters to increase production. O’Malley, in “Rethinking Perugino,” 674, attributes Perugino's popularity in the fifteenth century to his “visual consistency,” in that he often reused and reworked established compositional designs. Lunghi, “Perugino e i suoi imitatori,” 32, also mentions the ability to replicate Perugino's inventions as a possible motivation for the members of the society but doubted that Perugino would have willingly shared cartoons with a “rival” workshop.

132. Mancini, “Considerazioni sulla bottega umbra,” 332; and Teza, “Un dipinto in società,” 48.

133. Sartore, “Perugino's Contract,” 533; Perugino appointed Berto as a procurator in the resolution of a financial dispute.

134. The Marriage of the Virgin was commissioned from Perugino in 1499 by the confraternity of S. Giuseppe for Perugia Cathedral and is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen; Scarpellini, Perugino, 107–8, cat. no. 129.

135. Ciambella and Roberto da Montevarchi are indeed mentioned in the later accounts from the Collegio del Cambio as collecting payments on Perugino's behalf, although their names occur only from 1502, when the fresco cycle already was complete; Pietro Scarpellini, “Pietro Perugino e la decorazione della Sala dell’Udienza,” in Il Collegio del Cambio in Perugia (Milan: Silvana, 1998), 81.

136. Sartore, “Perugino's Contract,” 531. However, the Collegio del Cambio itself is a large space, and it would seem that most of the work would have been carried out on the spot according to common practice, including the making of preparatory designs and larger cartoons, as well as the mixing of plaster and paint.

137. Ibid., 533. Scarpellini, Perugino, 43–45, 95, explains that the often-cited document of January 26, 1496, did not detail the actual commission of the Cambio cycle to Perugino but discusses it as well as the possibility that the work would be entrusted to another painter (likely Pintoricchio).

138. Also on May 6, 1496, Perugino established his Florentine assistant, Rocco Zoppo, as his procurator in that city to collect interest payments from his late wife's dowry. It would seem that if this act were connected with the renting of workspace in Perugia by the society, both would have been efforts by Perugino to discharge as many of his responsibilities as possible to focus on the Cambio commission. Zoppo could handle some of the financial affairs in Florence, while the collaborating artists could complete some of the less important or lingering commissions in Perugia. This account has long been known and was published in 1931 in Canuti, Il Perugino, vol. 2, 30, 148–49, doc. 173; see also Sartore, “Perugino's Contract,” 530–31.

139. Most scholars have maintained that the Cambio frescoes were executed primarily between 1498 and 1500, even before Sartore's (“Perugino's Contract”) discovery of the commission draft, based on the long-standing assumption that these paintings, especially those on the vault, were begun sometime in 1496; Sartore also states (532) that much of the work was probably painted between 1498 and 1500. As described in Scarpellini, Perugino, 45–46, 96, and elsewhere, execution by assistants is most often observed in the lunettes with the standing series of antique heroes, and in the Nativity, where the manner of Andrea d'Assisi (called l’Ingegno) specifically has been cited. The standing heroes likely were derived from cartoons used for Perugino's monumental Vallombrosa Altarpiece, begun in 1498, completed in 1500, and now in the Accademia, Florence. This time period, 1498–1500, coincides not only with Perugino's residence primarily in Perugia but also with that of the humanist scholar Francesco Maturanzio, who returned to his native city in 1498 after a period of study in northern Italy, and he then played a significant role in devising the Cambio's iconographic program.

140. Goldthwaite, “Economic Parameters of the Italian Art Market.”

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Sheri Francis Shaneyfelt

Sheri Francis Shaneyfelt is senior lecturer and director of undergraduate studies, Department of History of Art, Vanderbilt University. Her research and publications focus on Renaissance Umbria, particularly the school of Perugino. This article is part of a larger project on workshop practices in Renaissance Perugia, about 1480–1520 [Department of History of Art, Vanderbilt University, Box 0274 GPC, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, Tenn. 37203].