Perugino - The Greatest Master of Italy

Ep 3: The Best Master

A woman steps into the life of Perugino, whose beauty is believed to often recur in the female faces painted by the master: Chiara Fancelli, the young and beautiful daughter of Luca Fancelli, architect and sculptor, student and assistant to Brunelleschi.We are at the end of the 15th century and and other Italian artists tend to increasingly replicate the arrangements and style of Perugino. His two workshops, in Florence and Perugia, are overflowing with commissions. He holds at his service a wide array of assistants. Perugino is now a star, and his business skills are un-paralleled. However, he runs the risk of falling into "mannerism": an excessive tendency to repeat the same works without any sparks of innovation...

Ep 2: Divine Painter

Following the commission of Pope Sixtus IV for the Sistine Chapel, public and private projects are soon offered from all over Italy. Perugino starts to struggle to meet this deluge of commitments. In this episode we recount his great works, and soon discover the lesser-known sides of the artist’s personality. Perugino would often escape to the Adriatic coast to avoid the demands of his many clients. He was also known for being quick to anger, and unrelenting with his debtors. Meanwhile, in Florence, the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent brings about a climate of political confusion, and artists are required to conform to the new morality forced upon them by the monk Savonarola. Perugino, however, seems to emerge unscathed from this dark period of political life. Indeed, he seems even to be happy, as these are the years of his great love for a wonderful woman...

Ep 1: Birth of an Artist

We trace Perugino’s formative years, within its own historical context: from the Perugia of the 1460s, to the workshop of Verrocchio in the vibrant and bustling cultural center of Florence. These are the same years in which a young Lorenzo de' Medici came to power, threatened by the famous Pazzi conspiracy. Soon, Pietro Vannucci would be fully recognized as a painter and be commissioned several works to bolster his reputation, up until his call to Rome, for a venture that would mark his life and career...

Trailer: Perugino - The Greatest Master of Italy

This is the story of Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci, known better by his art name: PERUGINO. He has been celebrated as the "Best Master of Italy," and on the 500th anniversary of his death, a large exhibition has been organized in Perugia, starting on March 4, 2023, and welcoming visitors from all over the world. Thanks to: the Director of the National Gallery of Umbria, Marco Pierini; the art historian Veruska Picchiarelli (curators of the exhibition); and the historian Franco Cardini, we have retraced the life and art career of this incredible character. Born in a small village of Umbria, he soon earned the respect of other great artists of his time, and inspired hundreds of other painters with his craft.