Perino del Vaga

Pietro Buonaccorsi, called Perino del Vaga was, from age eleven, a pupil of Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (1483-1561); and later he was taken as a youth to Rome by an elusive painter, "il Vaga," whence the former's nomenclature. Here, he attracted the, attention of Raphael (1483-1520) and was employed as an assistant to Giovanni da Udine (1487-1564) on the decoration of the Vatican Logge (completed 1519). His fortunes declined following the death of Raphael and when, during the early 1520s, plague broke out in Rome, Perino returned briefly to Florence. That interruption notwithstanding, his first Roman period comprised several important commissions, including that to decorate the Palazzo Baldassini; the frescoes in the Pucci Chapel in S. Trinita dei Monti (completed 1560s by Taddeo Zuccaro, 1529-1566); the decoration of two chapels in S. Marcello al Corso; and a Deposition (c. 1521-1525) for S. Maria sopra Minerva. Perino was imprisoned during the Sack of Rome in 1527, and subsequently fled to Genoa where he decorated the Palazzo Doria (begun 1528) and executed a Nativity altarpiece (dated 1534) for S. Maria della Consolazione. He is also documented in Pisa in 1534, where he was at work in the cathedral. Perino returned to Rome probably in 1538, decorating the Cappella Massimi in S. Trinita dei Monti (frescoes mostly destroyed). His final years were spent in the service of Pope Paul III, for whom he executed the "basamento" of the Stanza della Segnatura and prepared the design for that below the Sistine Last Judgment by Michelangelo (1475-1564) (Turner, N.: From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci. A century of Italian drawings from the Prado, Art Services International-Museo Nacional del Prado, 2008, p. 78).

His portrait is from Giorgio Vasari's ‘Le Vite de’ più eccellenti architetti, pittori et scultori italiani’ (1568).