Preview: Perugino

While Leonardo da Vinci was busy inventing absurd machines, scribbling cryptic doodles in his notebooks, and neglecting his enormous gifts as a painter, the rest of the Renaissance art world didn't stand still. Other painters continued the day-to-day work of producing the masterpieces that now fill the churches and museums of Italy.

One of the best and most productive was Perugino, who learned his art alongside Leonardo in the studio of Verrocchio. The difference was that Perugino wasn’t the least interested in helicopters or underwater apparatus, and got on with the job.

His art is renowned for its 'sweet and angelic' quality, and heavily influenced the young Raphael. Although most of his works are frescoes that can never be moved from their Italian settings, this exhibition at Tokyo's Sompo Japan Museum of Art has gathered together around 40 panels by the master, compared with the measly one Leonardo that featured at the recent da Vinci exhibition.


C.B.Liddell
Japanzine, June, 2007

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