PERUGINO AND THE ARRIVAL OF “OUTSIDERS” AROUND 1500
The altarpiece by Perugino [13.5], at the time considered the “best
master in Italy”, arrived in Bologna between the end of 1499 and the
beginning of 1500 for the Scarani Chapel in San Giovanni in Monte, the
same church that later housed Raphael’s Ecstasy of Saint Cecilia [15.1],
and where the Madonna and Child by Cima da Conegliano [13.7] comes
from.
By 1501, the Madonna and Child with Saints by Giovanni Antonio
Boltraffio for the Casio chapel in Santa Maria della Misericordia, now in
the Louvre Museum, and the Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine
by Filippino Lippi for the Casali chapel in the basilica of San Domenico,
where it can still be seen today, also arrived in the city.
The three
paintings, made by renowned foreign masters who had had no direct
relationship with Bologna until that time, were observed with keen interest
by local artists.
It was Perugino’s work that had the greatest impact on Bolognese
painting.
The altarpiece painted in 1500 by Francesco Francia for the
high altar of the church of the Annunziata [13.1-2] uses its compositional
scheme and landscape setting, which took the place of the architectural
backgrounds of the 15th-century. The Marriage of the Virgin [13.4]
by Lorenzo Costa adopts the bluish colours of the landscape in the
background and also shares the calm rhythm of the figures and the tilted
sad faces, typical of the Umbrian artist’s devotional style.
