Perugino part deux; Adoration of the Magi

Perugino traveled pretty frequently from Perugia to Florence and back again, and the influences of one town always showed in the work he created in the other.

A good example of his Florentine influence shows in his depiction of The Adoration of the Magi.

The layout of the scene is fairly standard again, with the Virgin and lil baby Jesus hanging out on the right and the visitors' procession developing on the left. One of the really cool elements we see Perugino developing in this piece is the use of aerial perspective in the landscape behind the nonsense in the front. Aerial perspective, for those of you not in the know, is the effect that atmosphere has on objects viewed at different distances. Trees from thirty feet away would look less saturated, and tend to gravitate towards the blue tonalities of the sky, as opposed to a tree right next to you, which would look crisp and clear and contrast more clearly with the background. You'll see da Vinci utilize aerial perspective quite a bit in paintings like The Mona Lisa and the Last Supper. This is a technique that Perugino utilizes very successfully, in my mind. 

FUN FACT! The man on the extreme left is a portrait of Perugino himself. neat.

Anyways, the posturing of the procession of visitors on the left is very robust, echoing Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, Perugino's first painting master. Around this time, he was commissioned to paint some of the walls of the Sistine Chapel, all of which were later destroyed to make room for Michelangelo's Last Judgement. (Which INFURIATES me, but okay. It seems like such a devaluing of a master's work.)