Pietro and The Marriage of the Virgin

This is going to be a bit of a comparison post, between Perugino's Marriage of the Virgin, and the version painted by his pupil, Raphael.

This is Perugino's piece, and here we see many standard Perugino staples. As with previous pieces, the setting in this is very serene, which again reflects Perugino's state of being at the time. One thing that we see him doing, as he does in many other pieces, is placing all the characters together in a flat, linear fashion in the foreground. While this doesn't make for the most dynamic format, it does also contribute to the serene nature of the painting. Everything is again very harmonious and united, and again the use of aerial perspective shines through. the soft background serves to de emphasize the drama, as does the static nature of the figures.

Now, for Raphael's rendition. A significantly more dynamic and richer piece than Perugino's, but it's easy to see where he drew his influence when we look at the previous version of the piece. There's stronger 1 point perspective, characters depicted in deeper, richer colors, stronger depictions of the building in the background, and more dynamic poses for the players involved in the marriage in the foreground. But every strong element in this piece is in fact derived from Perugino's version. Which is pretty neat. We see Raphael woring to push the drama, and the dynamic figures and the engaging dramatic aspect of the scene, which is only different in the previous version because the point of the thing was to remove the drama. Raphael paints a more dramatic  picture because he wants to instill drama and movement and excitement. Perugino is serene because his whole shtick is removing that. We see it in the use of pastel colors to depict the scene, the gentle slope of the perspective tricks used to lead up to the building in the background, the harmony between the scenery and the characters in the foreground, their static nature. It's all about serenity and loss of drama.

The Pazzi Crucifixion

At the recommendation of Harvey, The next research entry will be about Pietro Perugino's piece, The Pazzi Crucifixion! Get excited, kids.

So, the Pazzi Crucifixion. This was commissioned by Giovanna Pucci, a rich Florentine, in 1493. It looks like this;

This honker takes up a whole wall, and is divided into thirds by the ceiling vaults and painted architectural elements. It's honestly kind of hard to even tell that the painted elements aren't real, as the tromp l'oeil is extremely effective and convincing. The true architectural elements and the painted ones blend together extremely well.

The fresco depicts Christ's crucifixion, with the Virgin Mary mourning him underneath the cross. This is pretty standard religious imagery for the time, of course, and the surrounding saints were all chosen because of the meaning the held for the monks who inhabited the convent where the Pazzi Crucifixion was frescoed. St. Maddalena, for example, is the saint to which the church was originally dedicated. 

Another spectacularly successful element of this piece is the scenery, which I've discussed as a strong suit of Perugino's in the past. We see this strength coming out in full in this piece particularly. The background in this piece is luminous, and the emphasis on the harmonious scenery in the background really serves the purpose of de-emphasizing the drama of the scene. We see the serene and meditative nature of Perugino come through in this piece.