Saint Sébastien

c. 1481

Summoned to Rome to paint the Sistine Chapel

Already a renowned master, Perugino is invited by Pope Sixtus IV to Rome, among the best artists of Italy — Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Cosimo Rosselli, Luca Signorelli and others — to take part in painting the Sistine Chapel.

c. 1481

Pinturicchio — assistant and partner

Perugino's assistant Pinturicchio accompanies him to Rome and is made his partner, receiving a third of the profits; he may have done some of the Moses and Zipporah subjects.

1486–1499

Two studios: in Florence and in Perugia

Between 1486 and 1499 Perugino works mainly between Florence and Perugia, maintaining a studio in each city. In the 1480s and 1490s he is one of the most celebrated artists of Italy.

September 1493

Marriage to Chiara Fancelli and return to Florence

According to Vasari, Perugino returns to Florence in September 1493 to marry Chiara, daughter of the architect Luca Fancelli. That same year Florence again becomes his permanent home, although he continues to accept work elsewhere.

1496

The money-changers' guild commissions the Cambio hall

The money-changers' guild of Perugia asks Perugino to decorate the Sala delle Udienze of the Collegio del Cambio, with the humanist scholar Francesco Maturanzio as consultant. The scheme — a vault with the seven planets and the signs of the zodiac, and sacred subjects on the walls — may have been finished by 1500; on the mid-pilaster Perugino placed his own bust-form portrait.

c. 1496

Raphael's possible apprenticeship as a boy

Around 1496 Raphael, still a boy, may have been placed by his uncles under Perugino's tuition and may have had a hand in the work on the vaulting of the Cambio hall.