The Archangel Michael

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.

1494

Lorenzo di Credi paints Perugino's portrait

Lorenzo di Credi paints Perugino's portrait (now in the Uffizi) and places in it a scroll inscribed Timete Deum — 'Fear God'; this seems odd, as Vasari is the main source stating that Perugino had very little religion and openly doubted the immortality of the soul. Perugino himself had painted a portrait of Credi in 1488.

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.