L'Ascension du Christ

1448

Born

c. 1470

Verrocchio's apprentice in Florence

Around 1470 (the date of his first stay in Florence is disputed) Perugino comes to the city and, according to Vasari, is apprenticed in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio alongside Leonardo da Vinci, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Lorenzo di Credi and Filippino Lippi; Piero della Francesca is thought to have taught him perspective. Together with the young Florentine artists he is among the first to take up oil painting, borrowed from the Flemish and still unknown in Umbria.

1472

Enrolled as a master in the Confraternity of St Luke

Perugino appears to have completed his apprenticeship: in 1472 he is enrolled as a master in the Confraternity of Painters of St Luke.

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.

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.

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.