PERUGINO

PERUGINO (1446-1524), his proper name VANNUCCI, Italian painter, born near Perugia, whence his name; studied with Leonardo da Vinci at Florence, where he chiefly resided; was one of the teachers of Raphael, painted religious subjects, did frescoes for churches that have nearly all perished, a "Christ giving the Keys to Peter" being the best extant; Ruskin contrasts his work with Turner's; "in Turner's distinctive work," he says, "colour is scarcely acknowledged unless under influence of sunshine ... wherever the sun is not, there is melancholy and evil," but "in Perugino's distinctive work" - to whom he therefore gives "the captain's place over all" - "there is simply no darkness, no wrong. Every colour is lovely and every space is light; the world, the universe, is divine; all sadness is a part of harmony, and all gloom a part of light".