Renaissance-age of reason
THE NATIVITY
He was born near Florence. His father ruined himself by gambling, and became a soldier in the invading army of Charles VIII.His mother died when he was but two months old; but shortly afterwards he was taken up by his father's second wife. Perino was first apprenticed to a druggist, but soon passed into the hands of a mediocre painter, Andrea da Ceri, and when eleven years of age, of Redolfo Ghirlandaio.
Perino was one of Ghirlandaio's most talented pupils. Another mediocre painter, Vaga from Toscanella, undertook to settle the boy in Rome. Perino, when he at last reached Rome, was utterly poor, and with no clear prospect beyond journey-work for trading decorators. He was eventually entrusted with some of the subordinate work undertaken by Raphael in the Vatican. He assisted Geovanni da Udine in the stucco and arabesque decorations of the Loggie Vaticane and executed some of those small but finely composed scriptural subjects which go by the name of Raphael's Bible, Raphael himself furnishing the designs.
Perino's examples are: Abraham and Isaac, Jacob wrestling with the Angel, Joseph and his Brothers, the Hebrews crossing the Jordan, Fall and Capture of Jericho, Joshua commanding Sun to stand still, Birth of Christ, Baptism and the Last Supper. Some of these are in bronze-tint, while others are in full color. He also painted, after Raphael's drawings, figures of the planets in the great hall of the Appartamenti Borgia. Perino was soon regarded as his major assistant, second only to Giulio Romano.
To Raphael himself he was always exceedingly attentive. His solo works in the city include the hall of Palazzo Baldassini (1520–1522), a noble building in the center of the city, and the Pietà in the church of Santo Stefano del Cacco.
After Raphael's death in 1520 and the plague of 1523, a troubled period ensued for Perino. He returned to...