Madonna col Bambino

Around 1500 Perugino was one of the most sought-after painters in Italy, running two busy workshops at once, in Florence and in his native Umbria, and turning out serene, gentle Madonnas that buyers could not get enough of. This small panel is one of them, made about 1501. The Virgin holds the child on her knees against a soft Umbrian valley that fades to pale blue at the horizon, an early and careful use of what we now call aerial perspective. That calm sweetness was the taste of the moment. Perugino's most famous pupil was a boy from Urbino who passed through his shop in these very years, Raphael, who took this manner and outgrew his teacher.