(b Florence, 1501; d Rome, 20 Oct 1547). Italian painter and draughtsman. He trained in Florence, first with Andrea de’ Ceri and from the age of 11 with Ridolfo Ghirlandaio. According to Vasari, he practised drawing by copying Michelangelo’s cartoon for the Battle of Cascina (destr.). For Pope Leo X’s entry into Florence in November 1515 he painted an allegorical figure on one of the twelve triumphal arches. Soon after, an obscure Florentine painter called Vaga took Perino to Rome, where he became known as del Vaga. There he continued his drawing studies, copying from works of antiquity and Michelangelo’s ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. On the recommendation of Giulio Romano and Giovanni Francesco Penni, he joined Raphael’s workshop, where he learnt stuccowork and how to design grotesques, through assisting Giovanni da Udine in the Vatican Logge. Soon he was painting scenes from Raphael‘s designs, and five or six ceiling frescoes in the Logge, including the Story of Joshua and the Story of David, are generally accepted as his. Vasari drew particular attention to scenes under the windows that are painted to look like bronze reliefs (badly damaged). Pictures of this kind became a speciality of Perino’s. Before the death of Leo X in 1521, he worked with Giovanni da Udine again, on the ceiling frescoes in the Sala dei Pontefici at the Vatican.

• Perino del Vaga
  • Cosini, Silvio
  • Doria, §I: (1) Andrea I Doria
  • Italy, §XIII, 1: Collecting and dealing: Middle Ages–17th century
  • Rome, §III, 4(i): Art life and organization, 1503–49
  • Rome, §III, 4(ii): Art life and organization, 1550–1600
  • assistants
    • Daniele da Volterra
    • Fontana (ii): (1) Prospero Fontana
    • Penni: (2) Luca Penni
    • Porta, della: (3) Guglielmo della Porta
    • Siciolante, Girolamo
    • Venusti, Marcello
  • collaboration
    • Hardstones, §3(iii): Renaissance and after
    • Parmigianino, §1(ii): Rome, 1524–7
    • Pino, Marco
    • Raphael, §IV: Critical reception and posthumous reputation
    • Rome, §V, 14(iii)(b): Vatican Palace: Decoration
    • Strada: (1) Jacopo Strada, §1: Early life and first patrons
    • Tibaldi: (1) Pellegrino Tibaldi, §1: Painting, to 1564
    • Udine, Giovanni da
    • Vignola, Jacopo, §1(i): Early work, before 1543
    • Polidoro da Caravaggio
      • Polidoro da Caravaggio
  • decorative works
    • Farnese: (3) Alessandro Farnese
  • furniture
    • Italy, §VI, 2: Furniture, c 1450–1599
  • groups and movements
    • Mannerism, §5: Spread and development
  • paintings
    • frescoes
      • Poesia
      • Palazzo Doria Pamphili (Genoa)
        • Allegory, §IV, 1: Renaissance: Italy
        • Genoa, §2: Art life and organization
        • Ovid
      • SS Trinità dei Monti (Rome)
        • Zuccaro: (1) Taddeo Zuccaro
    • mythological
      • Erotic art, §I, 2(ii): Western world, c 1500–c 1700
  • patrons and collectors
    • Farnese: (1) Pope Paul III
    • Massimo
    • Medinaceli: (1) 9th Duque de Medinaceli
  • personal collection
    • Cungi, Leonardo
  • pupils
    • Vargas, Luis de
  • reproductive prints by others
    • Bernardi, Giovanni
    • Caraglio, Giovanni Jacopo
    • Ghisi: (1) Giorgio Ghisi
    • Vico, Enea
  • stucco
    • Michelangelo, §I, 1(v): Sculpture: Unfinished works
    • Salviati, Francesco, §1(vi): France and Rome, 1554–63