Perugino

Born in the Umbrian town of Città della Pieve, Perugino (Pietro Vannucci, c. 1450–1523) was the most distinctive of the Umbrian painters, creating works of genius, along with countless idyllic nativity scenes, each with its impeccably sweet Madonna and characteristic blue-green tinted background, reminiscent of the hills around Lake Trasimeno where he was born.

Perugino was one of several great painters to come out of the workshop of Andrea del Verrochio, along with likes of Leonardo da Vinci. He worked in both Florence and Perugia, and by 1480, he was so successful that summoned to Rome by Pope Sixtus IV to paint several scenes on the walls of the Sistine Chapel. In 1496, Perugino took on a new young pupil named Raphael, whose earliest works in Perugia so closely resembled his master's they are hard to tell apart.