The final chapter centers around the Perugian artist Domenico Alfani, evidently a close friend to Raphael with a comparable social status and shared professional interests. Alfani represents the next artistic generation after Perugino, Pintoricchio, and Giannicola, and his works transition Perugian Renaissance painting both chronologically and stylistically from the Quattrocento Peruginesque tradition into full Cinquecentesque Mannerism.

This book focuses on the Italian painter Pietro Perugino (Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci, ca. 1450–1523) and his school, tracing Renaissance workshop practices primarily in Perugia and greater Umbria, but also including the master’s activity and that of his studio in the major centers of Florence and Rome from the 1480s to ca. 1540. I will conclude with Raphael Santi (1483–1520) and one of the Perugian artists with whom he interacted most closely in his early career, Domenico Alfani (1480–after 1553).

This chapter considers Perugino’s artistic career and management of his workshops up to the year 1500, with a focus on his Perugian bottega. Special consideration is given to Perugino’s Roman and Perugian periods, and the artists associated with the master particularly at the time of the Sistine Chapel commission in Rome (1481–2), the execution of the San Pietro Polyptych for the eponymous Perugian church (1495–1500), and the fresco cycle at the Collegio del Cambio in Perugia (1496–1500).

The focus of this chapter is Giannicola di Paolo, a Perugian native who worked as a collaborator to Perugino (and perhaps also to Pintoricchio) in the generation before Raphael prior to embarking on his own lengthy career. An analysis of the life, major works, and workshop of this incredibly well-documented artist provides valuable insights toward our understanding of a successful local painter who was also active in Florence and Rome and was commissioned by ecclesiastic, civic, and private entities.

The study of Italian Renaissance art is largely a study of workshops. The titans of the High Renaissance in central Italy – Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael – all spent a period of time honing their craft with a master painter.

The subject of the third chapter is the so-called Società del 1496 (Society of 1496), a rather unique painters’ cooperative consisting of five local artists who came together in this year: Berto di Giovanni, Eusebio da San Giorgio, Ludovico d’Angelo Mattioli, Sinibaldo Ibi, and Lattanzio di Giovanni. Their union, structure, communal artistic output, engagement with other local artists, and operation of their enterprise enable our comprehension of various relevant economic and cultural factors in Renaissance Perugia.

The fourth chapter considers the early career of Raphael, with a focus on his interactions with Perugino and local Perugian artists, including two of the Società painters, Berto di Giovanni and Eusebio da San Giorgio. Raphael’s rapport with these artists merits much further scholarly attention in order to increase our knowledge of his artistic training, development, and interrelationships with his Umbrian peers prior to his better-known Florentine period, which began by 1505.