Fresco The Baptism of Christ, Pietro Perugino
- Posted by Pietro Perugino
- Museum: Vatican Museums
- Year: 1481-1482
Overview of the painting :
The baptism of Christ is Pietro Perugino. 1481-1482. Fresco. 348.5×570
Among the several masters invited by the pope to paint the Sistine Chapel, was Pietro Perugino. On the north wall, the picturesque frieze of which is dedicated to scenes from the life of Christ, two frescoes of this artist were preserved (three works were on the altar wall, but were destroyed by order of Pope Paul III to make way for the Michelangelo “Past Judgment”). One of them is “Baptism,” one of his students, possibly Pinturikchio, who wrote some figures and landscape, helped in working on it.
Perugino portrayed Christ standing in the water, John the Baptist on stone, and above – God the Father with the angels. The painting of the head of the Umbrian art school was distinguished by softness and harmony, beautiful poses and gestures of characters, a smooth, rounded composition of paintings. For example, all the secondary participants in the depicted scene – those who look at the baptism of Christ and listen to the sermons of Jesus and John in the distance – although they stand in various, laid-back poses, form arcs diverging to the left and right. The subtle drawing of bodies, draperies, Jordan rivers and mountains is combined with the soft, saturated and deep colors that the fresco is written in: yellow, red, blue, olive.