Chigi Altarpiece

Chigi Altarpiece
ArtistPerugino
Year1506-1507
Mediumoil on panel
Dimensions400 cm × 289 cm (160 in × 114 in)
LocationSant'Agostino, Sienna

The Chigi Altarpiece is an altarpiece by Perugino, dating to around 1506–1507. It is named after its commissioner Agostino Chigi, a Sienese banker, for the Chigi family chapel in the church of Sant'Agostino in Siena, where it still hangs.[1]

Like most altarpieces by Perugino, it has two registers. The upper heavenly one shows Christ on the cross surrounded by a symmetrical arrangement of angels and cherubim. The lower earthly register shows eight lamenting saints connected to the commissioner, the church and the chapel - on the right are John the Baptist and Jerome, for example. The deep landscape backgrounds shows hills and a clear sky. The work originally also had a predella, which is now divided between the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago.

References

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  1. ^ (in Italian) Vittoria Garibaldi, Perugino, in Pittori del Rinascimento, Scala, Florence, 2004 ISBN 888117099X