AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Research Studentship The National Gallery, London and the Warburg Institute, University of London

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1 AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Research Studentship 2017 The National Gallery, London and the Warburg Institute, University of London The Workshop and its Painters: Perugino and the Perugineschi in Florence and Perugia Applications are invited for a Collaborative Doctoral Partnership PhD studentship, to be undertaken at the Warburg Institute (University of London) and the National Gallery (based in the Curatorial Department). This three-year (full-time) studentship commences on 1 October 2017 and will be jointly supervised by Professor Michelle O Malley (Warburg Institute) and Dr Matthias Wivel (National Gallery). The student will spend the majority of their time at the National Gallery in the first year, undertaking field work in Perugia and Florence in the second year before spending their final year based at the Warburg Institute. Summary of Project: Pietro Perugino (living 1469-died 1523) was the most successful Italian painter of the end of the 15th century. He enjoyed great international success, and his 'sweet style' was universally praised. Yet by his death his work was already considered outdated and he became a relative nonentity, primarily remembered for teaching Raphael. He remains the only 15th century Italian painter known to have operated two workshops in different cities. While both are documented, Perugino's rental of spaces in Florence from 1487 to 1511 and in Perugia from 1501 to 1513 complicates matters in regard to how he deployed assistants, in a career that ranged from Venice to Naples and Rome to Fano. Aims and objectives of the project The project s overall aim is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the management and operation of painting workshops in Renaissance Italy. The Workshop and its Painters: Perugino and the Perugineschi in Florence and Perugia draws on the case study of Perugino to challenge our understanding of the vast amount of serial and derivative paintings produced within the workshops of Florentine master painters in the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries. These copies and versions of the commissioned images of master painters are paintings that are commonly ignored in the discussion of individual masters, yet were produced in great numbers in the workshops of nearly every Italian master painter. The project will facilitate doctoral research for one student. The research will involve investigation of how Perugino managed production and used and famously reused material 1

2 in two workshops, as well as how individual works were made by numerous assistants at different levels of expertise. Perugino, an artist who for several decades maintained separate workshops in the cities of Florence and Perugia is an ideal case with which to examine workshop issues and to investigate regional approaches to painting. Perugino is also an apt subject for doctoral study because his workshop works are numerous, the painter s documentary record is very rich, and the secondary scholarship on his life, work and technique is broad and wide-ranging. The painter presents a rich set of problems that have the potential to widen our sketchy understanding of differing geographically bound approaches to technique and production procedures, to unravel the complicated connections between the two locations of work in terms of their practical relations, and to identify some of the details of workaday procedures involved in the management of two centres of business. The project has three specific aims: to deepen our knowledge of the range of production procedures and technical skills used in the workshops of Perugino, one of the most productive of fifteenth-century painters workshops to widen our comprehension of the skills and visual value that resides and resided in workshop production to contribute significantly to the knowledge base of paintings in the National Gallery s (NG) collection. The objectives planned to achieve these aims are to: select a representative sample of pictures by Perugino and his workshops, starting with those from the NG s Collection, on which to focus the inquiry establish the technical data available relating to the selected pictures and to works by Perugino and his workshop more generally, in published sources, the grey literature and in the records of the NG and other institutions review the relevant secondary literature on Perugino and the Perugineschi artists consult the primary documentary sources relevant to Perugino in Italian state and diocesan archives (largely published by Fiorenzo Canuti, 1931) and to visit the Archivi di Stato in Florence and Perugia to check particular documents address the impact of regional and local customs on the functioning of Perugino s different workshops draw together the comparative data to give a clear sense of the similarities and differences between Perugino s workshop s activity in several centres of production: particularly Florence and Perugia and to address the specific research questions outlined below. Research questions All Italian painting of the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries was produced within businesses, called workshops, run by masters and relying on a body of trained assistants and students. Together they produced work that conformed to a clearly identifiable and distinctive manner. Though art history has long evaluated pictures by identifying evidence of the hand of the master, Renaissance painters rarely produced nor did Renaissance clients expect to purchase autograph work. Rather they expected a well-crafted, well-made picture made in conformity with certain stylistic principles that defined an individual workshop s production. As this suggests, dealing with the question of the workshop is significant; it is one of the biggest current issues for art historians of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century painting, as how master painter s managed production and deployed their assistants, is little understood. The project 2

3 has the scope to consider issues of production, technique, economics, and quality, and the student can take a number of such pathways through the material. Although the project is wide, the scope of the project can be managed in terms of which questions are addressed and how they are weighted, so that it is able to be done by a single student within the required time period. How did the workshops operate? Perugino is the only fifteenth century painter known to operate two places of business in different cities. He rented a space in Florence from 1487 to 1511 and in Perugia from 1501 to 1513, but completed significant work in Perugia from Moreover, he engaged not only in painting panels in the workshops but also in creating frescoes on sites outside them (including in the Sistine Chapel). How did Perugino manage a high level of production? How did he maintain quality? Were his practices different in the two main sites? Did his practices change over time as demand for his work increased? Where did agency lie with the work deployed to his assistants? Was there overlap in work between the workshops? What were the roles of the master and his assistants and collaborators? The traditional understanding of workshop roles revolves around our understanding of design as the purview of the master while painting might be undertaken by others. Is there evidence of agency given over to assistants? Can we assess the practice of management? Did both workshops operate identically? Did location affect the roles available to assistants? Can roles be clearly defined and differentiated? How did local collaborators, that is, men who were already master painters, operate within the workshop of an internationally recognised painter such as Perugino? What were Perugino s production techniques? Perugino was praised for his innovative use of oil paint as well as for the look and style of his work. What were the implications of this for training and deploying assistants? How much did assistants use oil to its full potential? In terms of design, it has long been recognised that Perugino made and re-used cartoons. While much has been done by Rudolph Hiller von Gaertringen on this subject for two main families of Perugino s commissioned pictures, the workshop pictures offer wide scope for examining the broad use and reuse of cartoons by assistants. There may be scope for positing the location of cartoons in particular workshops. The materials used in each workshops and their relation to the shops regional contexts might also be an issue. This could have an influence on understanding the range of regional production. How can we assess style and quality in the workshop work? How did Perugino handle the market? A key issue is the place of workshop work in the painter s strategy of business. What details of the Perugino look were in particular demand? Where was demand concentrated; how was it fulfilled? How do these issues map onto his long career? Methodology The research will be based on the empirical study of a set of works of art. It will be augmented by consulting appropriate primary sources (largely published), mainly to establish the identity and numbers of assistants, and secondary sources concerning individual artists, production techniques, the sociology of collaboration, the theory of economics. Technical data, such as infrared reflectographs of underdrawing and findings on pigment and binding media, published and unpublished, will support the research and make possible the consideration of such diverse issues as regional production practices and evidence of workshop agency. Crucial to this part of the project is the fact that the student will have NG support in accessing, reading and interpreting the technical material. 3

4 The innovation of the research lies in its investigation of Perugino s two workshops, never properly analysed, despite the common recognition that they present huge questions in terms of the production practices of the foremost painter in fifteenth-century Italy. The research has the potential to contribute significantly to scholarship, illuminating aspects of systems of: output management; the locus or loci of workshop agency (which is assumed but not properly demonstrated); regional differences in production; methods of workshop collaboration; the range of technique practiced by assistants; the value of assistant work to the master painter. Timescales (based on full-time student) It is envisioned that the student s time will be divided between the National Gallery and the Warburg in the first two years of the study and that the third year will be centred largely at the Warburg. The timetable shown will be modified to accommodate the student's chosen use of the Student Development Fund if appropriate. Year 1 ( ) Sept - Induction and research training, Warburg and NG; identify training needs. December Establish the themes and objectives of the study, construct the essential bibliography, begin work on secondary source material; identify the objects that will attract the major part of the work, plan travel in the UK, Italy and France; participation in research events at the NG and the Warburg. BY LATE NOVEMBER: produce a plan of work, including research training and definition of project Early Jan Complete Research Student Progress Report Form January - Continue secondary research; begin primary research; complete initial May research on NG pictures June - August Continue primary and secondary research; consult NG conservation, scientific and curatorial files, tackle published technical research; meet with NG conservators and scientists to discuss gallery technical material Year 2 ( ) Sept - Research travel in Italy; consolidate research trip material; continue NG Dec research and primary, secondary research; begin drafting two chapters; continued participation in research events at the NG and the Warburg Early Jan Complete Research Student Progress Report Form Jan-Feb Feb-June June - August Submit 25% of the thesis for consideration of upgrade to PhD Research travel in France, Germany and the USA; consolidate research trip material; continue with secondary and primary research; paper in Warburg Work in Progress Seminar; continued participation in other research events at the NG and the Warburg Return to technical material; continue secondary research; begin drafting another two chapters Year 3 ( ) Sept - Work at the Gallery will continue, but most of the time will be spent at the Dec Warburg consolidating research and completing the writing of the dissertation. The student will present increasingly developed draft chapters throughout this year; presentation at Postgraduate Research Symposium at Warburg; continued participation in research events at the NG and the Warburg 4

5 Early Jan Jan-Feb Feb-May June-Aug Complete Research Student Progress Report Form Paper in Warburg Work in Progress Seminar; continue work on chapters Complete Research Student Progress Report Form Final work on thesis Outcomes The main expected outcome of the project will be in the form of original research addressing the three project aims outlined above. A substantial body of accessible research on an unfashionable but significant painter will be assembled, providing a case study for a groundbreaking assessment of what workshop production meant in Renaissance Italy. This proposal supports the National Gallery s Research Strategy for as it directly relates to the Gallery s The Meaning of Making research theme. In addition, it meets three of the NG s strategic objectives: to preserve, enhance and develop the potential of the collection for the public; to inspire learning and engagement; to develop the Gallery as a centre of excellence for academic research. The beneficial outcome for a wider general public will be that the research will provide further context for the collection, supporting new approaches for presentation to the public. The project will also benefit other public collections in possession of paintings by members of Perugino s workshops. The project will also result in a doctoral student who has experience of the study of works of art, and of their context, with substantial career potential in both museums and universities, thanks to first-rate academic credentials and supervision, experience of working with a major museum and of academic work requiring excellence in technical analysis of paintings (specifically Italian paintings before 1550). Eligibility: Applicants must have a good first degree (usually a minimum 2:1) or a Masters degree (or equivalent experience) in art history. They should be highly motivated individuals with a keen interest in art history, particularly Italian Renaissance painting. Students must also meet eligibility requirements of the Art and Humanities Research Council for graduate students. The minimum English language proficiency requirement for candidates who have not undertaken a higher degree at a UK HE institution is IELTS 6.5 (with a minimum of 6.0 in all skills). The closing date for applications is 12:00 noon (UK time) on 20 June Interviews will take place on 13 July Further Information and application: For informal enquiries, please contact Professor Michelle O Malley (michelle.omalley@sas.ac.uk) or Marika Spring (marika.spring@ng-london.org.uk). Application is by covering letter, a 500-word description of the strand the student might take through the project, as well as a CV of no more than two pages and a transcript of his or her most recent degree (BA or MA). Applications should be sent to Megan Littlewood (megan.littlewood@sas.ac.uk) and copied to Catherine Higgitt (catherine.higgitt@nglondon.org.uk). 5