SANTA GIUSTINA

Santa Giustina was painted by Pietro Perugino on one of the panels of the predella of the famous polyptych of San Pietro, which was commissioned in 1495 and completed in 1500. The polyptych, taken apart in 1591 as a result of renovation work at the basilica, was requisitioned by the French at the end of the 17th century, and many of its pieces were distributed among the departmental museums. Santa Giustina was taken to Paris, later brought back to Rome by Canova, and acquired by the Vatican Picture Gallery. As evidence of the celebrity of Vannucci’s polyptych, copies exist by Giovan Battista Salvi, called il Sassoferrato. The artist, who centered his career on interpreting the work of Perugino and Raphael, achieves an outcome of extraordinary originality in his Santa Giustina, proposed in tones of distilled purity.