San Marino · 500th anniversary of the death of Perugino

Issue date27 Apr 2023

Total mintage58,600

EU maximum56,000

Editions2

Edge lettering2 ★ × 6, alternately upright/inverted

InscriptionPERUGINO / 1523 / 2023 / R / SAN MARINO / MAC

DesignerMaria Angela Cassol

mintInstituto Poligrafico e Zecca Dello Stato, Roma

Issue occasion

The commemorative coin marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Perugino. The design shows the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus, an excerpt from Perugino’s painting “Madonna and Child with Saint Sebastian and Saint John the Baptist”, which is housed in the Uffizi in Florence. The design is complemented by the inscription “PERUGINO” and the years “1523” and “2023”.

The design

The coin design features the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus, an excerpt from the painting “Madonna with Child, Saint Sebastian and Saint John the Baptist” by Perugino, which is housed in the Uffizi (Florence). Along the left side of the inner edge of the coin are the inscription “PERUGINO”, the years “1523” and “2023”, and the mintmark “R”. Along the right side of the inner edge of the coin is the name of the issuing state, “SAN MARINO”. At the bottom are the initials of the coin designer Maria Angela Cassol, “MAC”.

The twelve stars of the European flag are depicted on the outer ring of the coin.

Background on the topic

Perugino was the artist’s name of Pietro Vannucci, who was probably born around 1450 in Città della Pieve. The name refers to Perugia, the center of his professional activity. He also worked in Florenz and Rom and belongs to the Umbrian school of Italian Renaissance painting. In Florenz, he came into contact with the circle around Andrea del Verrocchio; in 1472, he was admitted to the painters’ guild there.

Among his best-known works are the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel (Sixtinische Kapelle). There, among other works, he created the “Delivery of the Keys to Saint Peter” (“Schlüsselübergabe an Petrus”). The fresco combines a rigorously structured central perspective with a clearly organized arrangement of figures and an expansive architectural landscape. Such balanced compositions, gentle transitions and calm facial expressions characterized Perugino’s style. This style influenced numerous younger artists, particularly Raphael (Raffael), who began drawing closely on Perugino’s visual language at an early stage.

The painting selected for the coin belongs to the type known as the “Sacra Conversazione”. In this type, Mary, Christ and several saints appear not in separate image fields, but in a shared, uniformly constructed space. John the Baptist (Johannes der Täufer), as the forerunner, points to Christ’s public ministry. Sebastian, an early Christian martyr, is usually recognizable by the arrows of his martyrdom. In the religious practices of the time, he was also invoked as a patron saint against epidemics. The arrangement of the figures therefore had both a theological and a specific religious function for the viewers.

Perugino’s work stands at the transition from 15th-century art to the High Renaissance. His clear spatial structures and idealized landscapes paved the way for developments that continued in the early 16th century. The round anniversary provided San Marino with a formal occasion to recall this chapter of Italian art history. No direct biographical connection between Perugino and the Republic, however, can be identified.