PERUGINO, Pietro
(b. 1450, Citta della Pieve, d. 1523, Perugia)

Venus and Cupid

1497-1500
Lead white over silverpoint, crayon, and brown wash on gray tinted paper, 254 x 182 mm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

There are drawings related to the frescoes in the Collegio del Cambio that are so precise and delicate that earlier scholars felt them to be preliminary drawings by Perugino, but today they are considered to be workshop products reproduced for study purposes. It is difficult to determine that some of the more careful drawings worked out down to the smallest details should be thought of as merely study material for the use of the workshop or whether they are the work of later artists. The charming drawing for the planet Venus is not a copy but a working drawing.