Madonna enthroned with angels and saints – Musée des Beaux-Arts – Bordeaux
The panel, realized around 1500 and 1515 in collaboration with one of his assistants, Giovanni Battista Caporali, was originally commissioned to Perugino by the Augustinian friars of Perugia for the chapel of San Tommaso da Villanova in their town church.
In the middle of the composition, the Madonna gently holds the Child in her arms while sitting on a throne with a complex architectural structure: it is in fact raised on a low step ending with two volutes on the corners, and on the back it opens into a richly decorated niche surmounted by a semi-dome shaped like a shell supported on pillars.
On the left, Saint Jerome, portrayed as a mature man with a thick white beard and dressed in his cardinal’s red robe, is reading a book. On the right, Saint Augustine holds an open tome that he addresses to the viewer; under the cope he wears the black monk tunic while he has the mitre on his head, while with his left hand he holds a slender and elegant pastoral stick.
Above the characters, some angels and cherubim are attending the scene, while in the background it is barely possible to see a wooded landscape.
The panel is preserved at the Musée des Beaux Arts in Bordeaux.
