Young Saint with a sword – Musée du Louvre – Paris
The work, which currently looks like a tondo even though its original shape was square or rectangular, comes from the double-sided polyptych conceived for the main altar of the church of the Convent of Sant’Agostino in Perugia, commissioned in 1502 to Perugino by the friars. Parugino realized the work in several stages and it took him many years, working on it until his death, in 1523.
The saint, depicted half-length in front of a high balustrade of classical architecture, holds a sword in his hand; the identification is uncertain: various experts have hypothesized Saint Martino from Tours or Saint Giuliano.
The panel, originally placed on the verse of the Polyptych (the part facing the choir of the church), dates back to the first phase of work (1502-1512); in 1797, during the French requisitions, it was moved to France and merged into the collections of the Musée du Louvre Musée du Louvre in Paris, where it is still preserved today.
