Perugino (1481). Delivery of the Keys to Saint Peter [fresco]. Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome.

This work documents an idealized event with period-based realism. The arrangement of shapes, colors and values and the creation of perspective-established space shows its reliance on design above other conceptual sources. Value serves overlapping purposes. Figures are modeled, depth is organized and developed, and a global pattern are all based on its use. A tetradic color palette, shape and texture are also used to build the formal qualities of this piece.

Diminution is an interesting aspect of this work. The two horizontal crowd groupings contrast heavily in their sizes, which strongly supports the sense of depth. The third grouping, which is the massive architectural figures, would seem to crush the figures below if not for the effective and consistent use of perspective. Still, they seem to nearly approach the plane of the “lower register” crowd in relation to the picture surface. Perugino’s global development of detail also tends to flatten. The far-right building is at an oblique angle to the picture plane, rotated to the right.

I believe this is a work of approximate asymmetry for the same reason as the Ghent Altarpiece, Annunciation with Donors. Gestalt and relative size are both a source of tension. There is rigid equivalency in geometric and architectural versus human forms. All foreground feminine forms emphasize their modesty, while masculine are generally upright. The overall effect of Perugino’s formal choices is to harmonize but there is some discordance.

Generally linear perspective places focus on a local area due to convergence, but in this case it serves to create a sense of spaciousness for the centrally-located exchange that is the subject. Aside from the literal use of line are the implied forces of outward-in directionality generated by gestures, gazes and figurative orientation.

Overall, the combination of message and pictorial focus is clear, and Pergino accomplishes this by creating an idealized, clear and pleasant scene. It is a visual representation of a vision by the city planner Alberti, where the temporal house of the Lord was centrally located, amid a generous open space, constructed on a dais. Both the air around it and its elevated placement separate if from this world, and place it in subtle, almost subconscious way nearer to heaven.