PIERIN DEL VAGA, PIETRO BUONACCORSI, called. - Painter, born in Florence in 1501, died in Rome on 19 Oct. 1547. He belongs to the Roman circle of followers of Raphael. A pupil in Florence of an Andrea dei Ceri, then of Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, he later became an assistant to a local painter, called "il Vaga" (whence his nickname), who took him to Rome.
There he collaborated on the frescoes of the Vatican Logge (Vasari assigns him several episodes, such as: The Jews Crossing the Jordan; The Destruction of Jericho; Joshua Stopping the Sun, etc.). He completed, with exquisite decorative sense, the medallions of the Sala dei Pontefici in the Borgia Apartment, the friezes of the frames, and the central tondo (Vasari). He later worked in private houses as well, such as the Palazzo Baldassini (Via delle Coppelle) and the Palazzina Altoviti (fragments of frescoes now in the Museo di Palazzo Venezia).
Of P. del V. there survive a Pietà in S. Stefano del Cacco, the unfinished frescoes in the Pucci Chapel in Trinità dei Monti, and the frescoes in the Cappella del Crocifisso in S. Marcello al Corso (1525). Taken prisoner during the Sack of Rome, P. del V. went to Genoa, where among other works he painted various rooms in Palazzo Doria, with a sweeping and skillful Mannerist style (Jupiter Striking the Giants; Triumph of Scipio, etc.), a style that later became exemplary for Genoese painters. In 1539 he returned to Rome and painted in the Cappella Massimi in Trinità dei Monti together with Daniele da Volterra, in Castel S. Angelo (Sala del Perseo), etc. Other paintings to remember are: The Transit of the Virgin in the Church of S. Maria Assunta in Trevigano, very close to the taste of Penni and Giulio Romano; some monochromes on the dado of the Stanza della Segnatura; the Galatea, of precious Raphaelesque style; the Nativity (from the Genoese period, dated 1534, now in America); the beautiful Madonna in the Northbrook collection; and others in Pisa (Cathedral), Madrid (Prado), Vienna (Galleria Liechtenstein), etc.