This was the last of several major commissions by the young Raphael for Perugia, the home city of his master Perugino. He had already painted for the same church the Oddi Altarpiece (now in the Vatican) for the Baglioni's great rival family (with whom they were also intermarried), and other large works. The new commission marked an important stage in his development as an artist, and the formation of his mature style.Jones and Penny 14-17, 40-47 The painting remained in its location until in 1608, it was forcibly removed by a gang working for Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V. In order to pacify the city of Perugia, the Pope commissioned two copies of the painting from Giovanni Lanfranco and the Cavaliere d’Arpino, and that by Arpino is still in Perugia. Though confiscated by the French in 1797 and exhibited in Paris in the Louvre, then renamed the Napoleon Museum, it was returned to the Galleria Borghese in 1815, except for the predella which was taken to the Vatican Museums.Pendretti 102
