Chiara Fancelli (died 21 May 1541) was a figure in Florentine history, best known as the daughter of the architect Luca Fancelli and the wife and model of Pietro Perugino.[1]

Her precise birth date and birthplace are unknown. She married Perugino on 1 September 1493, bringing a dowry of five gold florins. She had three sons and two daughters with him[2] and was the model for his Madonnas from 1494 onwards.[3] On 6 October 1524, after her husband's death, she wrote to Isabella d'Este to offer her his Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan for her studiolo, but d'Este refused it.[4] She was buried in the cloister of the dead at Santissima Annunziata, Florence.

References

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  1. ^ Gnoli, Umberto (February 15, 1923). "Pietro Perugino". Spoleto : C. Argentieri – via Internet Archive.
  2. ^ (in Italian) Piero Bargellini, La soave mestizia del Perugino, p. 255, 1950
  3. ^ (in French) Eugène Müntz, Histoire de l'art pendant la renaissance: Italie ; l'âge d'or, 1891.
  4. ^ Stephen John Campbell, The cabinet of eros: Renaissance mythological painting and the studiolo of Isabelle d'Este, p. 175, 2004