Perino del Vaga received early training from Ridolfo Ghirlandaio before he joined Raphael’s workshop, where he was involved with decorations for the papal apartments in Rome. Continuing his fresco work after Raphael’s death, Vaga barely survived the sack of Rome in 1527, being jailed and paying a ransom for his freedom and fleeing to Genoa where he found work with Andrea Doria, the Prince of Melfi. In order to complete the elaborate decorations for Doria’s palace, the Palazzo del Principe, Vaga set up a workshop resembling that of his master Raphael, painting subjects from classical mythology on walls and ceilings. A decade after his escape, Vaga returned to Rome, fulfilling commissions for fresco designs for the pope.