PINTURICCHIO (1454-1513), Italian painter of the Umbrian School, whose full name was BERNARDINO DI BETTO (BENEDETTO) DI BIAGIO, the son of a citizen of Perugia, Benedetto or Betto di Biagio. He was probably a pupil of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo; and the two masters appear to have co-operated in the execution of the "Adoration of the Magi" from S. Maria Nuova, now in the Pinacoteca of Perugia. After assisting Perugino in the execution of his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, Pinturicchio was employed by Niccolo Buffalini, advocate to the papal con sistory, to decorate a little Gothic chapel in Ara Coeli on the Capitol with frescoes illustrating the life of San Bernardino of Siena. These frescoes were probably executed about 1484. They show the master at his best. The colouring is exceedingly har monious, the landscape backgrounds full of atmosphere. Pintu ricchio was employed by the Della Rovere family to decorate a series of chapels in the church of S. Maria del Popolo. The "Adoration of the Shepherds," in the chapel built by Cardinal Domenico della Rovere, was probably done about 1500. In the lunettes under the vault Pinturicchio's assistants painted small scenes from the life of St. Jerome.
The last paintings completed by Pinturicchio in this church were the frescoes on the vault over the retro-choir, a very rich and well-designed piece of decorative work, with main lines ar ranged to suit their surroundings in a very skilful way. No finer decoration of a quadripartite vault exists.
In 1492 Pinturicchio was summoned to Orvieto, where he painted two Prophets and two of the Doctors in the duomo. In the following year he returned to Rome, and was employed by Pope Alexander VI. (Borgia) to decorate a suite of six rooms in the Vatican, which Alexander had just built. Of these rooms, called after their founder the Appartamenti Borgia, five still re tain his frescoes. The upper parts of the walls and vaults are not only covered with painting, but further enriched with delicate stucco work in relief. Pinturicchio employed many assistants. The second room, however, with scenes from the lives of saints, was painted by the master himself, and contains one of his famous works, "The Dispute of St. Catherine." On the vault of the sacristy of S. Cecilia in Trastevere, Pin turicchio painted the Almighty surrounded by the Evangelists. During a visit to Orvieto in 1496 Pinturicchio painted two more figures of the Latin Doctors in the choir of the duomo—now, like the rest of his work at Orvieto, almost destroyed.
Among his panel pictures the following are the most important. An altarpiece for S. Maria de' Fossi at Perugia, painted in 1496 1498, now moved to the picture gallery, is a Madonna enthroned among saints, graceful and sweet in expression. Another fine
altarpiece, similar in delicacy of detail, and probably painted about the same time, is that in the cathedral of San Severino—the Madonna enthroned looks down towards the kneeling donor. The Vatican picture gallery has the largest of Pinturicchic's panels— the Coronation of the Virgin, with the apostles and other saints below. Several well-executed portraits occur among the kneeling saints. Other panel paintings by Pinturicchio exist in the cathedral of Spello, in the Siena gallery, at Perugia, and in the collection of the Earl of Crawford at Haigh Hall.
In 1501 Pinturicchio painted several fine frescoes in S. Maria Maggiore at Spello—all very decorative and full of elaborate architectural accessories. One of them, the Annunciation, is signed "Bemardinvs Pintvrichivs Pervsinvs." The most striking of all Pinturicchio's frescoes, both for brilliance of colour and their wonderful state of preservation, are those in the cathedral at Siena, a large room built in 1492 by Cardinal Francesco Pic colomini, afterwards Pius III. In 1502 the cardinal contracted with Pinturicchio to decorate the whole room with arabesques on the vault, and on the walls ten scenes from the life of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, Pius II., the uncle of Cardinal Francesco.
The contract specially provided that the cartoons, their trans ference on to the walls, and all the heads, were to be by Pinturic chio's own hand, thus contradicting Vasari's assertion that the cartoons were the work of Raphael. The series were finished in 1507. Outside the library, over the door, we have the coronation. of Pius III. in which he has introduced his own portrait, and standing by him is a youth who bears some resemblance to Raphael. In 1513, the year of his death, he painted a highly finished panel with Christ bearing His Cross, now in the Palazzo Borromeo in Milan. He died at Siena, on Dec. 11, 1513, and is ranked as one of the greater Umbrian painters. His worth has been undervalued, partly owing to the dislike which tinges Vasari's biography of him. Even Crowe and Cavalcaselle hardly did him justice. G. Morelli has however disproved the myth that Raphael, then a youth of 20, supplied cartoons or drawings for the aged master in his work in the Libreria del Duomo, Siena. These drawings (Venice) are not by Raphael but by Pinturicchio.
See G. Morelli, Italian Masters in German Galleries (1883) ; Vermiglioli, Memoire di Pinturicchio (Perugia, 1837) ; and the valuable notes and appendix of Milanesi's edition of Vasari, iii. 493-531 (Flor ence, 1878) ; E. Steinmann, Pinturicchio (Leipzig, 5898) ; E. M. Phil Epps, Pinturicchio 0900 ; W. Bombe, Geschichte der Peruginer Mal erei (1912) .