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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: PIG-POL |
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PINTURICCHIO (14541513) , Italian painter, whose full name was BERNARDINO DI BETTI, the son of a citizen of Perugia, Benedetto or Betto di Biagio, was one of a very important group who inherited the artistic traditions and developed the style of the older Perugian painters, such as Bonfigli and Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. According to Vasari he was a pupil of Perugino; and so in one sense no doubt he was, but rather as a paid assistant than as an apprentice. The strong similarity both in design and methods of execution which runs through the works of this later Perugian school is very striking; paintings by Perugino, Pinturicchio, Lo Spagna and Raphael (in his first manner) may often be mistaken one for the other. In most cases, especially in the execution of large frescoes, pupils and assistants had a large share in the work, either in enlarging the master's sketch to the full-sized cartoon, in transferring the cartoon to the wall
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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. These rooms, called after their founder the Appartamenti Borgia, now form part of the Vatican library, and five of them still retain the fine series of frescoes with which they were so skilfully decorated by Pinturicchio. The upper part of the walls and vaults, not only covered with painting, but further enriched with delicate stucco work in relief, are a masterpiece of decorative design applied according to the truest principles of mural ornamenta much better model for imitation in that respect than the more celebrated Stanze of Raphael immediately over the Borgia rooms. The main subjects are: (1) the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Magi, and the Resurrection; (2) Scenes from the lives of St Catherine, St Antony and other saints; (3) allegorical figures of music, arithmetic and the like; (4) four figures in half length, with rich arabesques; (5) figures of the planets, the occupations of the various months, and other subjects. The sixth
Though not without interruption, Pinturicchio, assisted by his pupils, worked in these rooms from 1492 till 1498, when they were completed. His other chief
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Among his panel pictures the following are the most important. An altarpiece for S Maria de' Fossi at Perugia, painted in 14961498, now moved to the picture gallery, is a Madonna enthroned among Saints, graceful and sweet in expression, and very minutely painted; the wings of the retable have standing
'See Guattani, Quadri nell' appari. Borgia (Rome, 1820). in the cathedral of Spello, in the Siena gallery, at Florence, at Perugia, and in other collections. In 15o1 Pinturicchio painted several fine frescoes in S. Maria Maggiore at Spelloall very decorative and full of elaborate architectural accessories. One of them, the Annunciation, is signed " Bernardinvs 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 library at Siena, a large room built in 1495 by Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini, 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 transference on to the walls, and all the heads, were to be by Pinturicchio's own hand, thus contradicting Vasari's assertion that the cartoons were the work of Raphael. The document provides for the price of these frescoes, namely one thousand gold ducats, to be paid in various instalments. The work was begun early in 1503, but was interrupted for a while by the death of Pius III. His will, however, provided for the completion of the work by his executors, and the whole series were finished in 1507. The subjects are (1) the journey of the young Sylvius Piccolomini to the Council of Basel, in the suite of Cardinal Capranica; (2) his reception by James I. of Scotland as envoy from the Council of Basel; (3) his being crowned with the poet's laurel by Frederick III.; (4) his reception by Pope Eugenius IV. as ambassador from Frederick III. ; (5) outside the wall of Siena he presents to Frederick III. his bride Leonora, infanta of Portugal; (6) he receives the cardinal's hat from Pope Calixtus III.; (7) he is borne in procession after his election as Pope Pius II.; (8) he presides at a council at Mantua; (9) he canonizes St Catherine of Siena; (,o) he arrives in Ancona to promote the crusade against the Turks. In addition to these there is, outside the library, over the door, the coronation of Pius III. In the lower part of the scene of St Catherine's canonization he has introduced his own portrait, and standing
In 1508 Pinturicchio painted another panel of the Madonna enthroned among saints for the church of the Minori Conventuali at Spello. It is now over the altar in the sacristy. On his return to Siena he painted a whole series of frescoes on the walls of the Palazzo Petrucci, now all destroyed except one scene of the return of Ulysses to Penelope (or possibly Collatinus and Lucretia), which is now in the National Gallery of London, transferred to canvas. One of his last works, painted in 1513, the year of his death, is a very beautiful and highly finished panel with Christ bearing His Cross, now in the Palazzo Borromeo
Pinturicchio's worth as a painter has been for the most part undervalued, partly owing to the very strong prejudice and dislike which tinges Vasari's biography of him. Even Crowe and Cavalcaselle hardly did him justice. A fairer estimate of his position in the history of art is given by Vermiglioli, Memorie di Pinturicchio (Perugia, 1837); and in the valuable notes and appendix of Milanesi's edition of Vasari, iii. 493531 (Florence, 1878). See also Schmarsow, Raphael and Pinturicchio in Siena (Stuttgart, i88o), and Pinturicchio in Rom (Stuttgart, 1882), both well illustrated by photo-lithography. (J. H. M.) End of Article: PINTURICCHIO (14541513) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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