Pastura, Antonio del Massaro da Viterbo, called Il

PASTURA, ANTONIO del MASSARO da VITERBO, Called Il. - Painter of whom there is news for the first time in 1478, when he is remembered as a member of the Academy of St. Luke in Rome; d. between 1509 and 1516.

No youthful works remain that would allow his activity to be reconstructed before he entered the orbit of the two greatest Umbrian painters of the time, Perugino (v.) and Pinturicchio (v.), to whose manners his entire output is tied.

He is influenced above all by Pinturicchio, with whom he collaborated in the decoration of the Borgia apartment in the Vatican (1493-94), where, in the room of the Liberal Arts, the Rhetoric and the Music fall to him. Alone, he is found around 1498 at Orvieto, where he repaints part of the choir already frescoed by Ugolino di Prete Ilario (v.) with scholastic diligence. Better, though still always devoid of originality, is the decoration completed in 1509 of the choir of the cathedral of Tarquinia with Stories of the life of Mary. Other works of his are preserved at Orvieto (Madonna in Throne, in S. Trinita; St. Sebastian, in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo), in the Museo civico of Viterbo (Nativity, Madonna with angels and saints), Tuscania (Madonna), Worcester (Nativity). A Pietà in fresco in S. Maria del Popolo in Rome is also attributed to him.