PINTURICCHIO, Bernardino Betti (di Betto) detto Il. - Painter, b. in Perugia in 1454, d. in Siena in 1513.
Trained in the Umbrian milieu, perhaps under the guidance of Caporali, he was later influenced in particular by Perugino, with whom he collaborated on the execution of the Stories of St. Bernardino (recently denied to Perugino), and then in Rome on the paintings of the Sistine Chapel: the Circumcision of the Sons of Moses and the Baptism of Jesus. But already in these early works the personality of the collaborator, rather than pupil, stands out from that of the master, and the divergence appears greater in the decoration of the Bufalini chapel in S. Maria d'Aracoeli (after 1490). Here his pleasing narrative vein prevails, accompanied by that exquisite and refined decorative sense which, in the profusion of golds, colors, minute details, and the richness of the landscape, always maintains balance and elegance. He is more sober in the frescoes of the side chapels in S. Maria del Popolo, executed in collaboration with other Umbrian artists, where a gentle Nativity is framed by his usual landscape rich in vegetation and rocks. After a brief stay in Orvieto, where a few frescoes remain in the Cathedral, he returns to Rome to work in the Borgia apartment (1493-94).
(Int. Anderson)
For the decoration of these rooms too, where he illustrates the Mysteries of the Faith, Stories of the Saints, the Liberal Arts, the Sibyls, Prophets and Apostles, he has recourse to the collaboration of other artists; but his imprint dominates everywhere. His manner of narrating is always calm and somewhat detached, while his expressive means become richer and more sumptuous in the decoration, where the use of gold leaf is very extensive, and the colors are vivid and vividly juxtaposed. He has been accused, with regard to these works, of a lack of depth of feeling and of constructive solidity. An unjust accusation, since all this is not necessary to his art, as it does not answer a need of his; proof of this is the force he manages to impart in the frescoes of the Baglioni chapel in S. Maria Maggiore in Spello (1500-1501) using his usual language, precisely because it is adherent to his true personality. He appears less persuasive in the Piccolomini Library in the cathedral of Siena (1505-1508) in narrating Events from the Life of Pius II, with the usual richness, but in a distracted and rather superficial manner, attributable only in part to the presence of collaborators; while his best qualities are evident in the earlier (1504) execution of the chapel of St. John the Evangelist, also in the Cathedral.
Another happy moment came in 1508, when he frescoed the vaults of the presbytery of S. Maria del Popolo with balanced and easy elegance. In addition to these works he executed various paintings preserved in galleries, in Perugia, Valencia, Dresden, London, Florence, the Vatican, etc., and in churches; there is also record of his activity as a miniaturist, of which an example would be the missal page illuminated with a Crucifixion, in the Vatican Library, which some scholars however attribute instead to Perugino. - See pl. Cl.
Bibliography4 works
Maria Donati