Pinturicchio Paintings

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Bernardino Pinturicchio oil painting artist

Bernardino Pinturicchio Biography

Italian Renaissance painter, frescoist and designer
born circa 1454 - died 1513
Born in: Perugia (Umbria, Italy).
Died in: Siena (Tuscany, Italy)

Also known as: Bernardino di Betto-Benedetto di Biagio Pinturicchio.
Collaborated with: Pietro Perugino (c.1445-1523) from 1450 to 1523, Jacopo Torni (1476-1526).
Friend of: Raphael (1483-1520)

PINTURICCHIO (1454-1513), 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 Bernardino Pinturicchio was a pupil of Perugino; and so in one sense no doubt Bernardino Pinturicchio 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 Pinturicchio paintings 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 painting, either in enlarging the master's sketch to the full-sized cartoon, in transferring the cartoon to the wall, or in Pinturicchio painting backgrounds, drapery and other accessories.

The vault and its lunettes are richly decorated with small pictures of the life of the Virgin, surrounded by graceful arabesques; and the dado is covered with black and white Pinturicchio paintings of scenes from the lives of saints, medallions with prophets, and very graceful and powerfully drawn female figures in full length in which the influence of Signorelli may be traced. In the fourth chapel Pinturicchio painted the Four Latin Doctors in the lunettes of the vault. Most of these frescoes are considerably injured by damp, but happily have suffered little from restoration; the heads are painted with much minuteness of finish, and the whole of the pictures depend very largely for their effect on the final touchings a secco. The last Pinturicchio 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 painting, with main lines arranged to suit their surroundings in a very skilful way. In the centre is an octagonal panel of the coronation of the Virgin, and round it medallions of the Four Evangelists - the spaces between them being filled up by reclining figures of the Four Sibyls.

Among his panel pictures the following are t a Bernardino Pinturicchio 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, and very minutely painted; the wings of the retable have standing figures of St Augustine and St Jerome; and the predella has Pinturicchio paintings in miniature of the Annunciation and the Evangelists. 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 angels at the sides in beauty of face and expression recall the manner of Lorenzo di Credi or Da Vinci. The Vatican picture gallery has the largest of Pinturicchio's panels - the Coronation of the Virgin, with the apostles and other saints below. Several well-executed portraits occur among the kneeling saints. The Virgin, who kneels at Christ's feet to receive her crown, is a figure of great tenderness and beauty, and the lower group is composed with great skill and grace in arrangement. Other important Pinturicchio panel paintings exist 'See Guattani, Quadri nell' appart. Borgia (Rome, 1820).

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 painting of Raphael. The document provides for the price of these frescoes, namely one thousand gold ducats, to be paid in various instalments. the painting 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 Pinturicchio painting by his executors, and the whole series were finished in 1507.

One of last Pinturicchio paintings, 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 in Milan. Pinturicchio married Grania di Niccolo, and had by her two sons and four daughters; there is probably no truth in the story of his being starved by his wife during his last illness.

Thus it was with Pinturicchio of Perugia, who, prolific as Bernardino Pinturicchio was, and enjoying the assistance of others, nevertheless possessed a far higher reputation than Pinturicchio paintings warranted. At the same time, Bernardino Pinturicchio had great skill in large paintings, and always employed a number of assistants.

It was a habit of Bernardino to decorate Pinturicchio paintings with gold ornaments in relief to please some who had little knowledge of art, and to create an imposing appearance, but it is a clumsy device in a picture. After painting a story of St. Catherine in these apartments, Bernardino Pinturicchio made the arches of Rome in relief, and painted the scene so that, the figures being in front and the buildings behind, the receding objects are more prominent than the figures in the foreground, a capital heresy in our art. In the castle of S. Angelo Bernardino Pinturicchio painted a number 9 of rooms with grotesques, and in the garden at the base of the great tower Bernardino Pinturicchio did scenes of Pope Alexander, with portraits of Isabella, the Catholic queen, Niccolo Orsino, Count of Pitigliano, Gianjacomo Triulzi, with many other relations and friends of the Pope, notably Cesare Borgia, his brother, his sisters, and many prominent men of the day.

Pinturicehio was chagrined at this, and bore such a grudge against the poor friars for their good fortune, that Bernardino Pinturicchio could think of nothing else, and it so weighed upon his mind that it caused his death. Pinturicchio paintings were executed about 1513.

In S. Lorenzo, an abbey of the Camaldolite monks there, Bernardino Pinturicchio did another chapel. Bernardino Pinturicchio stayed a long while at the Borgo while engaged upon these Pinturicchio paintings, so that‚he almost made it his home. Bernardino Pinturicchio was quite insignificant as an artist but a most laborious worker, so much so that it amounted to drudgery.

There was an excellent painter in the city of Fuligno at that time named Niccolo Alunno, because, as oils were not in general use before Pietro Perugino, many men were considered able who did not afterwards come to the fore. Niccolo gave considerable satisfaction by Pinturicchio paintings, although tempera was his only medium, because all his heads were portraits and seemed alive. There is a Nativity of Christ by him in S. Agostino at Fuligno, with a predella of small figures. At Assisi Bernardino Pinturicchio made a processional banner, the high-altar picture in the Duomo, and another picture in S. Francesco.

But best Pinturicchio painting was a chapel in the Duomo containing a Pieta and two angels holding torches and weeping so naturally that I do not think any painter could have done better, however excellent. Bernardino Pinturicchio painted the facade of S. Maria degli Angeli at the same place, and did many other Pinturicchio paintings which I need not mention, as I have spoken of the best. This is the end of the Life of Pinturicchio, who, among other things, pleased many princes and lords because Bernardino Pinturicchio finished his works quickly, though perhaps less excellently than if Bernardino Pinturicchio had gone slowly and carefully.