PINTORICCHIO LIFE AND WORKS

Bernardino di Betto, known also as Pintoricchio, was born between 1456 and 1460 in Perugia to a modest family of artisans. The early life of the painter seems to have been very unhappy and was further complicated in 1475 when his father, a simple cloth tanner, died of the plague.
Some years before, however, Giapeco Caporali, the extraordinary miniaturist, opened a bottega on the same street as the young Bernardino’s family home and it is assumed that the young boy had his first experiences with brushes and colours in the Caporali bottega. These were years of a great artistic fervour in Perugia; the city was becoming an eminent centre for artistic activities in central Italy. In the early years, Pintoricchio participated in this artistic revival, sometimes as a spectator, other times as a protagonist; he is recognised to have worked on the majestic tables that recount the stories of San Bernardino in 1473, while also working alongside Perugino on the scaffolding of the Sistina.
It was not, however, until 1481 that his first authored works are documented, following his enrolment in the guild of Artists and Painters in Porta Sant’Angelo, Perugia. Working in Rome allowed him to meet new and influential figures: between 1482 and 1485 he painted the cappella Bufalini all’Aracoeli, he intermittently returned to his home town to complete some of his works and to carry out small commissions, some of which were obtained thanks to his nephew, Girolamo di Simone - the extremely young Canon of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo of Perugia. This fact may also explain the excellent relationship that Pintoricchio had with Innocenzo VIII, for whom, between 1487 and 1488, he worked on the site of his apartments in the Vatican: unfortunately only part of these are still in existence as the rest was destroyed in order to make space for the Pio Clementino Museum.
In 1490 Bernardino was at work in the Sala dei Mesi in the Palace of Cardinal Domenico Delle Rovere and in the Chapel Santa Maria del Popolo.
Two years later he came to Orvieto for a commission in the Duomo that was completed only in 1496. In the meantime Alessandro VI Borgia had become Pope and commissioned the Umbrian artist to decorate his apartments in the Vatican, a grandiose project that kept Pintoricchio busy in Rome until 1495.
By the 2nd January of the same year, the altarpiece of Santa Maria dei Fossi, perhaps one of his most significant works, was still awaiting completion. The works in Spoleto, Perugia and Orvieto brought money and in 1501 also recognition from the political powers that appointed him to hold the position of prior of the Arts in Perugia.
The events in the life of Pintoricchio are closely linked to the political landscape of Perugia, he was a familiar and loyal servant to Cesare Borgia and he was also connected to the Baglioni family, from whom he received the commission to decorate the walls of the Capella Bella in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Spello, where - between the autumn of 1500 and the spring of 1501 - he created paintings of such magnificent beauty and skill that his fame and eminence in artistic circles in Umbria was ensured for many years to come.
Many consider his crowning achievement to be the stunning cycle of frescoes that illustrated the life of Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Pope Pio II, located in the Piccolomini library in Siena. Ambroggio Barocci designed the grandiose architectural structure and the draughts for the illustrated scenes were prepared by a young Raffaello; these details only serve to underline the greatness achieved by the Perugian painter.
In 1506 the frescoes were completed and Pintoricchio received the commission to paint the pala di Sant’Andrea in Spello, which he eventually left to Eusebio da San Giorgio to complete.
Between 1509 and 1510 he painted his last Roman work, the vaulted ceilings on the Capella Delle Rovere in Santa Maria del Popolo.
In 1513 he retired, due to ill health, to the Sienan countryside, where he died on the 11th December. He was rich but alone, following abandonment by his wife. It was a sad and lonely end for an artist that was initially considered, “deaf, small and unprepossessing,” yet nonetheless, had managed to attain greatness.

THE EXHIBITION

The Pintoricchio exhibition is part of a grand project to maximise appreciation of the rich cultural and artistic heritage in Umbria; this event has been planned to celebrate the 550th anniversary of the birth of Pintoricchio - one of the most fascinating protagonists of the Italian Renaissance and a symbol of the city of Perugia. Following the success of the Perugino exhibition in 2004, this new exhibition represents a continuation of the initiative to promote the works of the great Umbrian artists and to draw attention – both of the public and national and international critics - to the stunning artistic and cultural heritage of the region and its extraordinary diffusion across the territory.
The exhibition will be held in Perugia at the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, which has recently completed work to recuperate and enlarge its exhibition spaces. There will also be a second section in Spello, in the Collegiata di Santa Maria Maggiore. The Capella Baglioni, better known as the Capella Bella, is the location of one of Pintoricchio’s most impressive masterpieces.
The opening of the exhibition will also see the inauguration of a specially designed illumination system to optimise the vision of this prestigious cycle of frescoes. In addition to this, a temporary educational display has been installed to provide visitors with detailed information about the historical, artistic and iconographic aspects of the paintings and their location. In the nearby Pinacoteca Civica, there will be a small exhibition on “Pintoricchio e le arti minori”. This ambitious artistic event will be further enriched by regional routes and itineraries that will lead visitors on a voyage of discovery across the territory, where they will be able to admire numerous works by Pintoricchio and other extraordinary pieces from the Renaissance period, in their original surroundings. The event has been made possible thanks to the joint commitment of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, the Direzione Regionale per i Beni Culturali e Paesaggistici dell’Umbria and the Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici, per il Paesaggio, per il Patrimonio Storico Artistico ed Etnoantropologico, della Regione Umbria, the Provincia di Perugia, the Comune di Perugia, the Comune di Spello, the Diocesi di Foligno, the Camera di Commercio and the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia.

Vittoria Garibaldi
 Exhibition committee

The exhibition committee is chaired by Vittoria Garibaldi and is made up of:
Cristina Acidini Luchinat; Tiziana Biganti; Francesco Buranelli; Keith Christiansen; Nicole Dacos; Lucia Fornari Schianchi; Vittoria Garibaldi; Roberto Guerrini; Tom Henry; Claudia La Malfa; Francesco Federico Mancini; Fabio Marcelli; Paola Mercurelli Salari; Arnold Nesselrath; Antonio Paolucci; Mirko Santanicchia; Pietro Scarpellini; Maria Rita Silvestrelli;
Coordinamento scientifico
Vittoria Garibaldi e Francesco Federico Mancini

PINTORICCHIO IN UMBRIA Perugia
Palazzo Baldeschi al Corso
Corso Vannucci, 66

INFO --> Tel. 0755725981
WEB e MAIL www.fondazionecrpg.it - fondazione.pg@infinito.it

PINTORICCHIO IN UMBRIA
Perugia, San Martino in Colle,
Church of the Madonna del Feltro
Strada Marscianese, località San Martino in Colle

In San Martino in Colle, Perugia, can be found a fresco decorating a wall in the small church of the Madonna del Feltro. The fresco depicts the Madonna che adora il Bambino leggente incoronata da Angeli, inserted into a landscape. The painting can be traced back to the years between 1498 and 1503, when the maestro was staying mainly in Perugia, where he had completed the great work Santa Maria dei Fossi (1496), which can be admired today in the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria. During this period he received numerous commissions, of which some, as in this case, were often considered peripheral. However, they are still of significant importance due to their suggestive qualities and the skill of the painting that they clearly demonstrate.

PINTORICCHIO IN UMBRIA
Spello Church of S. Andrea,
Via Cavour

Pala con la Madonna col Bambino e Santi

On the 16 April 1506 Pintoricchio received the commission to paint a great altarpiece for the main altar of the franciscan church of Spello. The work began rapidly but the following year the Maestro had to leave Umbria to go to Siena where he had received other important commissions. Pintoricchio entrusted the completion of the painting to another Perugian painter, Eusebio da San Giorgio, but he left a written account that he must follow the drawings that Pintoricchio had prepared. Pintoricchio had mad a commitment, however, to paint at least the heads of the characters and the form of Christ on the moulded cornice - the parts considered most important. In 1508 Bernardino was again in Spello to paint these parts and on this occasion justified his departure with the letter that he had received from Gentile Baglioni begging him to return to Siena. The letter was painted into the painting in a small table, over which was the script of San Giovannino writing the Ecce Agnus Dei in his cartouche. Some consider this as one of the most poetic episodes of all Pintoricchio’s works.

INFO --> Tel.  0742301497