Pinturicchio (Bernardino di Betto Benedetto di Biagio), Italian painter of decorative frescoes. He was born in Perugia. It is likely that he served as an assistant to Italian painter Perugino, and worked on the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel at Rome. He then painted frescoes in Santa Maria in Aracoeli in Rome illustrating the life of Saint Bernardino of Siena around 1485.
From 1492 to 1494, after executing two works in the cathedral at Orvieto, he painted six frescoes in the Borgia apartments (now the library) of the Vatican. From 1502 to 1507 he painted his last and most important works—the ten frescoes in the Piccolomini Library of the Cathedral of Siena. They depict the life of Pope Pius II, a member of the Piccolomini family, in brilliant color and realistic detail.
Among Pinturicchio's few surviving easel paintings are the Madonna in Glory (1510, Municipal Museum, Barbiano) and Christ Carrying the Cross (1513, Borromeo Collection, Milan).

Works