_Pinturicchio_ (Umbrian: 1454-1513).
Bernardino di Betto, or the son of Benedetto, was commonly
called Pinturicchio, "the little painter." He is not strongly
represented in our Gallery. His principal works are the
decorated ceiling and frescoes in the Library of Siena, which
represent the life of the Pope Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pius
II.). A drawing of this Library and copies of some of the
frescoes are in the Arundel Society's Collection. Pinturicchio,
says Symonds, is "a kind of Umbrian Gozzoli, who brings us
here and there in close relation to the men of his own time.
His wall-paintings in the library of the Cathedral of Siena
are so well preserved that we need not seek elsewhere for
better specimens of the decorative art most highly prized in
the first years of the 16th century. These frescoes have a
richness of effect and a vivacity of natural action which, in
spite of their superficiality, render them highly charming.
The life of Pius II. is treated like a legend. Both Pope and
Emperor are romantically conceived, and each portion of the
tale is told as though it were a part in some popular ballad.
So much remains of Perugian affectation as gives a kind of
childlike grace to the studied attitudes and many-coloured
groups of elegant young men" (_Renaissance_, iii. 220). In
the foreground of one of the frescoes is a charming figure,
supposed to be a portrait of the young Raphael. Vasari states
and subsequent writers have repeated that Pinturicchio was
assisted in these frescoes by Raphael. This supposition rests
on three drawings attributed to Raphael, but now proved to be
by Pinturicchio, who bound himself to execute the whole work
with his own hand. Morelli's attribution to Pinturicchio of
the so-called "Raphael's sketch-book" at Venice is one of the
most important of that critic's discoveries. "If (says Morelli)
in representing serious religious subjects, he does not come
up to Perugino as regards proportion, finish, and the filling
of space; if his forms are not so noble, and the expression
of religious sentiment not so deep as in Pietro; yet, on the
other hand, Pinturicchio is, to my mind, less conscious, more
fresh and racy than Perugino, and does not so often fatigue us
by monotony and that conventional sweetness which, especially
in the productions of his last twenty years, makes Pietro
positively wearisome. And, as an imaginative landscape-painter,
Pinturicchio surpasses almost all of his contemporaries"
(_German Galleries_, p. 285). Pinturicchio's frescoes at Siena
occupied him from 1502 to 1509. He probably studied first under
Fiorenzo di Lorenzo (No. 1103); afterwards he entered into
partnership with Pietro Perugino. He went to Rome in 1479 and
was honoured by commissions from cardinals and popes. Among
his works in Rome are frescoes representing the stories of
the Virgin and St. Jerome in S. Maria del Popolo; frescoes in
the Appartamenti Borgia in the Vatican, and frescoes of S.
Bernardino of Siena in the Bufalini Chapel, S. Maria Aracoeli.
Morelli attributes to him also two of the frescoes in the
Sixtine Chapel (the Baptism of Christ and the History of
Moses). In 1500 he commenced the beautiful series of frescoes,
now much disfigured, in the collegiate church at Spello (see
Arundel Society's copies). That he was held in high esteem by
his fellow-citizens is shown by his having been elected in
1501 Decemvir of Perugia in place of Pietro Perugino. Unlike
Perugino, he never mastered the use of oil, but painted in
tempera. Vasari, who did not like Pinturicchio, describes him
as somewhat of a hack, and still more of a lover of money.
"Among other qualities he possessed that of giving considerable
satisfaction to princes and nobles because he quickly brought
the works commanded by them to an end." As for his love of
money, he died of vexation, Vasari assures us, "because a
certain trunk which he had insisted on being removed from his
painting-room in Siena was afterwards found to be full of gold
pieces." According, however, to a contemporary writer, his wife
left him alone in his house when ill, and he was starved to
death.
St. Catherine of Alexandria was of all the female saints next to
Mary Magdalene the most popular: she meets us in nearly every room
in the National Gallery, and even in London, churches and districts
once placed under her protection still retain her name. Her general
attributes are a book, a sword, and a wheel. The meaning of these
will be seen from the legend of her which crusaders brought from the
East. She was the daughter of a queen, and of marvellous wisdom and
understanding. And when the time came that she should govern her
people, she, shunning responsibility and preferring wisdom before
sovereignty, shut herself up in her palace and gave her mind to
the study of philosophy. For this wilful seclusiveness her people
wished her to marry a husband who should at once fulfil the duties of
government and lead them forth to battle. But she, to prevent this
repugnant union, made one more spiritual by her mystical marriage with
Christ. And for this and other unworldly persistencies, the heathen
tyrant Maximin would have broken her on a wheel, but that "fire came
down from heaven, sent by the destroying angel of God, and broke the
wheel in pieces." Yet for all this the tyrant repented not, and after
scourging St. Catherine with rods beheaded her with the sword, and so
having won the martyr's palm, she entered into the joy of her Lord.