Beccafumi, Domenico (c. 1486-1551)

Italian painter and mosaicist. He became the leading exponent of Mannerism in Siena, his intense religious scenes crowded with slender, contorted figures and bathed in an eerie light. Among his best-known works are 35 biblical scenes in mosaic for the pavement of Siena Cathedral, and the painting The Birth of the Virgin (1543, Pinacoteca, Siena).

He was born in Siena, the son of a peasant named di Pace, but took the name of his patron, Lorenzo Beccafumi. His studies took place in Siena and Rome. Returning to Siena in 1512, he worked on the decoration of the facade of the Palazzo Borghese and produced a mosaic for the Church of San Bernardino in 1517. In 1541 he went to Genoa where he painted a fresco, now lost, for Andrea Doria, and then moved to Siena, where he spent the rest of his life.

He also produced some sculpture, such as the bronze angels for the cathedral (c. 1548). His decoration of the ceiling of the Palazzo Bindi Sergardi in Siena anticipated the erotic tendencies of 16th-century Mannerism.