Pinturicchio (or Pintoricchio) (c. 1454–1513)

Painter from Perugia. He produced fresco series for both the Borgia Apartments in the Vatican, painted in the 1490s, and in the Piccolomini Library of Siena Cathedral, 1503–08, illustrating the history of Pius II.

He went to Rome 1481 as one of Perugino's assistants in the decorating of the Sistine Chapel. He became very successful, his skill in large-scale narrative – pageants rich in detail and incident – proving popular with both church and nobility. An example of his work on a smaller scale is The Return of Odysseus (National Gallery, London).