BIAGIO. | BENEDETTO. | BERNARDINO, Painter, called Il Pintoricchio, _b. circa_ 1454; _d._ 1513; _m._ Grania, daughter of Niccolò of Modena or Bologna | +-----------+---------+----------+-------------+----------+ | | | | | | GIULIO CAMILLO, FAUSTINA EGIDIA, FAUSTINA, ADRIANA, CESARE, _b._ 1509 GIROLAMA, or GILIA, _m._ _d._ 1519; _b._ 1506 in Siena. _b._ 1510 _m._ Filippodi _m._ in Siena. in Siena. Girolamo di Guiseppe di Paolo, Paolo da a Perugian, of Giovanni called Il Deruta. of Paffo, Perugia soldier of the Piazza in Siena. (From MILANESI'S _Appendix to Vasari_.) PINTORICCHIO CHAPTER I BIOGRAPHICAL Pintoricchio is not one of the most famous painters of the Italian Renaissance, and perhaps no painter who has left us such a mass of work, and work of such interest, has attracted so little criticism and inquiry. From the time of Vasari's slighting biography onwards, he has been included among minor painters and passed over with very superficial examination. No separate life of him in English exists, no attempt has been made to consider his work in anything like exhaustive detail, or to define his charm. It would be idle to claim for him a place in the first rank: some may question his right to stand in the second; in some of the greatest essentials he will not pass muster--yet charm he does possess, qualities whose fascination draws those who are open to it back to him again and again with fresh pleasure; and for this, and because he presents us with so true a type of the Umbrian painter of the Renaissance, it is worth while trying to unravel his history. Before we try to disentangle the origin of his art, before we compare his different periods and examine the paintings he has left us, we must make some attempt to arrive at his personality, to see the man as he was, to gain what clue we may, by this means, to the work in which his life was spent.