Il Pinturicchio

Pinturicchio - Ceiling decoration - 1492-94 - Fresco - Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican (click photo for larger image)Bernardino di Betto (Benedetto), (ca. 1454-1513) an Italian painter called II Pinturicchio, was, like Perugino, a native of the district around Perugia and consequently open to the artistic currents common to the Umbrian region. Pope Alexander VI (Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia) was elected pope in 1492. He entrusted the decoration of the rooms in his apartment (now known as the Borgia rooms) to Pinturicchio. The paintings, which were executed between 1492 and 1494, drew on a complex iconographical program that used themes from medieval encyclopedias, adding a semi-theological layer of meaning, and celebrating the supposedly divine origins of the Borgias. The rooms include: Room of the Sibyls, Room of the Creed, Room of the Liberal Arts, Room of the Saints, Room of the Faith. These frescoes are problematic in degree of workshop participation. For the vast enterprise, presumably done rapidly, the painter had a number of collaborators, although the overall style, the taste, and the program must have been Pinturicchio's responsibility. The busily elaborated ceilings, with ancient style motifs and numerous classical references, coupled with constant allusions to the Borgia, are definitely from Pinturicchio's hand.

The painting featured here shows a detail of the ceiling in the Sala dei Santi (Room of Saints). This section depicts the story of the Apis bull. The integration of this animal, venerated in ancient Egypt, into the decorative program of Alexander VI's private apartment served as a mythical explanation for the presence of the bull in the Borgia family coat-of-arms.