PINTURICCHIO

When Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere, in 1481, began the decoration of the Sistine Chapel, Lorenzo the Magnificent "lent" to the Pope the best Florentine painters: Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Cosimo Roselli, Luca Signorelli, who moved to Rome with their aides, joining Pietro Perugino waiting for them with his best assistant: Pinturicchio.

Completed the frescoes around 1483, the great artists returned to their own homes, except for Pinturicchio, who remained “master” of Rome and after Bufalini Chapel, frescoed in Santa Maria in Aracoeli, he was charged, again by Pope Sixtus IV, to create frescoes at Santa Maria del Popolo.

Here Pinturicchio moved with his workshop to fresco the Chapel of the Nativity, Chapel Basso della Rovere, Chapel Costa and the vault of the Choir chapel, that today, due to the cumbersome baroque altar, you can see with some difficulty.

The dating of the various works is uncertain, but considered that the works in the Sistine Chapel were completed in 1483, it is thought that the frescoes in Santa Maria del Popolo were painted between 1484 and 1490.

The success of Pinturicchio in Rome was therefore due to Pope Sixtus IV Della Rovere, but it is remarkable that the most important of his works - the decoration of Alexander VI Borgia apartments - was commissioned by a Pope fiercely opposed by Della Rovere family.

Other works of Pinturicchio are exhibited at St. Augustine, St. Onofrio and in the Vatican Picture Gallery.

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