True confession: this could rightfully be entitled "Artists *I* Should Know." All I'd ever retained--and that only vaguely--about Bernardino di Betto, a.k.a. Pinturicchio ("Little Painter"), was a comment by Giorgio Vasari in Lives of the Painters. I quote:

"Just as many are aided by Fortune without being endowed with great talent, so many men of talent are pursued by a hostile fortune. Thus she seems to adopt as her children those who depend upon her, without the aid of any ability, and is pleased that some should rise by her favor who would never have attracted notice by their own merits. Thus it was with Pinturicchio of Perugia, who, prolific as he was, and enjoying the assistance of others, nevertheless possessed a far higher reputation than his works warranted."

One of these days, I am going to get it through my thick skull that Vasari, master of snark, lord of subjective reporting and supreme ruler of misinformation, cannot be trusted. Here he took a perfectly fine painter and, with a few catty words, shredded Pinturicchio's reputation for the next 450 years. The more I researched (which is tough to do with Pinturicchio, thanks due again, I suspect, to Vasari) and let the works speak for themselves, the more clear it became that someone (*cough* Giorgio *cough*) had gotten his facts wrong back in the day.

Submitted for your approval, then, I offer you both a biography of Pinturicchio and a gallery of images from the current exhibition Pintoricchio in Umbria. I have grown to admire the Little Painter's phenomenal work ethic, enjoy his compositions and appreciate his influence on younger Umbrian contemporary Raphael. You may note a similar sweetness in the faces of these two artists' Madonnas.

Image credit:

Bernardino di Betto, called Pinturicchio
(Italian, ca. 1452-1513)
Self Portrait, detail from
The Annunciation, ca. 1500–01
Fresco
Baglioni Chapel, Santa Maria Maggiore, Spello