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Enea Piccolomini Leaves for the Council of Basel (detail)
Fresco by Pinturicchio, Piccolomini Library, Duomo, Siena, Italy, 1502-08
PINTURICCHIO (Bernardo di Betto)
(b. ca. 1454, Perugia, d. 1513, Siena)
No. 1: Enea Piccolomini Leaves for the Council of Basel (detail)
1502-08
Fresco
Piccolomini Library, Duomo, Siena
In contrast to Perugino, the mature Pinturicchio seems to have gained artistic strength rather than losing it, and his frescoes in the grandiose Piccolomini Library in Siena are masterpieces in his personal style. The narratives deal with the life of the Piccolomini family's first pope, Pius II. Here the future Pope, Aeneas Silvius, is shown as a young man setting out for Basel. The preparatory drawing is often regarded as by Raphael, indicating the possibility of a rather remarkable collaboration.
In the fresco the elegant manner of Pinturicchio's style is especially discernible in the central figure, that of the youthful Aeneas Silvius, heroically set upon a white horse placed obliquely in space. The lad turns sharply to face the spectator. His refined features and modish garments and the delicate hound, highbred and quivering, reflect a set of choices that can be traced back to artists like Pisanello and Sassetta in the previous generation.
Source: Web Gallery of Art