[Born at Cortona, in Tuscany, 1440. Died 1521. Aged 81.]
An ancestor of Vasari, the author of “Lives of the Painters,” and a
distinguished painter of the early Tuscan school. Assisted in the works
of the Sistine Chapel at Rome; and his pictures there, according to
Vasari, are superior to those of his contemporaries. His great frescos
in the Cathedral of Orvieto, representing the Day of Judgment and the
History of Antichrist, are his principal works. His productions show too
great anxiety to mark the form with anatomical correctness. In this he
was the precursor of Michael Angelo; and Fuseli has frequently imitated
him. As a man he was upright, sincere, and kind-hearted. He lived and
decorated himself with great splendour.
[By Pietro Pierantoni.]