The Birth of the Virgin

religious

In 1518 a new project brought together three Sienese painters, Sodoma, Beccafumi and Girolamo del Pacchia. The new project was a scheme of fresco paintings to embellish the interior of a meeting room belonging to one of the city's oldest confraternities - the Confraternity of Santa Maria degli Angeli della Veste Nera (Saint Mary of the Angels and of the Black Robes). Founded in honour of the Virgin after 1450 the confraternity also adopted Bernardino as one of their saints, adding his name to the confraternity's title.

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About the Artist

Girolamo Del Pacchia

1477 – 1533

Italian painter, active in Siena, son of a metalsmith who specialized in weapons. His teacher was Giacomo Pacchiarotti from whom he took his name. By 1502 he and his master were Pinturicchio 's assistants, decorating the ceiling of the Piccolomini Library in the Cathedral of Siena. Pacchia absorbed the influences of many painters. Along with many other Sienese artists, he adopted Perugino 's classicizing style around 1510, when Perugino was painting frescoes in a chapel there. In 1518 Pacchia was painting frescoes for the church Sta Caterina under Domenico Beccafumi 's supervision. Those frescoes reveal a thicker, softer impasto, with softer, more velvety effects than his earlier, more hard-edged works. Pacchia's style changed little during the remaining years of his career. His most famous work is a fresco of the Nativity of the Virgin in the chapel of San Bernardino in Siena.

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