Bufalini Chapel

The paintings on the vault were the first to be completed. They depict the four Evangelists, within four bright oval almonds, according to a layout inspired by Perugino. The Evangelists' postures were carefully studied and are more lively than those by Perugino.[3]

The Glory of St. Bernardino.

The central wall is decorated with the Glory of St. Bernardino, on two levels as was the lost Assumption by Perugino. The lower section portrays Bernardino on a rock, with open arms, surmounted by two angels crowning him. He is flanked by the saints Augustine and Antony of Padua, while in the background is a landscape inspired by those of Umbria. The upper sector depicts a blessing Christ within an almond, with angels and musicians.[6]

This fresco shows a more lively composition than Perugino's, both in the figures and the rocks in the landscape, which do not follow a symmetrical pattern and are spatially deeper.[6] Bernardino holds a book on which is written PATER MANIFESTAVI NOMEN TVVM OMNIBVS ("Father, I have shown your name to everyone"), the words the friars were chanting as Bernardino passed away on Ascension eve, 1444.

Under the previous scenes is a monochrome band, today only partially readable: It originally housed blind niches and reliefs, of which one remains today with a military procession with prisoners and satyrs. It is one of the first examples of the taste for antiquities which was becoming widespread in Rome at the time, and which was used also by Filippino Lippi in the Carafa Chapel in Santa Maria sopra Minerva.[6]

For the right wall, which features a double mullioned window, Pinturicchio adopted an illusionistic perspective, painting two fake symmetrical windows, one with a blessing Eternal Father and one with a dove, an early Christian symbol of eternal life. The wall contains also two scenes with episodes of the life of St. Francis of Assisi: The first is the Renunciation to the Patrimony, characterized by an oblique perspective, which takes advantage of the piers of the arches, having a grotesque decoration; the second depicts St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata, featuring in the background a view of the Verna Sanctuary over a rocky peak. Under the real window is an illusory opening with five characters: among them is an aged friar, perhaps the convent's prior, and a lay figure that resembles him, perhaps an administrator of the basilica.[6]

The Funerals of St. Bernardino. Riccomanno Bufalini is depicted standing on the left, next to St. Bernardino.

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The left wall comprises two scenes organized vertically, divided by a painted frieze. The upper lunette shows the romitaggio (hermitage) of the young Bernardino; below are the Funerals of Bernardino, set in an urban scene with a chessboard-like pavement, painted using geometrical perspective. The latter has its vanishing point in an edifice with central plan, taken from Perugino's Delivery of the Keys. Pinturicchio, however, departed from that model by using two buildings of different heights at the sides. On the left is a loggiato, supported by piers decorated with fanciful gilded candelabra. On the right is a cubic building connected through a double loggia to the landscape and the bright sky in the background.[6]

The foreground depicts the saints' funerals. Bernardino lies on a catafalque, which, thanks to its oblique perspective, increases the depth of the scene and the interaction between the characters.[6] Friars, pilgrims and other common people are approaching the corpse to pay homage; on the sides are two richly dressed characters, identified as Riccomanno Bufalini (on the left, with a fur-lined hood and the gloves) and a member of his family.[6] The remaining characters are used to portray a series of miracles attributed to Bernardino during his life: the healing of a blind man(who hints at his eyes), the resurrection of someone possessed, the healing of a dead newborn, the healing of Lorenzo di Niccolò da Prato, wounded by a bull, and the pacification of the Umbrian families.[6]

In the fresco, Perugino's influence on Pinturicchio is manifest:[7] the Umbrian-Perugian perspective rationality, the variety of types and attitudes of the characters, inspired by Florentine painters such as Benozzo Gozzoli or Domenico Ghirlandaio, the striking appearance of the poor pilgrims and beggars, derived from Flemish painting.[6] The candelabra grotesque decoration is inspired by contemporary examples discovered at Rome in the Domus Aurea. These elements are contained in one of the few drawings certainly attributable to Pinturicchio, housed in the Kupferstichkabinett of Berlin (n. 5192). In his later works, the quality of Pinturicchio's decorative elements would fall due to the increasing use of assistants.[6]