PINTURICCHIO
(b. ca. 1454, Perugia, d. 1513, Siena)

View of the Piccolomini Library

1502-08
Fresco
Piccolomini Library, Duomo, Siena

The picture shows the view from the window wall of the entry wall with the scenes of the presentation of Frederick III to Eleonora of Portugal and Enea Silvio Piccolomini being elevated to cardinal.

Even before he built the library, Cardinal Francesco Todeschini-Piccolomini had acquired the collection of antiquities that had belonged to Prospero Colonna in Rome. One of the highlights of the collection was the famous marble group of the Three Graces. The cardinal later moved the group to the library in Siena.