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

Portrait of a Boy

1485-1500
Oil and tempera on poplar, 50 x 36 cm
Gemäldegalerie, Dresden

Pinturicchio was a successful portraitist, and there are a large number of portraits attributed to him. In these portraits he lacked the poetry of Perugino's best works and the rigor and the genius of his fellow pupil, Raphael.

The sitter was formerly assumed to be the young Raphael.

Recently the attribution of this painting to an enigmatic painter called L'Ingegno (Andrea di Aloigi, or Andrea d'Assisi) has gained acceptance. A native of Assisi, he is said by biographer Giorgio Vasari to have been a fellow-pupil with Raphael under Perugino, and to have assisted the latter in the Collegio del Cambio at Perugia, at Assisi, and in the Sistine Chapel. Some figures of Moses Leaving to Egypt in the latter have been attributed to him. However, there are no signed or otherwise documented work by L'Ingegno, so any attribution to him remains uncertain.