Biography

Bartolomeo di Segnolo Caporali (also Caporale) was an Italian painter mainly active in Perugia. He seems to have been working as a painter in Perugia by 1442 but is first documented on 24 December 1454, when he received payment for a Pietà and a Maestà (both untraced) executed for the shoemakers' guild in Perugia. In 1457-58 he was treasurer of the painters' guild, and in 1462 he was elected a civic prior for March and April. On 6 May 1467 he received payment, in Rome, for gilding the ceiling of San Marco. On 18 July of the same year he and Benedetto Bonfigli were paid by the merchant Lancillotto di Ludovico to execute a panel for the chapel of San Vincenzo in San Domenico, Perugia (untraced), and on 14 July the following year they received the balance due for their finished work. Fra Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli profoundly influenced his work.

He was the ancestor of a large painter dynasty: he was the father of Giovanni Battista Caporali, who was also a painter, influenced by Perugino and Pinturicchio. Bartolomeo's brother, Giacomo Caporali (called Giapeco) was a miniaturist.