Bramante acquired his early expertise as a painter and designer in Urbino, where he would have become familiar with the splendid court and flourishing artistic community centred around Count (later Duke) Federigo da Montefeltro. His career as a painter and master of perspective must have been greatly stimulated by the work of Piero della Francesca.

In Milan, the room decorations for the Casa Panigarola-Prinetti (1480s; substantial fragments in Milan, Brera) are attributed to him. This consists of a series of niches that hold standing figures bearing arms, and a panel, formerly above the portal, depicting the philosophers Heraclitus (in tears) and Democritus (laughing). The figure style, especially the linear quality of the drapery, is reminiscent of Mantegna. The most ambitious of Bramante's wall paintings is the so-called Argus (c. 1490-93) in the Cortile della Rocchetta of the Castello Sforzesco, Milan, which was painted for the Duke of Milan. The one panel painting usually thought to be by Bramante is the distinguished half-length Christ at the Column (c. 1490; Milan, Brera), which reveals some familiarity with Venetian art in the clarity and colouristic variation of the skin tones and perhaps also with Ferrarese art in the sinuosity of the contours.

Preview	Picture Data	File Info	Comment
	Argus 1490-92 Fresco Castello Sforzesco, Milan	900*1200 True Color 253 Kb
	Argus (detail) 1490-92 Fresco Castello Sforzesco, Milan	1050*888 True Color 249 Kb
	Christ at the Column c. 1490 Tempera on panel, 93 x 62 cm Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan	700*1066 True Color 115 Kb
	Man with a Halbard (detail) c. 1481 Fresco transferred to canvas Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan	904*823 True Color 161 Kb
	Man with a Broadsword c. 1481 Fresco transferred to canvas, 285 x 127 cm Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan	551*1230 True Color 126 Kb
	Man-at-Arms c. 1481 Fresco transferred to canvas, 90 x 113 cm Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan	953*804 True Color 148 Kb
	Heraclitus and Democritus 1477 Fresco transferred to canvas Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan	1030*786 True Color 178 Kb
	St. Christopher with the Infant Jesus c. 1490 Silverpoint, heightened with white, on light grey prepared paper, 308 x 190 mm Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen	976*1500 True Color 169 Kb