BERNARDINO, an eminent Italian painter, was born at Perugia in 1454, and studied under Pietro Perugino. His success in art was very considerable. With the occasional aid, as it is supposed, of his friend and fellow-pupil Raphael, he contrived to design naturally and to execute gracefully. The liveliness of his faces, and the magnificence of his architecture, in spite of a vicious habit of gilding his ornaments, completed the general effect, and made his pictures striking and popular. In course of time, popes, cardinals, and other ecclesiastics noticed him, and entrusted him with several important commissions. He was employed to decorate many churches, and other edifices, both at home and throughout Italy. At length he attained the summit of his excellence in the cartoon at Siena, which represents the most memorable events in the life of Pius II., and in the great work at Spello, which consists of pictures of "The Annunciation," "The Nativity," and the "Dispute with the Doctors." Notwithstanding such a fortunate career, Penturicchio is said to have come to a wretched end at Siena in 1513. According to Vasari, he died of chagrin at having narrowly missed an opportunity of discovering a quantity of gold pieces. Another account states that his wife left him on a sick-bed to perish by hunger. (See Vasari's Lives of Painters, &c., and Lanzi's History of Painting in Italy.)