\paperw19995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 Italian painter. \par
He was a follower of Piero della Francesca, whose works he studied in Urbino, where he also came into
contact with Flemish art. In 1477 in Rome, where he may already have been for several years, he painted the fresco in the Vatican Library, now detached, representing \i Sixtus IV Appointing Platina Librarian\i0 and set in the monumental space of a buil
ding in the classical style. In 1480 he decorated the apse of Santi Apostoli in Rome with a large fresco of the \i Ascension of Christ\i0 (now in the Quirinale) surrounded by \i Angels Playing Music\i0 (Vatican Art Gallery). With the help of assistants
, he then painted the frescoes in the cupola of the chapel of the Treasury in Loreto Basilica (1484), where he combined the lesson of Piero with the \i trompe-l'oeil\i0 perspective of Mantegna. There are very few of his panel paintings.
