Pulzone, Scipione

Scipione Pulzone, also called Il Gaetano, (born c. 1550, Gaeta, near Naples [Italy]—died Feb. 1, 1598, Rome, Papal States), Italian Renaissance painter whose early work typified the 16th-century International style.

Although little is known of Pulzone’s personal life, it is believed that he was a pupil of Jacopino del Conte. In his painting of the “Assumption of the Virgin” (1585; Rome), Pulzone displayed references to pre-Mannerist, Venetian, and Sienese traditions in his style of religious figuration. The artist painted many of the aristocracy and clerics of Rome. The “Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese” (National Gallery, Rome) and “Portrait of a Cavalier” (Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome) are characteristic of his work.