The Italian painter Luca Signorelli (ca. 1445-1523) anticipated the style of the High Renaissance. His masterpiece is the fresco cycle in Orvieto Cathedral.

Luca Signorelli was born in Cortona. According to Giorgio Vasari, who claimed a kinship with him that has since been disproved, Signorelli was born in 1441, but scholars now doubt Vasari, and a birth date in the late 1440s is most commonly accepted.

The earliest mention of Signorelli is in 1470, and after that his life is well documented. For instance, he served in a variety of official municipal offices in Cortona, was on a committee to judge projects for the facade of the Cathedral in Florence, and once borrowed money from Michelangelo, who complained that Signorelli was slow in repaying the loan. According to Vasari, Signorelli was widely admired throughout Italy. He reported that Signorelli lived more like a gentleman than an artist, dressing in fine...