b. 1477 Siena, Italy, d. after 1533 Siena, Italy
painter
Italian

Even though Giorgio Vasari mentioned Girolamo del Pacchia in his Lives of the Artists, scholars have only recently begun to separate Pacchia's work from that of his teacher Giacomo Pacchiarotti. Pacchia actually took Pacchiarotti's name, which has contributed to the confusion.

Pacchia was the son of a metalsmith who specialized in weapons. By 1502 he and Pacchiarotti were Pinturicchio's assistants, decorating the ceiling of a library in Siena's cathedral.

Throughout his career, Pacchia absorbed the influences of many painters. Along with many other Sienese artists, he adopted Perugino's classicizing style around 1510, when Perugino was painting frescoes in a chapel there. In 1518 Pacchia was painting frescoes for a church, under Domenico Beccafumi's supervision. Those frescoes reveal a thicker, softer impasto, with softer, more velvety effects than his earlier, more hard-edged works. Pacchia's style changed little during the remaining years of his career.