PINTO, George Frederick, a musician, was born at

Lambeth, September 25th, 1785, and was remarkable for an unusual share of beauty. His father, Thomas Pinto, a celebrated performer on the violin, died young, and his mother immediately retrenched every expense that might interfere with the education of her child, who early indicated so uncommon a genius for music that she resolved to cultivate this natural talent. While yet an infant he sang with great taste, and upon the repetition of an air would add some elegant grace of his own. When listening to a full band he betrayed the liveliest emotions of delight. A violin master was procured for him, under whom he made a rapid progress, and became a concerto player at a very early period. When eight years of age he was supposed to surpass his master on the violin; it was therefore judged necessary to obtain one of superior abilities. This led to his introduction to Mr. Saloman, who perceiving the child's talent, consented to instruct him, and without the slightest remuneration; adding the useful admonitions of a man of the world, and the invaluable advice of an experienced professor. After he had been some time under the instruction of this worthy man his name became more celebrated, and his master introduced him to concerts given by people of the first distinction, amongst whom he gained many friends. His mother being now of opinion that he should not depend upon one instrument only for support, had him taught the pianoforte—a knowledge of which is absolutely necessary to a composer, and which would enable him to give lessons. This became his favourite instrument: the proficiency he made at it is well known to the musical world. After performing at private concerts for some time, he was at twelve years of age engaged to play concertos on the violin at Covent Garden theatre, which considerably increased his reputation. At the age of sixteen he produced his first compositions, consisting of lessons and sonatas for the pianoforte. Many of these works are very elegant—full of pathos, invention, and science. He also published several canzonets, all of which had a rapid sale. In July, 1805, he went to Birmingham to perform at a benefit concert. Sleeping there on a damp bed he caught cold, which terminated in his death on the 23d of March, 1806. He lies at St. Margaret's, Westminster, beneath the same stone which covers his grandmother, Mrs. Pinto, once the celebrated Miss Brent, who loved him as her own son. As a performer on the pianoforte few exceeded him in taste, precision, and brilliancy. But he most excelled on the violin, on which instrument he could best express his fine enthusiastic feelings. Saloman observed of him that had he lived England would have had the honour of producing a second Mozart.—E. F. R. PINTO, Hector, a learned Portuguese divine in the sixteenth century. He was educated at Coimbra and Salamanca, and was afterwards professor of divinity in the university of Coimbra. After the defeat and death of King Sebastian in Africa, Pinto espoused the cause of the house of Braganza, and was confined by Philip II. of Spain in a monastery near Toledo, where he died in 1584. He wrote commentaries on Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Nahum; also "A Picture of the Christian Life," which has been translated into French and Italian, and repeatedly republished.—F. M. W. PINTURICCHIO, Bernardino, called also Bernardino di Betto, was born at Perugia in 1454, and is one of the most distinguished of the Umbrian painters. Whether the pupil of Niccolo Alunno or of Pietro Perugino is not known, but he was the assistant of the latter painter, worked completely in his style, and in some respects surpassed him. He early distinguished himself in Rome, in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, for which he painted the vault of the Tribune, very rich in ornament. In 1502 Pinturicchio was employed on his great work, the painting of the library of the cathedral of Siena, for the Cardinal Piccolomini, afterwards Pope Pius III. Here he executed ten large frescoes from the life of Enea Silvio Piccolomini, afterwards Pius II., in which he employed the young Raphael as his assistant, owing to which circumstance, till quite lately, the chief merit of these really good works has been unjustly attributed to Raphael. The aid of Raphael seems to have been confined to the preparation of some of the cartoons; the frescoes were not completed until 1509, years after Raphael left Siena. Though a clever painter and original observer, Pinturicchio never entered into the spirit of the cinquecento, and he is said latterly, like Perugino, to have neglected his work, painting rather for money than for credit; he also trusted too much to pupils. He was a good landscape painter for his time, to which class of art he was one of the first to pay any great attention. He was an eccentric character seemingly, and he failed to preserve the affection of his wife Crania, if he ever had it. She consigned him to a terrible death. She locked him up in his house at Siena alone, during an illness, and there left him to starve to death, December the 11th, 1513. Many of his works are still preserved at Rome and elsewhere. In the cathedral at Spello is his own portrait signed "Bernardinus Pictoricius Perujinus, 1501." His father's name was Benedetto; Pinturicchio is simply a nickname signifying the "little painter."—(See Vasari, Vite, &c.; and Rumohr, Italienische Forschungen; also, the life of the painter by G. B. Vermiglioli, Di Bernardino Pinturicchio Pittore Perugino de' Secoli xv., xvi., &c., 8vo, Perugia, 1837.)—R. N. W. PINZON, Martin Alonzo, the eldest of three brothers who assisted Columbus in fitting out his first expedition, two of them commanding two of the three vessels of which it consisted. Martin Alonzo, becoming impatient of the authority of the admiral, parted company with him during a storm, and sailed in search of a region to the eastward abounding in gold, but rejoined his companions at Hispaniola. During the voyage home he was again separated, but arrived at Palos on the same day as his chief, and it is said died of mortification at the rebuke administered to him by the sovereigns for his desertion.—F. M. W. PINZON, Vincente Yanez, brother of the above, who commanded one of the vessels in Columbus' first voyage. In 1499 he fitted out an expedition under license from the crown. He was the first European that crossed the equinoctial line, and this voyage was signalized by the discovery of Brazil, and of the river Amazon. On his return he lost two of his vessels among the Bahama islands. He received a royal license to colonize the lands he had discovered, but never availed himself of it. In 1506 he undertook a voyage in company with Juan Diaz de Solis in search of a strait which Columbus supposed to exist, leading from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and in 1508 another with the same object. The family of the Pinzons were ennobled by Charles V., and their descendants still occupy the ancestral estates at Moguer, near Palos, in Andalusia.—F. M. W. PIOMBO, Sebastiano del (Sebastiano Luciani), commonly known as Frate del Piombo from his office of keeper of the pope's leaden seals, was born in Venice in 1485. He was originally a musician, but influenced by the works of John Bellini and Giorgione, was led to follow painting as his profession, and he studied under both of those masters. About 1512 he was invited by Agostino Chigi to Rome, to aid in the decoration of his villa on the Tiber, afterwards known as the Farnesina. At Rome he made the friendship of Michelangelo, who has the credit of putting Fra Sebastiano forward as a worthy rival of Raphael. In 1519 he painted his masterpiece, the large picture of the "Raising of Lazarus," now in the National gallery. It was completed for Giulio de' Medici, then bishop of Narbonne, and afterwards Pope Clement VII.; and this picture was sent to Narbonne in the place of the Transfiguration by Raphael, which had been originally destined for the cathedral there. The Lazarus is supposed to have teen painted from a design by Michelangelo, probably one of his several attempts at showing the original position of the figure, of which there is a grand fragment known as the Torso of Apollonius. Michelangelo can have had nothing to do with the painting of the picture, as he left Rome shortly after Sebastiano commenced it, and did not return until years after it was completed, from 1513 to 1525. Clement VII. made Sebastiano Frate del Piombo, an office he held until his death in 1547; and after he enjoyed the emoluments of this office he became very idle. He was a fine colourist and an excellent portrait painter. His picture of Andrea Doria in the Doria palace at Rome is a grand example of portraiture. Federici supposes Fra Sebastiano to have been the Fra Marco Pensaben who executed some good works at Treviso, but there are important facts against the supposition.—(Vasari.)—R. N. W. PIOZZI, Hester Lynch, the "Mrs Thrale" and "Thralia" of Dr. Johnson, was born at Bodvel in Carnarvonshire in 1740. She was the only child of John Salusbury, Esq. of Bachycraig, Flintshire, and of Hester Maria, daughter of Sir Thomas Cotton, Bart., of Combermere, Cheshire. Clever, lively, well-educated, and piquant, if not pretty. Miss Salusbury captivated Mr. Thrale, the wealthy London brewer, and was married to him in 1763. Two years afterwards the Thrales became acquainted with Dr. Johnson; the acquaintance quickly ripened into friend-