Tuscan artist Luca Signorelli, associated by the 1470s with Piero della Francesca, from whom he learned perspective, and deeply influenced by the anatomical studies of Antonio Pollaiuolo, also employs the mythological iconography of Pollaiuolo and Sandro Botticelli.

Such paintings as his School of Pan, painted around 1488 (destroyed in Berlin by Allied bombs in 1945) correspond to Pollaiuolo's experiments in depicting human motion.

Signorelli's fresco decorations rank among the finest of such paintings made in central Italy in the 1480s and 1490s, displaying the artist’s commitment to the goal of scientifically rationalizing space and the human figure.

He was born Luca d'Egidio di Ventura in Cortona, Tuscany (some sources call him Luca da Cortona).

The precise date of his birth is uncertain; birth dates of 1441–1445 are proposed.

He is considered to be part of the Tuscan school, although he also works extensively in Umbria and Rome.

His first impressions of art seem to be due to Perugia—the style of Benedetto Bonfigli, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo and Pinturicchio.

Lazzaro Vasari, the great-grandfather of art historian Giorgio Vasari, was brother to Luca's mother; according to Giorgio Vasari he got Luca apprenticed to Piero della Francesca.

In 1472 the young man was painting at Arezzo, and in 1474 at Città di Castello.

He is known to have presented to Lorenzo de' Medici a picture that is probably the one named the School of Pan.