His main influences were the serene and sometimes unnatural quietist classicism of Piero della Francesca, Leonardo da Vinci, and Ercole de' Roberti, but his works also display a sometimes disquieting immobile expressiveness comparable only to the last of these three.

An artist long known as the pseudo-Bramantino was active in Naples in the early 16th century;[4] he is now usually identified as a Spaniard, called Pedro Fernández, Piero Francione, or various other names.

Donato Bramante taught Bramantino architecture, and the pupil assisted the master in the execution of the interior of the church of Santa Maria presso San Satiro, Milan.

In addition to the impassive, emotion-dry classicism, and the symmetric geometric logic of purity,[8] this figure is notable for the imaginative cut-away of the building revealing a fanciful mountain backdrop.

The figures, even when trying to betray emotion, appear vacant, distant, "automata" confined as pawns to a geometric exercise, something in common with Piero della Francesca's earlier works.