Pinturicchio

Born Bernardino di Betto in 1454, he worked under a string of names before the diminutive stuck: Pinturicchio, the little painter, a reference not to his talent but his height. He signed it on canvases anyway, claiming it. His output spanned the turn into the sixteenth century, frescoes and panels produced steadily until his death in 1513. The nickname outlasted everything else—including, eventually, his given name.