Born to Giovan Battista Portinari and Domenica Torquato, Italian immigrants from Veneto, in a coffee plantation near Brodowski, in São Paulo, Portinari studied at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (ENBA) in Rio de Janeiro.
Richard Stanley Brodowski (born July 26, 1932) is a former starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played from 1952 through 1955 for the Boston Red Sox, Washington Senators, and Cleveland Indians.