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GHIRLANDAJO, DOMENICO (1449-1494)
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See also:GHIRLANDAJO, DOMENICO (1449-1494) , Florentine painter. His full name is given as Domenico di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo Bigordi; it appears therefore that his See also:father's surname was Curradi, and his grandfather's Bigordi. The painter is generally termed Domenico Bigordi, but some authors give him, and apparently with See also:reason, the paternal surname Curradi. Ghirlandajo (See also:garland-maker) was only a See also:nickname, coming to Domenico from the employment of his father (or else of his earliest instructor), who was renowned for fashioning the metallic garlands worn by Florentine damsels; he was not, however, as some have said, the inventor of them. Tommaso was by vocation a jeweller on the See also:Ponte Vecchio, or perhaps a See also:broker. Domenico, the eldest of eight See also:children, was at first apprenticed to a jeweller or See also:goldsmith, probably enough his own father; in his See also:shop he was continually making portraits of the passers-by, and it was thought expedient to See also:place him with Alessio Baldovinetti to study See also:painting and See also:mosaic. His youthful years were, however, entirely undistinguished, and at the See also:age of See also:thirty-one he had not a fixed See also:abode of his own. This is remarkable, as immediately afterwards, from 148o onwards to his See also:death at a comparatively See also:early age in 1494, he became the most proficient painter of his See also:time, incessantly employed, and condensing intothat brief See also:period of fourteen years fully as large an amount of excellent See also:work as any other artist that could be named; indeed, we should properly say eleven years, for nothing of his is known of a later date than 1491.
In 1480 Ghirlandajo painted a " St See also:Jerome " and other frescoes in the See also: The landscape background, in especial, is very See also:superior to anything to be found in the See also:works, which had no doubt been zealously studied by Ghirlandajo, of See also:Masaccio and others in the Brancacci chapel. He also did some other works in Rome, now perished. Before 1485 he had likewise produced his frescoes in the chapel of S. Fina, in the Tuscan See also:town of S. Gimignano, remarkable for grandeur and See also:grace,—two pictures of Fina, dying and dead, with some See also:accessory work. See also:Sebastian 'Mainardi assisted him in these productions in Rome and in S. Gimignano; and Ghirlandajo was so well pleased with his co-operation that he gave him his See also:sister in See also:marriage, He now returned to Florence, and undertook in the church of the Trinita, and afterwards in S. Maria Novella, the works which have set the See also:seal on his celebrity. The frescoes in the Sassetti chapel of S. Trinita are six subjects from the life of St See also:Francis, along with some classical accessories, dated 1485. Three of the See also:principal incidents are " St Francis obtaining from Pope See also:Honorius the approval of the Rules of his See also:Order "; his " Death and See also:Obsequies," and the Resuscitation, by the inter-position of the beatified See also:saint, of a See also:child of the Spini See also:family, who had been killed by falling out of a window. In the first work is a portrait of Lorenzo de' See also:Medici; and in the third the painter's own likeness, which he introduced also into one of the pictures in S. Maria Novella, and in the " See also:Adoration of the Magi " in the See also:hospital of the Innocenti. The See also:altar-piece of the Sassetti chapel, the " Adoration of the Shepherds," is now in the Florentine See also:Academy. Immediately after disposing of this See also:commission, Ghirlandajo was asked to renew the frescoes in the See also:choir of S. Maria Novella. This choir formed the chapel of the See also:Ricci family, but the Tornabuoni and Tornaquinci families, then much more opulent than the Ricci, undertook the cost of the restoration, under conditions, as to preserving the arms of the Ricci, which gave rise in the end to some amusing incidents of litigation. The frescoes, in the See also:execution of which Domenico had many assistants, are in four courses along the three walls,—the leading subjects being the lives of the Madonna and of the Baptist. Besides their See also:general richness and dignity of See also:art, these works are particularly interesting as containing many See also:historical portraits—a method of treatment in which Ghirlandajo was pre-eminently skilled.
There are no less than twenty-one portraits of the Tornabuoni and Tornaquinci families; in the subject of the " See also:Angel appearing to See also:Zacharias," those of See also:Politian, Marsilio See also:Ficino and others; in the " Salutation of See also:Anna and See also: The mosaics which he produced date before 1491; one, of especial celebrity, is the " See also:Annunciation," on a portal of the See also:cathedral of Florence. In general See also:artistic attainment Ghirlandajo may fairly be regarded as exceeding all his precursors or competitors; though the names of a few, particularly .See also:Giotto, Masaccio, Lippo See also:Lippi and See also:Botticelli, stand higher for originating See also:power. His See also:scheme of See also:composition is See also:grand and decorous; his See also:chiaroscuro excellent, and especially his perspectives, which he would design on a very elaborate See also:scale by the See also:eye alone; his colour is more open to See also:criticism, but this remark applies much less to the frescoes than the tempera-pictures, which are sometimes too broadly and crudely See also:bright. He worked in these two methods alone—never in See also:oils; and his frescoes are what the Italians See also:term " buon fresco," without any See also:finishing in tempera. A certain hardness of outline, not unlike the character of See also:bronze See also:sculpture, may attest his early training in See also:metal work. He first introduced into Florentine art that mixture of the sacred and the profane which had already been practised in See also:Siena. His types in figures of Christ, the Virgin and angels are not of the highest order; and a defect of See also:drawing, which has been often pointed out, is the meagreness of his hands and feet. It was one of his See also:maxims that " painting is designing." Ghirlandajo was an insatiate worker, and expressed a wish that he had the entire See also:circuit of the walls of Florence to paint upon. He told his shop-assistants not to refuse any commission that might offer, were it even for a See also:lady's See also:petticoat-panniers: if they would not execute such work, he would. Not that he was in any way grasping or sordid in See also:money-matters, as is proved by the See also:anecdote of the readiness with which he gave up a See also:bonus upon the stipulated See also:price of the Ricci chapel frescoes, offered by the wealthy Tornabuoni in the first instance, but afterwards begrudged. Vasari says that Ghirlandajo was the first to abandon in See also:great See also:part the use of See also:gilding in his pictures, representing by genuine painting any See also:objects supposed to be gilded; yet this does not hold See also:good without some considerable exceptions—the high See also:lights of the landscape, for instance, in the " Adoration of the Shepherds," now in the Florence Academy, being put in in See also:gold. Many drawings and sketches by this painter are in the Uffizi gallery, remarkable for vigour of outline. One of the great glories of Ghirlandajo is that he gave some early art-See also:education to See also:Michelangelo, who cannot, however, have remained with him See also:long. F. Granacci was another of his pupils. This renowned artist died of pestilential See also:fever on the rrth of See also:January 1494, and was buried in S. Maria Novella. He had been twice married, and See also:left six children, three of them being sons. He had a long and See also:honourable See also:line of descendants, which came to a See also:close in the 17th See also:century, when the last members of the See also:race entered monasteries. It is probable that Domenico died poor; he appears to have been See also:gentle, honourable and conscientious, as well as energetically diligent. The See also:biography of Ghirlandajo is carefully worked out in See also:Crowe and Cavalcaselle's See also:book. A See also:recent See also:German work on the subject is that of See also:Ernst Steinmann (1897). See also Codex Escurialensis, ein Skizzenbuch aus der Weskstatt Domenico Ghirlandaios (texts and plates), by Chr. Hi lsen, Adolf See also:Michaelis and See also:Hermann See also:Egger in the Sondesschriften See also:des ostem archdol. Instituts in Wien (2 vols., 1906), and cf. T. See also:Ashby in Classical Quarterly (See also:April 1909). (W. M. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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