_Benozzo Gozzoli_ (Florentine: 1420-1498).
Benozzo Gozzoli was the favourite pupil of the "angelical
painter," Fra Angelico. From him Benozzo borrowed the devotion
in his pictures, the bent of his own mind being altogether
different. It must be remembered that "in nearly all the great
periods of art the choice of subject has not been left to the
painter; ... and his own personal feelings are ascertainable
only by watching, in the themes assigned to him, what are
the points in which he seems to take most pleasure. Thus in
the prolonged ranges of varied subjects with which Benozzo
Gozzoli decorated the cloisters of Pisa, it is easy to see
that love of simple domestic incident, sweet landscape, and
glittering ornament, prevails slightly over the solemn elements
of religious feeling, which, nevertheless, the spirit of the
age instilled into him in such measure as to form a very lovely
and noble mind, though still one of the second order" (_Modern
Painters_, vol. iii. pt. iv. ch. iii. § 8). The earlier works
of Benozzo are entirely in Fra Angelico's manner. His later
style (of which an example may be seen in No. 591) presents
the greatest contrast to that master; for Benozzo is "the
first of all the Florentine painters who seem to have been
smitten with the beauty of the natural world and its various
appearances. His later pictures overflow with the delighted
sense of this beauty. He was the first to create rich landscape
backgrounds, with cities, villas, and trees, rivers, and
richly-cultivated valleys, bold rocks and hills. He displays
the richest fancy for architectural forms,--open porticoes,
elegant arcades, and balconies. In the representation of the
human figure, we find gaiety and whim, feeling and dignity, in
the happiest combination" (Layard). Like other painters of the
time Benozzo began his career as a worker in metal, and his
name is found amongst the artificers who assisted Ghiberti in
making the celebrated gates for the Baptistery at Florence.
He next entered the school of Fra Angelico, accompanying his
master to Rome and Orvieto. In 1459 he was employed to decorate
the walls of the small chapel in the Medici, now Riccardi
Palace, and here he first gave rein to his own fancies. Copies
from these frescoes are included in the Arundel Society's
collection, as well as from those in the church of S. Agostino
at S. Gimignano, where Benozzo was next employed. The chief
work of his life was, however, the painting of the Campo Santo
at Pisa. This occupied him from 1469-1485. Twenty-one of the
frescoes were by his own hand. They are much injured; for
"when any dignitary of Pisa was to be buried, they peeled off
some Benozzo Gozzoli and put up a nice new tablet to the new
defunct" (_Praeterita_, vol. ii. ch. vi., where Ruskin gives
a charming account of happy days spent in copying Benozzo's
work). These frescoes are remarkable for their wealth of fancy
and picturesque detail. The Pisans themselves were so well
pleased that they presented the painter in 1478 with a tomb,
that his body might repose amidst the great works of his life.
He died at Pisa twenty years later.
This was a picture painted very much to order. The figure of the Virgin
was specially directed--so it appears from the original contract,
dated 1461, still in existence--to be made similar in mode, form, and
ornaments to one by Fra Angelico, now in the Florentine Academy, and
it was also stipulated that "the said Benozzo shall at his own cost
diligently gild the said panel throughout, both as regards figures and
ornaments." The prices paid for such commissions in those days may be
judged from the fact that in the case of his great frescoes at Pisa,
Benozzo contracted to paint three a year for 10 ducats each (= say
£100). As for Benozzo's own personal feelings, it is easy to see with
what pleasure he put in the pretty flowers in the foreground for St.
Francis, and the sweet-faced angels behind the throne, and with what
gusto he shot the gold in their draperies. The figure on our extreme
left is St. Zenobius. His embroidered cope is very rich. The details of
needlework in the picture will well repay careful study. Compared with
all this, the kneeling St. Jerome and St. Francis and the other saints
appear somewhat perfunctory. Notice, too, the bright goldfinches on the
alabaster steps, introduced, we may suppose, in honour of
Sweet St. Francis of Assisi, would that he were here again!
He that in his Catholic wholeness used to call the very flowers
Sisters, brothers--and the beasts--whose pains are hardly less
than ours!