_Benozzo Gozzoli_ (Florentine: 1420-1498). _See_ 283.
_See also_ (p. xix)
The earliest picture in the Gallery which was painted for domestic
pleasure, not religious service. One of the earliest also in which a
classical subject is attempted. It probably formed the end of a coffer
or _cassone_,[152] such as were often given for wedding presents, and
was no doubt a commission to the artist for that purpose. Hence the
choice of subject (which has been variously given as the Rape of Helen
and the Rape of the Venetian Brides), and the (surely intentional)
comic extravagance of the drawing: the bridegroom takes giant's strides
in lover's eagerness, and the ships scud along with love to speed them.
The ludicrous unreality of the rocks and trees, contrasted with the
beautifully painted flowers of the foreground, is very characteristic
of the art of the time (_cf._ 283 and 582). Rocks, trees, and water are
all purely "conventional" still; and "the most satisfactory work of the
period is that which most resembles missal painting, that is to say,
which is fullest of beautiful flowers and animals scattered among the
landscape, in the old independent way, like the birds upon a screen.
The landscape of Benozzo Gozzoli is exquisitely rich in incident of
this kind" (Edinburgh _Lectures on Architecture and Painting_, ch.
iii.).