_Ridolfo Ghirlandajo_ (Florentine: 1483-1561).
Ridolfo Bigordi, called Ghirlandajo, was the son of Domenico
Ghirlandajo (see 1230), who gave him his first instruction in
art. On the death of Domenico, Ridolfo was taken charge of by
his uncle David, and perhaps received instruction also from
Domenico's favourite pupil, Granacci. In 1503 Leonardo da
Vinci came to Florence, and seems to have exercised a strong
influence on the young Ridolfo. To this Leonardine period of
our artist, the present picture, executed in 1505, belongs:
some of the heads (which are of great force and beauty) seem to
have been copied or imitated from Leonardo. To the same period
and influence Morelli ascribes the "Annunciation," No. 1288
in the Uffizi, there attributed to Leonardo himself, and the
"Portrait of a Goldsmith," similarly attributed in the Pitti.
In Ridolfo's works after 1506 the influence of Raphael is
discernible. Raphael was his fellow-student and contemporary,
and between the two congenial youths an ardent friendship,
Vasari tells us, sprang up. Raphael employed Ridolfo to fill
in part of the blue drapery of the "Belle Jardinière", and
invited him to Rome; but Ridolfo, "who had never, as the saying
is, 'lost sight of the cupola' (of the Duomo), and could in
no wise resolve on living out of Florence, would accept no
proposal which might compel him to abandon his abode in his
native place." At Florence Ridolfo found ample and congenial
employment, not only in the production of pictures, but in
artistic catering for the pageants of the Republic, and in
the service of the Medici. He did not disdain, says Vasari,
"to paint banners, standards, and matters of similar kind. He
was an exceedingly prompt and rapid painter in many kinds of
work, more particularly in the preparations for festivals; when
the Emperor Charles V. arrived in Florence, he constructed
a triumphal arch in ten days, and another arch at the gate
of Prato was erected by this artist in a very short space of
time, this work being constructed for the marriage of the most
Illustrious Lady the Duchess Leonora." Among his pictures,
the "St. Zenobio restoring a boy to life" and the burial
of the same saint, in the Uffizi, are considered Ridolfo's
masterpieces; they are remarkable for force of colour, and fine
modelling in the heads. Ridolfo employed a number of young
painters, and from this workshop issued many pictures which
were sold to England, Germany, and Spain. He lived to be nearly
eighty years old; and "though heavily afflicted with the gout,
he still bore much love," says Vasari, "to all connected with
art, and liked to hear of, and when he could to see, whatever
was most commended in the way of buildings, pictures, and other
works." He was buried with his forefathers in S. Maria Novella.
One of the pictures in the Gallery which are additionally interesting
from being mentioned and praised by Vasari--who, by the way, was
himself a friend of Ridolfo:
"In the Church of S. Gallo he depicted our Saviour Christ,
bearing his Cross and accompanied by a large body of soldiers;
the Madonna and the other Maries, weeping in bitter grief, are
also represented, with San Giovanni and Santa Veronica, who
presents the handkerchief to our Saviour; all these figures are
delineated with infinite force and animation.[225] This work,
in which there are many beautiful portraits from the life, and
which is executed with much love and care, caused Ridolfo to
acquire a great name; the portrait of his father is among the
heads, as are those of certain among his disciples, and of some
of his friends--Poggino, Scheggia, and Nunziata, for example,
the head of the latter being one of extraordinary beauty" (v.
5).
It is interesting in this connection to notice that the procession
to Calvary was one of the regulation subjects with mediæval painters
(see for a picture of it, some two hundred years earlier, 1189), and
familiarity bred contempt for the pathos of the scene; it became a
mere opportunity for variegated compositions, and curiously enough two
of the brightest pictures in the Gallery (this and 806) are of this
subject. For the story of St. Veronica see 687.