Today we think of Italy as one united country. For that reason it is
difficult for many of us to realize the Italy of Melozzo da Forlì's
(mel-ot´-so day for-lee´) time. Then there was no union--practically
no Italy. The country was rent by the strivings of many tiny
principalities, each jealous of the other, each trying to outdo the
other, each quick to seize an opportunity to work its neighbor harm.
Every one of the petty princes was seeking to beautify his capital
city, to have his court outshine those of his rivals. If he desired
to be known as a patron of art and letters, poets, architects, and
philosophers were invited to associate themselves with him. Artists,
like the scholars, had to rely on the favor of such princes for their
living.
In later years the introduction of oil painting made easy the sending
of a panel or a canvas as the gift of one lord to another. But before
that time, instead of sending the painter's work, it would have been
necessary to send the painter; for most of the work was done in another
way. In fresco painting the artist was obliged to work directly on
the wall on which the picture was to be seen when finished. Often he
himself applied the wet plaster, and after smoothing it laid on the
color. He had to work rapidly; for when the plaster had dried every
addition or correction showed.
But before becoming sufficiently generous to give away their artist's
work most of the nobles first employed their artists to decorate their
own chapels or palaces for them. It was under the patronage of one of
the cardinals, a nephew of Pope Pius IV, that Melozzo da Forlì painted
his angels. Pius IV did not wish to be behind his neighbors in the
encouragement of the fine arts. He wanted Rome to be the finest city in
the world, and set about making it so. Those who wished to please him
were not slow to follow his leading.
The angels reproduced in The Mentor are but a portion of the entire
fresco, which showed the Ascension of Christ, and formerly decorated
the dome of the Church of the Apostles at Rome. These fragments escaped
destruction when the church was reconstructed in 1711. They are now in
the Sacristy of Saint Peter's.
Almost nothing is known of the life of Melozzo. We should not have
known when he was born if his epitaph had not recorded his age. His
name indicates that he came from Forlì, a small town not far from
Ravenna. His fame rests almost entirely on these fragments; but so well
were they done that they give this man high rank among the artists of
Italy.
[Illustration: ANGEL CHOIR, BY BENOZZO GOZZOLI]
_Benozzo Gozzoli_