FRESCO PAINTINGS BY GOZZOLI AND PERUGINO
Benozzo Gozzoli (1420-97), the most celebrated pupil of Fra Angelico, is
seen at his best in his great decorative frescos which adorn the four
walls of a room in the Riccardi Palace in Florence. This room, which had
formerly been the Chapel of the Medici, has its walls completely painted
over with the processional subject, the “Journey of the Magi,” by
Gozzoli, when he was about forty years old. It is one of the best, if
not the best, preserved fresco paintings in Florence. The colouring is
very rich and warm in glowing tones, as in the case of all Gozzoli’s
work which has remained uninjured. The extremely rich effect is
considerably heightened by the free use of gold on the embroideries of
the principal figures, and on the horse-trappings. The work contains
many portraits of the principal people of the time, among which are
those of Cosimo de Medici, Lorenzo the Magnificent, and that of the
artist himself. The kings, in sumptuous apparel, are represented on
horseback, attended by lords, squires, retainers and servants, all
travelling slowly and with much solemnity, through a beautiful country.
A hunting party occupies the left wall, looking towards the window,
where some leopards and hawks, used for hunting, are admirably drawn and
painted. On the recessed wall surrounding the window the scene
represented is Paradise, or the Garden of Heaven, in which many angels
are in prayer, and others soaring in the clouds. The fine condition of
these frescos presents a great contrast to the decayed and almost
obliterated paintings executed by Gozzoli on the walls of the Campo
Santa at Pisa. Very little, indeed, except slight traces, now remains of
the latter paintings, but the cause of their decay is not far to seek.
It is true that all the paintings on the walls of the Campo Santa have
always been exposed to the open air, but the real cause of the
disintegration of the Gozzoli paintings in this place is from their
being painted in tempera, or fresco-secco, and not, as in the case of
the Riccardi frescos, in veritable or buon-fresco. The Campo Santa
frescos by Gozzoli represent scenes from the history of the Old
Testament, from the time of Noah to the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King
Solomon. They were painted between 1469 and 1485, when the artist was in
the zenith of his powers, and from what remains of them we can easily
imagine them to have been the finest of any works executed by this great
nature-loving artist. An Italian artist who was engaged in repairing the
more decayed
[Illustration: _Photo. Brogi._]
[_To face p. 53._
PLATE 20.--ANGELS. DETAIL FROM THE PARADISE
_Benozzo Gozzoli, Riccardi Palace, Florence_]
portions of Gozzoli’s wall paintings in the Campo Santa, in the summer
of 1908, informed the writer that nearly all the remaining colours on
these paintings were in a powdery state on the surface of the wall, and
could easily be dusted off. This rarely happens in the case of paintings
which have been executed in buon or veritable fresco, and there is doubt
that the chief cause of decay and of the faded appearance of many of the
old Italian frescos is due to the fact that they were either executed in
tempera, or in the fresco-secco method, or that they were begun in
buon-fresco and finished afterwards with glazings and opaque touches of
tempera colour. Many of Simon Memmi’s frescos in the Spanish Chapel, in
the Church of Santa Maria Novella at Florence, were repainted or
“restored” about one hundred years after his death, and Ruskin has
stated that some of the restorer’s over-painting has since fallen away,
revealing the very pure original work underneath.
Pietro Vanucci, better known as Pietro Perugino (1446-1524), was one of
the most important artists of the Umbrian school of painting, and was
Raffaelle’s early instructor. He painted many frescos in Florence, where
he lived and worked for about fourteen years, and where he acquired much
of the Florentine manner of design and painting. One of his most
important works in Florence is the great fresco of the “Crucifixion,”
with saints standing around the foot of the cross, which he painted in
three compartments on the wall of the chapter-house of the Church of St.
Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi, in the Via Colona. The design and pose of the
figures in this fresco are very characteristic of Perugino’s manner,
which may be seen in the upcast and wistful expression of the eyes, the
pose of the heads, and devout attitudes of his standing figures. The
illustrations of the two heads from this fresco, here given, are in the
above respects very typical of Perugino’s work; they also admirably show
his method of handling, as well as the brush-marks of the fresco. The
light touches in the beard and hair of the male head are later
reinforcements, but with this exception, the whole of the painting in
these heads is quite likely to be the genuine work of Perugino. Another
fresco in Florence, known as the “Cenacolo di Foligno,” is ascribed to
Perugino; it is in the refectory of the old convent of St. Onofrio, in
the Via Faenza.
This artist painted some important frescos in the Sistine Chapel of the
Vatican, at Rome, some of which are still in existence, namely, the
“Baptism of Christ,” and the “Delivery of the Keys to St. Peter.” It is
recorded that he had also painted a fresco on the wall at the back of
the altar in this chapel, but that it was destroyed in order to make way
for Michael Angelo’s “Last Judgment.” In those palmy days of great
artistic activity it was evident that some difficulty was experienced in
finding sufficient wall space on which the painters of
[Illustration: _Photo. Alinari._]
[_To face p. 54._
PLATE 21.--ST. BENEDICT, FROM THE CRUCIFIXION
_Perugino, Church of Sta. Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi_]
[Illustration: _Photo. Alinari._]
[_To face p. 53._
PLATE 22.--ST. JOHN, FROM THE CRUCIFIXION.
_Perugino, Church of Sta. Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi_]
that time might execute their numerous commissions, when, as we see,
masterpieces had to be destroyed to make room for still greater works.
If we contrast those spacious days of art with those of our own time and
in our own country, it affords us food for some reflection of a mournful
kind to find there are acres of blank spaces on the walls of our
churches and public buildings, and capable enough artists in our midst
who might be employed to decorate these barren spaces, but nobody, or no
Government, public-spirited enough to entrust modern artists with
commissions to execute such works.