CHAPTER VII
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
Photo. Brogi.
Plate 20.—Angels. Detail from The Paradise
Benozzo Gozzoli, Riccardi Palace, Florence