THE MAN CALLED BENOZZO – Trained as a goldsmith, he will become painter

BENOZZO GOZZOLI 1/3 – Benozzo Gozzoli he was an Italian Renaissance painter from Florence, best known for a series of murals in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi depicting festive processions (in fresco-painting he used the methods of tempera), with fine attention to detail. The art of Gozzoli is pre-eminently attractive by its sense of what is rich, winning, lively and abundant in the aspects of men and things. His landscapes, thronged with birds and quadrupeds, are more varied, and the colour is always bright, vivacious and festive. http://www.museobenozzogozzoli.it/biography/ArtisticDevelopmentEarlyWorks.html

BENOZZO GOZZOLI 2/3 – With Gozzoli, you can observe new interest in nature, careful study of realistic detail in landscape and representation of human features as definite portraiture. In the early part of his career (at the age of 27), he began to work with Fra Angelico (some of the works in the convent of San Marco of Florence, were executed by Gozzoli from Angelico’s design). On 1447 he was in Rome, called by Pope Eugene IV, to carry out the fresco decoration of a chapel in the Vatican Palace. http://www.benozzogozzoli.it/Default.htm

BENOZZO GOZZOLI 3/3 – In 1449 he moved to Umbria, and in the monastery of San Fortunato (near Montefalco), he painted a Madonna and Child. In the monastery of S. Francesco (Montefalco), he filling the choir chapel with episodes from the life of the St Francis of Assis. He returned to his native city Florence in 1456, where he painted his most important work: frescoes of the Magi, in the Magi Chapel of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi. In 1464 Gozzoli left Florence for San Gimignano, where he executed some works in the church of Sant’Agostino. Benozzo’s last creative period was in Pisa, and he died in Pistoia in 1497 (perhaps of a pestilence), where he was buried in the monastery of San Domenico. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5zJpqOeCiA . http://www.palazzo-medici.it/mediateca/en/schede.php?nome=Il_Viaggio_dei_Magi