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Benozzo Gozzoli (c. 1421 – 1497) was an Italian Renaissance painter from
Florence. He is best known for a series of murals in the Palazzo
Medici-Riccardi depicting festive, vibrant processions with wonderful
attention to detail and a pronounced International Gothic influence.He
was born Benozzo di Lese in the village of Sant'Ilario a Colombano
around 1421, and moved with his family to Florence in 1427. According to
Giorgio Vasari, in the early part of his career he was a pupil and
assistant of Fra Angelico: some of the works in the convent of San Marco
of Florence were executed by Gozzoli from Angelico's design. In
1444-1447 he collaborated with Lorenzo Ghiberti and his studio on the
Paradise Doors of the Battistero di San Giovanni.
On May 23, 1447 Gozzoli was in Rome with Fra Angelico, called by Pope
Eugene IV to carry out the fresco decoration of a chapel in the Vatican
Palace. Later the two worked until June 1448 in the Cappella Niccolina
for Nicholas V. From 1449 is a banner with Madonna and Child in the
church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, perhaps designed by Angelico. In
Rome he executed also, in Santa Maria in Aracoeli, a fresco of St
Anthony and Two Angels. Benozzo's last collaboration with Angelico is
the vault of the Duomo di Orvieto in Umbria |
