Gozzoli, Benozzo (1397-1475) 
- Name:
- Benozzo Gozzoli / Benozzo di Lese, known as
- Dates:
- Florence, circa 1421 - Pistoia 1497
- Attivitą:
- painter
- Places:
- Florence, Rome, Orvieto, Montefalco, San Gimignano, Castelfiorentino, Monte Oliveto, Certaldo, Pisa, Volterra, Pistoia
- Biographical information:
-
Benozzo di Lese di Sandro was probably born in the autumn-winter of 1421 in Florence. The name Gozzolo, by which the artist came to be known, appears in the other branch of the painter’s family, wealthy farmers and landowners who resided in the district of San Colombano a Settimo.
He was a pupil of Fra’ Giovanni da Fiesole, known as Angelico, and became his principal assistant in the fresco decoration of the convent of San Marco. From at least 1439, however, he was also working independently, executing more modest commissions.
Having detached himself temporarily from the workshop of the Dominican friar, on 24 January 1445 Benozzo joined the ranks of the assistants of Lorenzo Ghiberti engaged in the execution of the east door of the Baptistery, known as the ‘Gate of Paradise’.
The contract bound him for three years, but in 1447 he had already returned to the side of Fra’ Angelico, joining him first in Rome and then following him to Orvieto to work on the decoration of the chapel of San Brizio in the Duomo. In the contract for this enterprise Benozzo is defined as “co-partner” of Fra’ Angelico. Gozzoli offered to complete the cycle but did not obtain the contract. In 1448 the two artists were in Rome again, engaged by Nicholas V to fresco the private chapel in the Vatican with Scenes from the Lives of Saint Stephen and Saint Lawrence, completed before 1450.
In the following decade Benozzo was engaged in various cities of the Papal State between Umbria and Lazio executing both frescoes and panel paintings. Between 1450 and 1452 he left some of his most important works in Montefalco, including the frescoes in San Fortunato and in San Francesco. The artist probably continued to work outside Florence, although he returned to the city from time to time. In 1458 he went to Rome to make standards for the celebrations organised to celebrate the election of Pius II Piccolomini as Pope.
Having returned to Florence in 1459, he was appointed by Piero il Gottoso de’ Medici to fresco the chapel of Palazzo Medici with the Procession of the Magi, the Vigil of the Shepherds and the Adoration of the Angels. This was a commission of enormous prestige, the fame of which outreached that of the artist himself.
Benozzo remained in Florence for four years. He painted the Madonna and Saints for the Compagnia della Purificazione with its headquarters in San Marco (1461; London, National Gallery) and the panel for the Alessandri in San Pier Maggiore (predella at the Metropolitan Museum, New York). He married Lena di Luca, by whom he was to have many children. He lived in a house that he owned in Via del Cocomero (now Via Ricasoli).
In the years that followed, the artist worked in San Gimignano and in other towns of the Valdelsa (Castelfiorentino, Monte Oliveto, Certaldo). In San Gimignano, availing of the assistance of various collaborators, Benozzo frescoed the high altar of Sant’Agostino (1464-5) and executed a number of works in fresco and tempera.
At the end of 1467 he left the town to move to Pisa, where he remained up to 1484. He devoted much of his time during this long sojourn to painting the fresco cycle illustrating Biblical Scenes on the north wall of the Camposanto, which earned him great popularity. In the meantime he also executed various commissions in several nearby towns, including Legoli (where he had moved temporarily on account of an outbreak of plague) and Volterra. Among his assistants in these years were a number of relatives: his two brothers Bernardo and Giovanni and his three sons Francesco, Gerolamo and Alesso.
After the banishment from Florence of Piero de’ Medici, son of Lorenzo il Magnifico and the arrival of Charles VIII of France (1494), Benozzo and the other Florentine artists resident in Pisa had to leave the city, which had taken advantage of the upheaval to regain its independence. Having returned to Florence in 1497, along with Cosimo Rosselli, Pietro Perugino and Filippino Lippi he was appointed to appraise the frescoes of Alesso Baldovinetti in the church of Santa Trinita, since these artists were the finest frescoes painters in the city at the time.
Shortly afterwards Benozzo moved to Pistoia, most probably to execute the fresco of the Maestà in the Sala Ghibellina of the Palazzo Comunale. However he died, possibly of the plague, before he was able to complete the work. He was buried in the Camposanto in Pisa.
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