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ART “4” “2”-DAY 14 January
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DEATHS: 1867 INGRES — 1494 GHIRLANDAIO

BIRTHS: 1841 MORISOT — 1836 FANTIN~LATOUR

^ Born on 14 January 1841: Berthe Marie-Pauline Morisot, Mme. Eugène Manet, French Impressionist painter who died on 02 March 1895.
— Berthe Morisot was a French impressionist painter. Influenced by the artists Camille Corot and Edouard Manet, she gave up her early classical training to pursue an individualistic impressionistic style that became distinctive for its delicacy and subtlety. Her technique, based on large touches of paint applied freely in every direction, give her works a transparent, iridescent quality. She worked both in oil and in watercolor, producing mainly landscapes and scenes of women and children, as in Madame Pontillon Seated on the Grass (1873).
— Born into a family of wealth and culture, Morisot received the conventional lessons in drawing and painting. She went firmly against convention, however, in choosing to take these pursuits seriously and make them her life's work. Having studied for a time under Camille Corot, she later began her long friendship with Édouard Manet, who became her brother-in-law in 1874 and was the most important single influence on the development of her style. Unlike most of the other impressionists, who were then intensely engaged in optical experiments with color, Morisot and Manet agreed on a more conservative approach, confining their use of color to a naturalistic framework. Morisot, however, did encourage Manet to adopt the impressionists' high-keyed palette and to abandon the use of black. Her own carefully composed, brightly hued canvases are often studies of women, either out-of-doors or in domestic settings. Morisot and US artist Mary Cassatt are generally considered the most important women painters of the later 19th century.
— Berthe Morisot's mother arranged drawing lessons for her three daughters with no other intention than cultivating a polite pastime. That Berthe emerged with professional aspirations must have caused some consternation in their upper-middle-class Parisian household, since it might have compromised her future responsibilities as a wife and mother. Between 1864 and 1868 Morisot exhibited at the Paris Salon. Her early contact with the plein air Barbizon painter Camille Corot and her meeting Edouard Manet, whose work was reviled by both critics and Salon officials, encouraged her to repudiate the Salon system. As a result, she began to follow a more independent path and to exhibit her work with the Impressionists. She married Eugène Manet, Edouard's younger brother in 1874, the year the Impressionists held their first controversial exhibition — her portrait by brother-in-law Manet
— LINKS
— Au Bois de Boulogne (1888) — Paris vu du Trocadéro (1872) — Cache-cache (1873, 45x55cm) — Nice Little Girl (Nice: the city)
— La lecture (1888) _ This is at once a genre scene and a portrait of Jeanne Bonnet. It conveys Morisot's ability to integrate her art and family life by painting canvases of domestic scenes. Although out-of-doors, the space of Reading is shallow, compressed by a balcony railing and foliage. Morisot employed many compositional devices — the bird cage, the railing and chair, the wall casement, and the palm frond that arches over the sitter's head — to enclose the figure. These forms, associated with the nineteenth-century feminine ideal, also picture a woman's space as a closed world turned in on itself.

^ Died on 14 January 1867:
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, in Montauban, France, neoclassical painter, specialized in portraits and orientalism, born on 29 August 1780.
— Ingres was one of the major portrait painters of the 19th century.

[Le premier consul, 1804 >]

Ingles

      Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres was a French painter who was a leading figure in the neoclassical movement. Ingres was the son of an unsuccessful sculptor and painter. He entered the studio of the neoclassical painter Jacques Louis David in Paris in 1797 and won the Prix de Rome in 1801 for his painting The Ambassadors of Agamemnon.
      From 1806 to 1820 he painted in Rome, where he developed his extraordinary gifts for drawing and design. He was greatly influenced by the work of the Italian Renaissance painter Raphael, and his style has been described as doubly inspired by Raphael and David. While in Italy, Ingres made many pencil portraits that are distinguished for purity and economy of style. In 1820 he left Rome and went to Florence for four years.
      On his return to Paris, Ingres won great acclaim with The Vow of Louis XIII (1820), commissioned for the Cathedral of Montauban and exhibited in the Paris Salon in 1824. He became the recognized leader of the neoclassical school that opposed the new romantic movement led by Eugene Delacroix and Theodore Géricault During this period Ingres painted The Apotheosis of Homer (1827) for a ceiling in the Louvre in Paris.
      Angered by the poor reception given his Martyrdom of Saint Symphorian (1834), he left Paris to accept the directorship of the French Academy at Rome in 1834. At the end of his seven-year term as director he returned again to Paris and was welcomed as one of the most celebrated painters in France. His position both as a painter and as the official academic spokesman against the romanticists was established, and he was given the rank of commander of the Legion of Honor in 1845. In the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1855 both he and Delacroix, his chief rival in art, were awarded gold medals. Ingres died in Paris.
      Ingres's strengths—superb draftsmanship, keen sensitivity for personality, and precise neoclassical linear style—were perfectly suited to portraiture. Mme. Moitessier (1851) and La Comtesse d'Haussonville (1845) are outstanding examples, and M. Bertin (1832) is considered one of the finest portraits of the 19th century. Ingres continued to paint vigorously in his old age, producing in his 82nd year his famous Le Bain Turc (1863), the culmination of his superb depictions of female nudes. Ingres's influence on art to the present day has been immense; among important later painters who acknowledged deriving inspiration from his style are Edgar Degas, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso.

            Ingres received his first lessons in art and music from his father, Joseph Ingres (1755~1814), miniature artist and sculptor. In 1791, he entered the Royal Academy of Arts in Toulouse, where his teachers were J. Vigan and Guillaume-Joseph Roques . Simultaneously he took violin lessons, and played in the local orchestra (in French “violon d'Ingres” has come to mean “hobby”).
      After 1797, Ingres was in Paris, in the studio of David. He studied principles of composition and human anatomy. In 1801, he got a Roman prize for his picture The Ambassadors of Agamemnon in the Tent of Achilles (1801). Staying in Paris till 1806 he painted portraits; Napoléon on the Imperial Throne, Self~Portrait, Mademoiselle Rivière. The sitter in every painting is portrayed on a large scale, filling the canvas. Ingres was criticized for imitation of Gothic masters and Jan van Eyck.
            From 1806 till 1824, Ingres lived in Italy; he worked and studied the art of Renaissance; Raphael was his idol. His fame as a portraitist grew; his commissions increased. In 1807-24, he painted a lot of portraits: his masterpiece — beautiful and mysterious Mme Duvauçay, a mistress of d’Alquier, the French ambassador to the Holy See; Joseph~Antoine Moltedo, Charles-Joseph-Laurent Cordier, Count Nikolay Gouriev, etc.
            In 1813, Ingres married. See his wife's portrait: In 1813-14, in Rome he painted his popular La Grande Odalisque.
            In 1824, Ingres returned to Paris and showed Vow of Louis XIII in the Salon. This canvas brought him official recognition and fame: he was elected to the Academy. He opposed Romanticism, which had developed while he was away in Italy. Ingres was looked upon as the hope of classicism. In 1835, he returned to Italy as Director of the French Academy of Arts in Rome (1835-1841).
             Though the big mythological and religious canvases such as Apotheosis of Homer (1827) and Martyrdom of St. Symphorien (1834) are grandiose, they are cold and rational, and do not equal Ingres's art as a portraitist, such as in the Portrait of Louis-Francois Bertin.
           The best of Ingres’ portraits were those of women. Though not all Ingres’ models were beauties, he could find in each one special harmony: Madame Ingres,Baroness James de Rothschild, Madame Gonse, Madame Moitessier Sitting.
     One cold winter day Ingres accompanied a beautiful young model to a carriage and , as a gallant man, he stayed bareheaded. He caught a cold, which developed into pneumonia, he did not recover — he was 86.
— LINKS
— Molière (1843) — Self~Portrait — Self~Portrait (1858) — The Artist and his Wife (1830) — Bonaparte as First Consul (1804) — Napoléon on the Imperial Throne (1806) — The Apotheosis of Homer (1827) _ detail: Poussin and Corneille _ detail: Racine, Molière, Boileau — Countess D'Haussonville (1845) _ detail: head — Molière — Jeanne d'Arc au Sacre de Charles VII dans la Cathédrale de Reims (1854) — Raphael and the Fornarina (1814) — Paganini (1819) — Le Bain Turc (1862) _ détail

^ Died on 14 January 1836: Henri Théodore Jean Ignace Fantin~Latour, French Realist painter who died on 25 August 1904, specialized in still-life and flowers.
— Henri Fantin-Latour was best known for his group portraits and flower paintings. Although he was a contemporary of the impressionists, he practiced a more conservative style, which gave his work an almost photographic realism, and employed a shimmering, magical use of color. In his group portraits, he portrayed the many contemporary Parisian artists and writers who were his friends. His delicately realistic flower paintings, as well as his more stylized lithographs, strongly influenced later symbolist painters, such as Odilon Redon.
— Fantin-Latour, French painter and lithographer, is best known for his luxurious flower pieces, but he also painted several group portraits that are important historical documents and show his friendship with leading avant-garde artists. Homage to Delacroix (1864) shows Fantin-Latour himself, with Baudelaire, Manet, Whistler, and others grouped around a portrait of Delacroix; and A Studio at Batignolles (sometimes called Homage to Manet) (1870) shows Monet, Renoir, and others in Manet's studio. In spite of his associations with such progressive artists, Fantin-Latour was a traditionalist, and his portraits particularly are in a precise, detailed style. Much of his later career was devoted to lithography; he greatly admired Richard Wagner and did imaginative lithographs illustrating his music and that of other Romantic composers.
— Born in Grenoble , died in Buré (Orne). Son of the painter Théodore Fantin-Latour, Fantin settled in Paris in 1841 and was trained by his father and Horace Lecoq de Boisbandran. Key influences in his development were the example of Gustave Courbet and his study of old masters at the Louvre, where he copied almost daily until 1870. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1861 and participated in the Salon des Refusés of 1863. Fantin joined with Manet, Renoir, Frédéric Bazille, and others in the avant-garde intellectual circles of Paris and commemorated leading artists, writers, and musicians of the day in several group portraits, but from about 1879 he worked largely in isolation. His delicate, lyrical still lifes in the tradition of Chardin gave way in later years to highly romanticized compositions inspired by his love of Wagner and opera. A personal friend of James McNeill Whistler, he visited England several times and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1862 to 1900.
— LINKS
— Self-Portrait (1892 lithograph, 16x13cm)
— White and Purple Stock — Asters (1892) — White Rockets and Fruit (1869) — Spray of Purple Lilac (1880) — Flowers in a Vase (1882) — Damnation of Faust. Apparition — Lohengrin — Baigneuses (1898) — Les Brodeuses (1895) — L'Enfance du Christ — Édouard Manet (1867) — Homage to Delacroix (1864) — Un Atelier aux Batignolles (1870) — The Dream (1854, 45x55cm)
— Immortality (1889, 117x88cm). Delacroix died in 1863. The following year Fantin-Latour painted a group portrait of his disciples around a likeness of the master. He later decided to pay this allegorical tribute. The personification of Immortality holds the palm of victory and scatters roses on the tomb of Delacroix, inscribed DEL. At the lower right are the towers of the cathedral of Notre-Dame and the dome of the Panthéon, the national shrine to great sons of France.
— Helen (1892, 78x105cm)

^ Died on 14 January 1494: Domenico Currado di Tommaso Bigordi Ghirlandaio, Italian painter born in 1449. — Ghirlandaio began work in country churches in the immediate vicinity of Florence, at Cercina and Brozzi, His guardians were the Vespucci, the most important family in his neighborhood, whose most illustrious member was Amerigo, the great explorer. This family commissioned Ghirlandaio in 1471 to decorate their mortuary chapel in the church of Ognissanti in Florence. He devoted himself fully to painting in San Gimignano.
— LINKS
— Apse fresco (1471, fresco at Sant'Andrea) _ The first work by Domenico Ghirlandaio that we know of is the fresco decoration of the parish church at Cercina. Saints Jerome, Barbara and Anthony Abbot are portrayed within a false noble architecture with niches divided by fluted pilaster strips and Corinthian capitals. Traces of Baldovinetti are faintly discernible here, perhaps above all in the delicate outlines which in a continuous flowing enclose the somewhat slight forms; these are complemented by soft colors that recall Domenico Veneziano. Already in these very early works and especially in the Saint Jerome, there is also a fleeting reminiscence of Andrea del Castagno, although by now the overall effect may be seen as the acquired and completely mature style of Ghirlandaio. There is a warmth and softness in the rather elongated figures, a harmonious, almost singable, spreading of vivid colors, a slow fluidity in the line that gives a mere hint of movement to the images, these being almost trapped in a faint, deliberate torpor. There is no dramatic force in the Saint Jerome either. These saints began a series of figures that by Ghirlandaio's hand would soon narrate sacred events: the stories of Saint Fina, Saint Francesco and others, half-chronicle and half-legend.
— Saint Barbara (1471) _ The vivid color of her garments and the different shape of her niche give greater emphasis to the figure of Saint Barbara, who stands between the two old men, Saint Jerome and Saint Anthony. She is holding her attribute, a tower, and in contrast to the two other saints is looking directly to us. She is standing triumphantly on the armor-clad corpse of her father, who has been killed by a bolt of lightning. His hands are hanging down over the cornice, where they are casting illusory shadows.
— Saint Jerome (1471) _ Saint Jerome, wearing a torn penitential robe, is looking across at Saint Barbara. His wiry, semi-naked body seems to have been ravaged by the hardships of his hermit life. In his right hand he is holding a stone with which to beat himself.
— Saint Anthony. (1471) _ In contrast to his counterpart, Saint Jerome, Saint Anthony. is dressed in a dark monk's habit. He is looking downwards at the figure on which Saint Barbara is standing. The attributes he is carrying are a book and the T-shaped staff on which he is leaning.

— Madonna of Mercy (1472) _ Ghirlandaio's first paintings were in the Chapel of the Vespucci at Ognissanti, representing a dead Christ and some saints, and a Misericordia over an arch, containing a portrait of Amerigo Vespucci, who navigated the Indies. The date of the chapel's construction is 1472. We can date the frescoes immediately afterward. In these Ognissanti frescoes the inspiration of Baldovinetti is marginal; more obvious are certain elements acquired from Andrea del Castagno and some clear, vivid colors that are reminiscent of Domenico Veneziano. Most interesting, however, is the artistic personality of Ghirlandaio himself, so well defined at this early age, and that attentive observation of man in every physical and interior detail that made him such an able portraitist. Here is the old man, probably the head of the family, seen from behind, kneeling, solidly built, his lean face with its hard features softened by the whiteness of his fine hair. The older woman in a cloak stands out in a contrast of lights and colors Serenely clear, on the other hand, is the younger woman, with her hair gathered into plaits and her ample forehead shaved back according to the Florentine fashion of the time. The expression on the face of the boy, thought to be Amerigo Vespucci, is intense; his face, with its full lips and large clear eyes, is still chubby, pinkish and childlike. Domenico's attention seems to have lingered on the figures, perhaps in prayer, right there in Ognissanti, his brush faithfully reproducing and individualizing the features of each of them.
— Lamentation over the Dead Christ (1472) _ Marked by the signs of grief, Mary is embracing her dead son. Mary Magdalene and Saint John are holding Christ's arms and legs, his hands and feet marked with the stigmata. Around the group are six other saints, including, on the right, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Behind them, on the Hill of Golgotha, the trunk of the Cross is towering up in front of a view of the city of Jerusalem.

— Madonna and Child with Saint Sebastian and Saint Julian (1473) _ The Madonna and Child with Saints Sebastian and Julian shows, particularly in the Virgin being placed on a terrace overlooking a broad landscape, a certain drawing on Verrocchio's example. Here Ghirlandaio uses the theme of the Sacra Conversazione, so popular in Italian Renaissance art, for the first time. The Madonna is sitting on a marble throne, presenting her child, who is standing on her thigh, His right hand raised in blessing. Saint Sebastian with his arrows and Saint Julian with the sword appear in contemporary dress.
— Baptism of Christ (1473) _ The fresco is in the tympanum above the Madonna and Child with Saints. Two angels are kneeling on the left bank of the river Jordan, shown as a little flat stream flowing towards us. They are holding the clothes of the person being baptized, who is clad only in a loincloth. Christ is standing in water up to his ankles. Saint John the Baptist, in a fur robe, is gathering up his cloak and stepping carefully on to a stone to baptize Christ.

— The Stories of Saint Fina at San Gimignano. Ghirlandaio left Florence briefly for San Gimignano where in the collegiate church he painted the Stories of Saint Fina, the young saint who lived her short, sick life lying serenely on a board, and smiled at the announcement of her imminent death made by Saint Gregory the Great. She died on 12 January, on the feast day of Saint Gregory, in 1253. Later she became the patron saint of San Gimignano. The year in which the frescoes in the chapel of Saint Fina were executed can be fixed almost with certainty at 1475 or shortly after. The inscription on the tomb of the saint evidently alludes to the cycle: “Miracula quaeris? / Perlege quae paries vivaque signa docent / MCCCCLXXV”. There are two Stories of Saint Fina: the Obsequies of the Saint and the Apparition to Fina of Saint Gregory who announces her Death. The chapel, which was built by Giuliano da Maiano and contains sculptures made by his brother Benedetto, recalls the Cardinal of Portugal's chapel at San Miniato al Monte decorated with frescoes by Alesso Baldovinetti. Ghirlandaio's decorative scheme was a traditional one that started from the vaults and descended across the pendentives onto the walls at the sides of the altar. The painter's imagination, however, had free rein in the narration, which abandons itself to the most ethereal and moving poetry. The result is original and highly pleasing.
— Announcement of Death to Saint Fina (1475 fresco) _ The pathetic figure is stretched out on the floor of her room that is as simple as a cell and whitened by the bare walls and light. Her loose hair forms a halo, while rose bushes peep from the opening of the door that looks onto a garden and the sky. The solemn figure of Saint Gregory on a cloud is almost too much in the midst of so many small things: the decanter and glass, an embossed plate, and fruit which already expresses that knowledge of and harking back to Flemish art. A small window looks out onto a tract of peaceful countryside. The nurse and mother, barely distracted by the vision descending from Heaven, are dressed in almost monk-like habits with white cloths that cover their heads. A ray of the setting sun falls lightly on the face of Fina, the bare floor and the slightly cracked wall behind. There is no doubt here that the influence of Alesso Baldovinetti is all-pervading; however, Ghirlandaio is already speaking another language, one that is softer, almost anxious, where the connection with Domenico Veneziano is closer. Although later his art would be more masterly and stylistically accomplished, perhaps Ghirlandaio would never again attain to such moving poetry. His colors would not be as transparent, limpid and imbued with light. And if here too he was helped by assistants, his own participation is clearer and more immediate. It is no coincidence that his brother David, who would later become his contractor, was in Rome that year (1475). _ detail _ On a framed panel on the rear wall are the Latin words that Saint Gregory spoke to Fina: "Be prepared my daughter, for on my feast day you will be taken up into our community and live there forever with your bridegroom." A window in the rear wall allows air and light to enter the bare room. A picture within a picture, the window appears very much like a landscape painting. The few domestic objects on the bench at the back give the room a homelike quality.
— Obsequies of Saint Fina (1475 fresco) _ This image possibly draws more on tradition; between the psalm-singing of the clergy and the choirboys, a sober religious ceremony is conducted against the solemn background of a monumental apse. The figure of the young saint, lying feebly on the rich catafalque, is brimming with tenderness. And yet three miracles take place almost unnoticed: the bells, struck by angels, ring out in the red towers of San Gimignano; the nurse Beldia is healed by her contact with the dead young girl's crossed hands; and a blind choirboy who kisses her foot regains his sight. In the background are the individualized faces of persons we are now unable to identify but who were certainly portrayed from life, either important people in the city, or just ordinary townsfolk. Young men dressed in the latest fashions, almost gallants, join each other's hands in a pleasing play of lines. There is everywhere a limpid air that streams over people and things and lays emphasis on the clear colors, from the complexions of the youngsters to the blond hair of Fina and the blues of the shirts, the greens, and the blood red of the ancient towers, while the horizontal and vertical lines of the reduced setting are harmonized and create their own poetry. _ detail _ In the long row of expressive heads Ghirlandaio already reveals his unique ability to create convincing character studies, a skill that was to bring him fame and many well paid commissions. Some of those depicted do not seem to be taking part in the ceremony, while others are deeply moved. The server at the saint's feet is more interested in his processional cross than in the ceremony, and the server next to him is looking around to keep himself amused. In the lower left corner on of the miracles can be seen: a blind choirboy who kisses her foot regains his sight.

— Frescoes in Florence and Rome (1480-84). The Vespucci family also commissioned Ghirlandaio in 1480 to fresco a Saint Jerome in the church of Ognissanti as pendant to the Saint Augustine that Botticelli had recently painted in the church. The young Ghirlandaio was now well-known, and in 1481-82 received the commission to execute two frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. Sixtus IV's commission for the decoration in fresco of the chapel that bears his name is the official consecration of Florentine art. In addition to Ghirlandaio's contribution, other stories were executed by Botticelli, Cosimo Rosselli, Perugino (now elected a citizen of Florence), and Luca Signorelli. After the successful interlude in Rome in 1482 Ghirlandaio received the official commission from the Signoria, the city government of Florence, to produce the decorations in the Sala dei Gigli in the town hall, the Palazzo Vecchio.
— Saint Jerome in his Study (1480, 184x119cm) _ In 1480 Ghirlandaio frescoed in the church of Ognissanti a Saint Jerome that rivaled the Saint Augustine which Botticelli had painted there a short time before. This work, which was accomplished with excessive ease, is superficial and full of objects that suffocate and impoverish its impact. The direct comparison with the Botticelli Saint serves merely to underline an unsatisfactory period for Ghirlandaio. _ Detail _ In contrast with the Saint Jerome Ghirlandaio painted in Cercina, this Saint Jerome is not depicted as a penitent but as the scholarly translator of the Bible.

— Calling of the First Apostles (1481) _ Domenico represented Christ calling Peter and Andrew from their nets, and, above the door, the Resurrection of Christ, which later vanished completely in the destruction of the wall. The Calling of the First Apostles was certainly a considerable undertaking and Ghirlandaio here takes on a solemnity that is unequaled either before or after. In some expressions, such as that of the sober Christ or the adoring look of the two who are summoned, we are reminded of Masaccio and his Tribute Money. Ghirlandaio's distinctive style is expressed in the group of talkative women on the left, and the curious peeping glances of those who want to see, and, perhaps, be seen. The extensive, evocative landscape contains trees, water, and undulating hills that fade into the distance. In the painting Christ appears three times. In the background on the left he twice stands on the shoreline and on each occasion calls two fishermen, with the words: "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." On a third occasion, standing in the foreground, he blesses the kneeling brothers Simon Peter and Andrew. In the Roman fresco the colors are vivid and radiant, caressing the delicate flesh tones, the various shades of the solemn robes and fashionable clothes of the young. _ Detail at left _ The group of women on the left side of the fresco, including a woman in blue seen from behind, anticipates the female figures Ghirlandaio paints in later works. _ Detail at right _ Ghirlandaio comes into his own in the group of characters on the right, who are all, real portraits. Represented here are the most important components of the large Florentine colony in Rome — figures belonging to the most illustrious families of the city who had opened branches of their Florentine businesses in Rome, but above all the representatives of the Medici House banks of credit and commerce. Giovanni Tornabuoni (whose sister was the wife of Piero de' Medici) figures prominently among the other characters portrayed. Head of the Medici Bank in Rome, he was so expert in financial and business affairs that he became the treasurer of Sixtus IV. Tornabuoni now is elderly, or so it would appear from his austere countenance and the deep wrinkles that furrow his brow and temples. Lorenzo, still almost a boy, stands in front of his father, his sad face revealing a certain feminine softness. Further along the line, in profile, possibly another Tornabuoni is portrayed, the noble and cultivated Cecco. The character on the far right of the group is a member of the Vespucci family, Giovanni Antonio, whose sharp profile is illumined by a bright light that seems almost to lend him the suggestion of a smile. Another bareheaded gentleman, with white hair and a pensive expression is thought by some to be the Florentine Francesco Soderini. Argyropulus is also among the Florentines, the old man with the resentful expression and rather weak face framed by a short white beard, and with his head covered by a strange, hard, almost prelatic hat. The Greek John Argyropulus, born in Constantinople but driven out by the Turks in 1453, had found refuge in Florence, in the cultivated circle of the Medici, whose guest he was for fifteen years. He had held the professorship of Greek at the university of Florence and Lorenzo il Magnifico had made him a citizen of Florence, which had become the city of his choice. When Argyropulus was called to Rome by Sixtus IV, he continued to regard himself as a Florentine and as such, with the others, Ghirlandaio portrayed him.

— Decoration of the Sala del Gigli (1484) _ In 1482 Ghirlandaio received the official commission from the Signoria, the city government, to produce the decorations in the Sala dei Gigli in the town hall, the Palazzo Vecchio. Sandro Botticelli, Perugino and Piero del Pollaiolo had also been assigned to the task, but only Domenico accomplished the undertaking. The most important consideration in the Sala dei Gigli was that the overall effect had to be magnificent, and the purpose of the monumental public work was to express the pride of the city and Republic of Florence. Ghirlandaio divided one wall by means of painted pilasters, with three arches between them. The two outer arches are over a doorway and a blind window. The result is that the entire wall appears as a mighty triumphal arch. In the center is Saint Zenobius, the patron saint of Florence, with two saintly deacons. In the tympanum above the bishop is a terra-cotta relief of the Madonna and angels, a work similar to many that were produced by the workshop of the Della Robbia family of artists. In the background on the left there is a view of Florence Cathedral. Under the side arches stand historical characters who embody civic and republican virtues. In these figures Ghirlandaio produced very detailed variations of Roman armor and the classical contrapposto postures, features portrayed with considerable archeological accuracy. In the Sala dei Gigli the pictorial scheme is grandiose and the ancient figures depicted in the higher part of the fresco have an extraordinary energy. The deacons in the center, on the other hand, are weak, rather limp and monotonous, even in the colors, which have lost their original brightness and luster. This work is not of a high quality. Already occupied with the Sassetti Chapel, which probably gave him more satisfaction, in the Sala dei Gigli he probably traced the outline of the painting only, leaving a large part of its execution to assistants. In addition to his two brothers David and Benedetto, and his brother-in-law Bastiano Mainardi, there were many other assistants: Bartolomeo di Giovanni, Francesco Granacci and Biagio d'Antonio di Firenze. It is impossible to attribute the responsibility to this or that assistant for the inferior parts of Ghirlandaio's fresco cycles, since he was also responsible for the parts that lack the animated style, vitality and mastery of color that were present in others. From these sometimes considerable discrepancies we must form a judgment about his work that makes him at once a marvelous interpreter of people and situations, a calm, almost monotonous narrator, or a tired and empty artist at times in search of the best, at others yielding to a commonplace routine._ Detail 1 _ Under the side arches stand historical characters who embody civic and republican virtues. In these figures Ghirlandaio produced very detailed variations of Roman armor and the classical contrapposto postures, features portrayed with considerable archeological accuracy. On the right Decius, Scipio and Cicero are depicted. _ Detail 2 _ Under the side arches stand historical characters who embody civic and republican virtues. In these figures Ghirlandaio produced very detailed variations of Roman armor and the classical contrapposto postures, features portrayed with considerable archeological accuracy. On the left Brutus, Mucius Scaevola and Camillus are depicted.

— Last Supper scenes. Ghirlandaio painted the scene of the Last Supper on several occasions within the space of a few years. In all three works of his that still remain the basic arrangement is the same as that in the fresco by Andrea del Castagno dating from about 1450. The disciples are sitting at a long table in front of a rear wall that runs parallel to the picture plan. Christ is sitting in the center, and His favorite disciple John is leaning sadly against Him. To the right of Christ, in the place of honor, is the chief Apostle, Peter. Judas the traitor is the only one to be separated from the others: he is seated in front of the table.
— Last Supper (1476) _ Ghirlandaio's earliest example of the Last Supper was painted in 1476. This is strongly influenced by Andrea del Castagno. The Apostles and Christ are sitting together in a room with a flat ceiling that appears to be too low. Judas is sitting opposite Christ on a three-legged stool in front of the laid table. The figures are set back some distance from us, to a depth of three large floor tiles. The various emotions of the Apostles are indicated by stiff hand movements that scarcely seem alive and express little of the character of the individuals.
— Last Supper (1480, 400x880cm) _ This version of the Last Supper, executed in the refectory of the convent of the Ognissanti was executed in the same year as the Saint Jerome in the church. It is a famous example of the Tuscan tradition of depicting the Last Supper in monastic refectories. The scene is ample and characterized by vivid, animated lines, as was his style, but it draws on the structural organization that was characteristic of Andrea del Castagno. The spirit is typical of Ghirlandaio, who as ever remains rather psychologically superficial and uninterested in any form of dramatic expression. Jesus and the disciples are not particularly characterized and seem peaceful and rather at ease; even Judas, who though seated on his own in front of Christ, according to tradition, has a serene countenance and composed posture. The figures are sitting isolated next to each other in a row, and are not connected in any inner way. The epochal step taken by Leonardo with the communicating figures in his version becomes evident when comparing the two paintings. However, the overall effect is agreeable and there are some ingenious touches. The lunettes offer an easy opportunity to the expert painter — a view of trees in a Tuscan garden beyond the wall; fruit-trees, cypresses, and an isolated palm-tree that appears rather incongruous in the surroundings. To the right, a peacock perches on a windowsill, while other birds flutter around in the crystalline air. The table is covered by a white tablecloth with blue embroidery. Plates, decanters, glasses, saltcellars and knives are carefully arranged in front of each table-guest, as are the bread and cherries. It might even be the realistic and serene representation of a Florentine table of the period._ Detail 1: the left part of the fresco. _ Detail 2: the right part of the fresco. _ Detail 3 Saint Peter has picked up his knife angrily and is pointing to Christ with it and his thumb. He appears ready to defend Our Lord. The younger apostle on the left in the green garment is energetically pushing at the table with his arm as if about to jump up and start an argument with Judas. _ Detail 4 _ On hearing Christ say that the traitor is among them, the two Apostles on the far right appear to be asking each other: “Am I the one?” — and others are becoming melancholic.
— Last Supper (1486, 400x800cm) _ This is the last surviving version of Ghirlandaio's Last Supper. It is pleasing to observe that chronicler's narration of his city and the rich bourgeois inhabitants who enlivened it in the middle of the 15th century. It is typical of the work of Ghirlandaio, who certainly sketched out the drawing and, at times, participated directly in its execution. Rendered without resorting to dramatic force, it reveals a serenity and great faithfulness to life. Note the impassive Judas, seated in front of Jesus and almost conversing with him. The supper takes place at a large table with a bright tablecloth, embroidered at the edges. Nothing about it is casual; the crockery, the decanters, the knives, the bread and the cherries, are carefully arranged in front of every guest. With customary ease, Ghirlandaio fills the lunettes with large trees and birds in flight against a bright sky whose light is reflected onto the right-hand wall where an open window frames a perching peacock. The rest is in shadow. Two flower-displays complete the frame which encloses the space. A cat, waiting patiently for a hoped-for scrap of meat, lends a touch of intimacy and domesticity that is rarely lacking in Ghirlandaio. _ Detail 1 _ The Apostle next to Peter has already drunk his wine, as can be seen by the traces of red wine forming a ring around the bottom of his glass. _ Detail 2 _ The apostles react in a variety of ways to Christ's words that He will be betrayed. While the disciple on the right appears to be asking: “It is me, Lord, who will betray you?”, the one on the left is gazing sadly at his hands. The artist offers additional proof of his sensitive powers of observation through his playful depiction of the glass vessels on the table: through one glass carafe, we can see hands resting on the table behind, and through another glass we can see a carafe.

— Decoration of the Sassetti Chapel. Francesco Sassetti had gained his wealth as a partner in the French branches of the Medici bank in Avignon and Lyon. He also spent over ten years representing the Medici bank in Genoa and occasionally in Geneva. By the end of the 1470s, Sassetti had already acquired the rights of patronage to a small side chapel, the second to the right of the choir in the Florentine church of Santa Trinità. Ghirlandaio was commissioned to paint the chapel, which he decorated with frescoes with scenes from the life of Saint Francis of Assisi between 1482 and 1485. Ghirlandaio also executed the altarpiece of the chapel. This altarpiece The Adoration of the Shepherds is the key work in the chapel both in subject and in artistic merit. In the Sassetti Chapel the artist combined secular, religious, and classical themes to produce a unique masterpiece.

— View of the Sassetti Chapel (1485) Ghirlandaio did a chapel in Santa Trinità for Francesco Sassetti with stories of Saint Francis, an admirable work, remarkable for its grace, finish and delicacy. Francesco Sassetti was a wealthy banker and friend of the House of Medici. Belonging to that noble Florentine world, with its Maecenastic aspirations, he had the desire to leave an everlasting and tangible remembrance of his own name. He hit on the idea of a funeral chapel, an ancient custom that dated to at least the fourteenth century. The artist most in vogue in Florence at that time was swiftly chosen: Domenico Ghirlandaio, who had just returned from Rome and was busy at work on the official commission for Palazzo Vecchio that he had received from the Signoria. The finding of a suitable place proved to be more difficult. Francesco Sassetti had initially thought of decorating the Cappella Grande of Santa Maria Novella with the stories of his guardian saint, Saint Francis of Assisi. But the Dominicans, who were titular occupants of the basilica and still bitter rivals of the Minorites, would not accept the idea. Sassetti thus opted for the smaller and narrower chapel to the left of the main altar in the church of Santa Trinità. The contract was concluded between 1475 and 1479, at a time when Domenico was still making journeys from Florence and San Gimignano to Rome, with that remarkable ease of movement so typical among artists of the period. At Santa Trinità, after the Stories of Saint Fina, Ghirlandaio would give his best, the best of his poetry, the joy of his colors and serene images, a vivid record of the wealthy, elegant, cultivated and refined life of his city. On each of the three walls of the Sassetti Chapel Ghirlandaio painted two scenes from the life of Saint Francis. On the two side walls are the black marble sarcophagi of Francesco Sassetti and his wife Nera Corsi, set into niches with round arches. In white marble, highlighted with gold and black porphyry, these beautiful sarcophagi are sculpted with all the subtlety of a cameo. The sculptural decorations are dominated by classical motifs, the sculptor Giuliano da Sangallo is identified as the artist. The two monumental frescoes above each sarcophagus clearly owe a debt to traditional images, there are echoes of Giotto's frescoes in the Bardi Chapel of the Santa Croce, Florence. The six scenes of the Saint Francis cycle is completed by a seventh one above the family's coat-of-arms in glazed terra-cotta of Della Robbia derivation in the tympanum over the arched entrance to the chapel. This fresco shows a sibyl prophesying Christ's dominion over the world to Emperor Augustus. The fresco idealizes the classical period as the precursor to the Christian age, and this provide a link with the chapel's high point, the altarpiece which depicts the birth of Christ. The grisaille figure of David outside the chapel can also be interpreted in this way. The decorative scheme is traditional: on the vaults, four Sibyls between fruit garlands in vivid colors against a blue background with golden rays, a graceful rippling of pink and white layers. The frescoes depicting the "Stories of Saint Francis" are the stories and miracles of the humble man of Assisi transferred to the streets of Florence. The people that witness and participate in the life of the saint are the most important citizens of the city, with their children and friends. It is a considerable section of 15th-century Florentine life and the society that lived it which unfolds in front of us. At times one has the feeling of entering into the life of the scenes, becoming part of that calm atmosphere, being one of those men of the past who are, through the ability of Domenico's paintbrush, still so alive and present. The altarpiece the Adoration of the Shepherds is the chapel's key work not only in subject but also in artistic merit. This composition was so successful that other artists frequently repeated it.
— Portrait of the Donor Nera Corsi Sassetti (1485) _ In two pictures on either side Ghirlandaio painted Francesco Sassetti kneeling, and Madonna Nera, his wife and her children, the latter being in the scene above where the boy is raised to life, with some beautiful girls of the same family. At the sides of the altar Ghirlandaio painted full-length portraits of his patron Francesco Sassetti, and his wife Nera. Linking the frescoes and the central panel painting in this way Ghirlandaio creates what is almost a triptych. The images are drawn with tight, harsh lines, which contrast rather with the soft lines of the narrated stories. Here we see a recourse to that Flemish taste for a studied reality that is faithful to the subject and makes no concession to imagination or ornamentation. Nera Corsi is dressed in black and has her head covered by a simple white cloth, a Florentine usage of the period (especially in the privacy of the home) among women who were no longer young. Her sharp, intense features, which bear traces of a former beauty, are certainly far nobler and more sensitive than her husband's whose corresponding figure is seen beyond the altar. Astonishingly enough, the wife is occupying the traditionally more distinguished position on the right of the religious scene. We see here a couple brought together by long years of communal life and interests linked to the family, patrimony and the house, a couple satisfied with their own well-being and their social position among the most important citizens of the city.
— Portrait of the Donor Francesco Sassetti (1485) Sassetti is dressed in red with his hands clasped together, his loose-skinned face severe, and his shaven head standing out against the bare splendor of a room faced with marble. Beyond the altar is the corresponding figure of Nera Corsi. We see here a couple brought together by long years of communal life and interests linked to the family, patrimony and the house, a couple satisfied with their own well-being and their social position among the most important citizens of the city. At the base is the painted inscription: A.D. MCCCCLXXX. XV decembris. This could be the initial date of the work whose conclusion is in the great altarpiece with the Nativity, dated 1485.

— Sibyl (1485) _ Four female prophets are depicted in the vaulting of the chapel. They are enthroned on clouds in front of a sky-blue background and are holding out their prophecies on banderoles. They are wearing marvelously colored garments and dresses with high waistlines. The ribs of the Gothic vault are magnificently decorated with painted garlands of fruit symbolizing the wealth, prosperity and fertility of both the donor family and the city of Florence.
— Meeting of Augustus and the Sibyl (1485) _ The Tiburtine Sibyl shows the Roman Emperor Augustus the shining gold vision of the name of Jesus abbreviated to "IHS". This prophecy to the pagan emperor is fulfilled. in the altar painting of the chapel: the Birth of Christ. The figures are in a raised position with a view over classical Rome in which the Pantheon and Trajan's Column can be seen.
— David (1485) _ The youth David, who, armed only with a slingshot, vanquished the giant Goliath, was a symbol of the pride and power of the republic of Florence.He was also linked to the name of the donor: the slingshot was part of the Sassetti family's coat-of-arms because their name was similar to the Italian word for throwing stones (sassata). The donor's coat-of-arms can be seen on David's shield. Slingshots also flank the coat-of-arms above the chapel and are depicted in the sculptural ornamentation in the tomb niches, in the chapel.

— Frescoes in the Tornabuoni Chapel of Santa Maria Novella. In 1486 Giovanni Tornabuoni, a man whose wealth, power and noble descent ensured his position at the side of the Medici, turned to Domenico Ghirlandaio for the decoration in fresco of the great chapel of his family in Santa Maria Novella in Florence. In accordance with the wishes of the Dominicans who ran the church Tornabuoni accepted the existing pictorial themes for the frescoes in his chapel: a series of paintings illustrating the lives of the Virgin Mary and of Saint John the Baptist. Between 1486 and 1490 Ghirlandaio and his workshop completed the monumental work. Using classical pilasters and entablatures, Ghirlandaio divided the two enormous walls under the wall rib in this Gothic chapel into six horizontally rectangular picture fields. They are placed above each other in three layers and are crowned by a pointed tympanum. The chapel's front wall, in contrast, has three high-pointed arch windows that provide room on either side for three smaller, vertically rectangular pictures, as well as the large tympanum above them. Here Ghirlandaio designed not just the colorful stained glass windows, still at their original location, he also created the altarpiece and its back. These panel paintings, however, are no longer here, they are scattered in different museums. The vaulting of the chapel contains the Evangelists. On the left wall Domenico frescoed the stories of Mary, on the right the life of Saint John the Baptist. Both stories unfold so smoothly, and in the context of the purest Christian tradition, that it is unnecessary to look for their guiding principle and inspiration outside the Bible and the most elementary religious teaching. It was only possible for Ghirlandaio to produce such an extensive work in four years by using assistants from his large workshop. At this time his brothers, brother-in-low and several students were working there; the young Michelangelo is thought to have been working there as an assistant, though this cannot be proved. It is likely that Ghirlandaio produced all the plans, but painted only parts of the works himself. The magnificent portraits and the atmospheric, well balanced spaces in the lower picture fields suggest that Ghirlandaio himself painted them. The upper pictures are of poorer quality, here - in the dizzy heights where pictures could be seen only from a distance - he allowed others to do the painting. With the wall and vault frescoes, panel paintings and designs for the windows, Ghirlandaio created a magnificent composite work which is a major example of chapel decoration at the end of the Quattrocento. This is the most famous and most celebrated work of Ghirlandaio, his reputation being based principally on it. The frescoes were restored in 1996.
— View along the nave to the Tornabuoni Chapel _ The church of Santa Maria Novella was founded in 1279. According to tradition, the church was designed by Dominican lay brothers inspired by the examples of Gothic Cistercian architecture. The construction was finished in 1357, the church was consecrated by Pope Martin V in 1420. The church is in the form of a "T" having a nave and two aisles. The ceiling is vaulted and the arches and windows are pointed. The arches of the three naves are sustained by clusters of slim stone columns with sculpted leaf capitals. The nave leads to the main chapel which until 1485 was under the patronage of the Ricci and Sassetti families. The patronage was took over by Giovanni Tornabuoni in 1485.

— Panel paintings _ Numerous works on wood complete the career of Ghirlandaio, who was known above all as a fresco painter. They are works which again emphasize his abilities as a colorist, the harmonious pleasantness of his composition, and his faithfulness to certain models of his time and his school. Though many of Ghirlandaio's motifs were influenced by Flemish panel paintings, he did not adopt their new technique of painting with oils, but continued to work predominantly with tempera throughout his life. Ghirlandaio's greatest achievement was the decoration of mainly private chapels with monumental frescoes. That was what he was famous for and why he was in demand. But the furnishings of a chapel also included an altarpiece, and normally this would consist of an altar painting. The commission for the Sassetti Chapel in Santa Trinità included a panel painting for the altar of the chapel, while that for the Tornabuoni Chapel a panel painting for the main altar in the church of Santa Maria Novella - the Pala Tornabuoni - and its rear panel facing the apsidal chapel. The altarpiece with the Adoration of the Shepherds from above the altar in the Sassetti Chapel and the Adoration of the Magi are mentioned above.

— Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints (1479, 170x160cm) _ A curtain of gold brocade is drawn to one side, making it possible for us to see the enthroned Madonna and the Christ Child. Held gently by his mother, Christ is standing upright on a cushion. His left hand casually resting on his hip, his right hand raised in blessing. Saint Peter and Pope Clement are on the left of the throne, Saint Paul and Saint Sebastian on the right. The motif of Christ Child, shown naked, seen from a frontal view standing on his mother's right thigh, was borrowed from Verrocchio.
— Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints (1483, 191x200cm) _ This was painted for the church of San Giusto, it shows a following of Verrocchio's example. It forms part of the most classical Florentine tradition of the time, with the wall enclosing the Holy Conversation and slender cypresses and fruit-trees beyond. The scene is really rather crowded. This was, albeit in a different vein, basically a return to the earliest Giotto tradition and to the tradition of Masaccio and the early Renaissance mediated by Benozzo Gozzoli and his Procession of the Magi for the Chapel of the Medici Palace in Via Larga. The picture is composed in a strictly symmetrical manner. The archangel Michael in shining armor is similar to Saint Julian in Ghirlandaio's earliest Sacra Conversazione. The trees are a quotation of the Last Supper in Ognissanti, and the carpet is similar to the table covering in the Ognissanti Saint Jerome.
— Madonna and Child Enthroned between Angels and Saints (1486, 168x197cm) _ At the front right, Pope Clement is kneeling. He has laid down his papal tiara in front of him and appears to be urging the observer to take part in a humble worship of the Madonna. Saint Dominic, the founder of the order of the Dominicans, is kneeling next to him, and on the right the Church Father Saint Thomas Aquinas is holding out a valuable book. _ Detail: the angel at the right to the Virgin.
— Coronation of the Virgin (1486, 330x230cm) _ Christ and his Mother appear on clouds amid the hosts of heaven. The angels are making music while Christ places the crown of the Queen of Heaven on the bowed head of the humble Virgin. In the lower register, many holy man and women are kneeling around Saint Francis and taking part in prayer in the solemn ceremony. The Coronation of the Virgin was probably painted in 1486. In the same period Ghirlandaio was beginning his frescoes for the Tornabuoni family at Santa Maria Novella. The Coronation is certainly a work of collaboration with others, even if, as often happens, it is difficult to identify the hands of the assistants. It is on the whole a little too crowded, removed from Ghirlandaio's measured structure; the gamut of colors however — soft, yet intense reds, blues and yellows - correspond with his taste. Despite certain touches that reveal a by now established style, the composition, whose perspective is achieved only by reason of the figures that slope from the lower to the upper levels, is closely reminiscent of Angelico's Coronation of the Virgin. It was a vivid memory for Ghirlandaio who in the first years of his apprenticeship had followed his master Alesso Baldovinetti, busy working on his frescoes in that church, beside Domenico Veneziano and Piero della Francesca.
— (another) Coronation of the Virgin (1486) _ In contrast with the old-fashioned picture in Narni, only the female saints in the center are kneeling in the Coronation of the Virgin; three holy men are standing on each side of them. This emphasizes the circular glory composed of airy shades of blue, giving the work a dynamic and animated character. The saints on this picture are mainly ones from the Franciscan order. On the far left stands the founder of the order, Saint Francis of Assisi. This altarpiece is not an autographed work, it was probably made by the workshop.
— Adoration of the Magi (1487, diameter 171cm) _ Ghirlandaio painted this large tondo for his great patrons, the Tornabuoni family. It is confirmed by the date in Roman numerals: MCCCCLXXXVII. In a serene and pleasingly illustrative way this very famous work, perhaps more famous than its actual worth, condenses some of the fundamental precepts of the Florentine Renaissance of the second generation. It can be said that the recent influence of Sandro Botticelli, who painted the Adoration of the Magi in 1475, predominates here: a vast lighted sky, with classical ruins of great luminous nobility in the background. Within them, and containing the manger, is a shed with sloping roofs, which in the moment of the Adoration of the Child shelters only the ox and the ass. The Virgin, the baby Jesus and a contemplative Saint Joseph, are out in the open; Mary, as if on a throne formed by a piece of classical architecture, offers up her newborn child to the homage of the Kings who have come from the east. Even the arrangement of some figures is reminiscent of Botticelli, although the style is more mannered. Although Domenico's warm, vivid colors become rather muted here, there are instances of great brightness, as in the striped clothes of the foreshortened black servant who bows his shaven head and places the crown on the blond-haired head of the young king, whose delicate profile is somewhat reminiscent of Filippino Lippi. Domenico cannot, and presumably does not want to, renounce his role as narrator and chronicler of surroundings and costumes. Here we find his careful and rather curious description in the figure standing on the left with a large red hat and in the person next to him wearing an ample yellow hood. In the background, resting after their long journey, the ranks of the bodyguard in helmets and armor stand by their restless and still pawing horses. And again there is that attention to Flemish tradition in the precise and yet poetic representation of the grass dotted with flowers, a large water-bottle and a rough cloth sack. There in a replica of this tondo, in smaller dimensions and entirely the work of Domenico's shop.

— Visitation (1491, 172x165cm) _ The meeting takes place in a broad landscape of rarefied atmosphere, with a series of large buildings bathed in sunlight. It is an affectionate, yet measured, encounter. The gentle submissiveness of Elisabeth is emphasized, as is the humble, modest attention of Mary with her face sweet and full of trepidation. The light veil, with its soft folds of fine, gossamer material, is full of delicate highlights. A large clasp of pearls and gold closes the cloak over her breast, a jewel of hard glassy material that contrasts somewhat with the softness of the colors and contours which give a not easily achieved mellowness to the whole, and which is once again reminiscent of the Flemish style. Above Mary and Elisabeth is a round arch affording a view onto a town, where we can see a triumphal arch next to the Roman Pantheon. At the sides two female saints, Mary Jacobi and Mary Salome flank the scene. This work is also the product of collaborators, as the difference in the rendition of the two female figures reveals. Sebastiano Mainardi may have been responsible for the slightly harder and more static Saint Elisabeth, while the Virgin, all veils and chiaroscuro, is by Ghirlandaio.
— Madonna in Glory with Saints (1496), 221x198cm) _ Ghirlandaio's greatest achievement was the decoration of mainly private chapels with monumental frescoes. The furnishings of a chapel also included an altarpiece, and normally this would consist of an altar painting. The altarpieces normally found in Gothic art, consisting of several individual panels, with images painted on a gold background, had largely disappeared by Ghirlandaio's time. A new type of altarpiece had become common: the square panel. In the Tornabuoni Chapel of the Santa Maria Novella, Ghirlandaio made sure that the painted furnishings were complete. Part of the entire extent of the Tornabuoni commission included a panel painting for the main altar in the church of Santa Maria Novella — the Pala Tornabuoni — and its rear panel facing the apsidal chapel. The ensemble was dismembered in 1816, the main altar painting, the six wings of the front side, the rear panel, the Resurrection of Christ going to various museums. Both works were begun during the last years of Ghirlandaio's life and were probably not completed until after he had died. There has been much debate as to which parts were painted by Ghirlandaio himself, and which by his workshop. In this the central panel, Mary, the main patron saint of the church, is floating in glory with her child, surrounded by angels and above Saint Dominic. Holding a book, Saint Dominic is kneeling in front of Archangel Michael. On the right, Saint John the Baptist is standing in front of the kneeling Saint John the Evangelist. The cycle of frescoes on the right wall of the chapel deals with the Baptist in more detail.
— Christ in Heaven with Four Saints and a Donor (1492, 308x199cm) _ The baldheaded donor with the striking profile humbly takes his place among the saints worshipping Christ. These are arranged in a rigid symmetry. Two local female saints in shining red are kneeling, seen from behind, in the foreground. The two male saints, similar to the point of confusion, are standing like columns on either side.
— Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Lawrence (1498) _ The picture shows two wings of the Pala Tornabuoni executed by Ghirlandaio's workshop and probably finished after the death of Ghirlandaio.
— Giovanna Tornabuoni (1488, 76x50cm) _ This portrait is probably the loveliest work on wood executed by Ghirlandaio. On a scroll ornament in the background, with the date "MCCCCLXXXVIII", is a Latin inscription which reads “Ars utinam mores animumque effigere posses pulchrior in terris nulla tabella foret.” It is generally considered to be the portrait of Giovanna degli Albizzi, wife of Lorenzo Tornabuoni, the same figure who appears in the scene of the Visitation in the choir of Santa Maria Novella. It may be regarded as one of the finest portraits of the Florentine school of the Quattrocento, revealing an extremely skilled and refined workmanship. The perfect profile of the young woman stands out clearly against the dark, shiny background. The erect posture, almost like a shapely column, does not hide the gentle curves in her soft back and in her magnificent, brightly colored costume of silk and brocade. The jewels, at once splendid and sparing, shine resplendently in a play of brilliant colors: the large pearls and a ruby, a gold ornament around her neck and another resting on a shelf opposite a half-closed prayer-book with gilt-edged pages, a necklace of red corals suspended from a board. In her clasped hands she holds a silk handkerchief. There is here a return to a certain metaphysical quality that is reminiscent of Paolo Uccello's profiles. It is evident in his masterly use of a material that becomes precious in the harmonious interaction of the space and the figure, which renders even the young woman's deliberately static pose agreeable and moving.
— An Old Man with a Child (1490, 62x46cm) _ This portrait forms part of the Florentine tradition that aimed so directly at the realistic rendition of the subject. The work has no precise date, nor has it been possible to establish, nor even deduce, the identity of the person. However, we can place it close to the frescoes of the Sassetti Chapel by virtue of certain stylistic affinities, particularly the background landscape which is similar to that of the Nativity, with its purplish sky that turns into gold. The serpentine road climbs up to a small church and a group of towering cypress trees. The old man, certainly a grandfather, with his pimply nose, has the intense expression of an old Florentine, all shrewdness and wisdom. His gray hair is so real as to closely resemble certain Flemish images. His tender, smiling gaze is directed at the boy, who has a delicate profile and curly blond hair, and who in an expression of affection presses against his grandfather. By their clothes, both the old man and the boy reveal that they belonged to a well-to-do family; the red cloth of the man's garments with its fox-fur border, and the harmonious alternating of red and black with a faint touch of whiteness in the boy's clothes, are enough to tell us that the scene takes place inside a wealthy middle-class home in Florence. The man's nose, disfigured by a skin disease, has in recent years led to the writing of several medical essays. Scratches in the paint layer disfigured it even further. This damage was removed by restoration work carried out in 1996.

— Annunciation (1490 mosaic) _ Ghirlandaio, painter of frescoes and also on wood, was also skilled as a mosaicist, a pupil of Alesso Baldovinetti in this art. Domenico enriched the modern art of working in mosaic infinitely more than any other Tuscan, as his works, though few, amply demonstrate. There is an Annunciation in mosaic in the Duomo of Florence. Over the side door of Santa Maria del Fiore leading to the Servites there is a very fine Annunciation in mosaic by Domenico, and nothing better has been produced by modern masters. Domenico used to say that painting was design, but that the true painting for eternity was mosaic. Of this mosaic destined for the door of the Mandorla Domenico only executed the cartoon, which was probably translated into mosaic by his brother David.
— Saint Stephen (1494, 191x56cm) _ The high altar of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Ghirlandaio's last work, was finished by his pupils. Until 1804 it stood in its original place, and then was dismembered and scattered in various collections all over Europe. The central piece depicts the Madonna and saints in a ring of cherubs, together with the wings portraying Saint Catherine and Saint Lawrence. The Resurrection was originally on the back of the central panel and was completed by Ghirlandaio's brothers Benedetto and Davidde. The wings representing Saint Vincent and Saint Anthony were destroyed in 1945 in Berlin, during the WW II. Today we cannot exactly reconstruct the original form of the altar. The painting was executed by Ghirlandaio and his workshop. _ Detail _ On the wings the emotional gestures of the saints shown and the lighter, more relaxed portrayal differ from the character of Ghirlandaio's authentic works, and also the technique of oil painting employed in parts of the work is not typical of him. On the other hand, this panel, both in its approach to form and its technical execution, stands very close to the work of the elder Ghirlandaio. The heavily cascading, harshly plastic folds of the martyred saint's habit, the cheerful composure of his face, the organically articulated forms which present sharp but nevertheless very subtle contours in the strong light, and the radiant colors all point to Domenico having worked on the painting himself. Very likely he sketched this figure of unaffected elegance standing in his ornate niche with a natural simplicity and modestly bearing the marks of his stoning, and it was he who painted the face.

— Adoration of the Magi for the Spedale degli Innocenti (1488). In 1485 Ghirlandaio received the commission for the great Adoration of the Magi for the main altar in the church of the Spedale degli Innocenti (a foundling hospital). The man behind this assignment was Francesco di Giovanni Tesori, the prior of the orphanage. The altarpiece was installed in 1488, just after its completion. Its belonging to Ghirlandaio, with the clear collaboration of assistants, has never been doubted. The work is polished and complete in all its parts, and taken as a whole represents one of Ghirlandaio's most important "easel" works, possibly because it was also the most official of them all. The same prior, Tesori, had commissioned the predella with stories of the Virgin. The scenes of the predella are the work of one of Ghirlandaio's pupils, Bartolommeo di Giovanni as confirmed by the records. The great cornice of the altarpiece had been executed by the carpenter Francesco Bartolo on designs by Giuliano da Sangallo.

— Adoration of the Magi (1488, 285x240cm) _ In the church of the Innocenti Ghirlandaio painted in tempera a much-admired picture of the Magi, containing some fine heads and varied physiognomies of people both young and old, notably a head of the Virgin, displaying all the modesty, beauty and grace which art can impart to the Mother of God. The painting belongs to the years in which Ghirlandaio and his assistants worked on the frescoes of the Cappella Maggiore of Santa Maria Novella. There is the same breadth, the same brightness in the landscape, closed in by that background wall which helps, rather than inhibits, the perspective and spatial effect. There are so many saints in this adoration that it is not easy to make out the three Magi. On the left, Saint John the Baptist is kneeling and pointing to the Madonna. The orphans of the Spedale are represented by two of the innocent boys who were killed during the Slaughter of the Innocents in Bethlehem, kneeling in the foreground. There are gaping bloody wounds to their faces, arms and necks. The tender Virgin, outside the shed, which is reconstructed on highly ornate classical pilasters, offers up her Child to the homage of the kings and devotees who are grouped around, in a profusion of vivid expressions, gestures and costumes and a blending and alternation of the most splendid colors Once again a peculiarly Flemish attention to detail emerges in Ghirlandaio's art — and particularly in the lavish oriental costumes, which were in fact probably inspired by the grandeur of those great occasions frequented by the richest citizens of Florence. Note the great turban of the fat man on the right, studded with pearls and rubies, or the hat of the person next to him, with its raised side edged with precious jewels and with the gold chain around his neck and the huge precious pendent; or the border of pearls and other gold-work ornaments of the dark young man standing slightly back from the others. In contrast is the simple figure of the Baptist in the act of pointing to the Child. Here too, however, Ghirlandaio cannot resist a rich red and black cloak with a golden border. Innocent young saints in their small transparent white tunics, haloed with gold, pay their homage to the Child Saint. Beyond the wall is an imaginary city, and an open landscape of limpid radiance, shining waters and mountains. Boats, ships and figures move about in it in a calm, peaceful atmosphere. A small tree is silhouetted against the clearness of the sky. The work is polished and complete in all its parts, and taken as a whole represents one of Ghirlandaio's most important "easel" works, possibly because it was also the most official of them all. Here too the assistants were at work. Indeed, in the harrowing scene of the Slaughter of the Innocents in the background, can be recognized the hand of Bartolomeo di Giovanni, the author of the stories from the predella, "Domenico's friend".
_ detail1 _ Ghirlandaio gazes out at us from this picture, more modestly than in his other self-portraits. It is thought that the churchman dressed in black in front of him is the man who commissioned the panel painting, Francesco di Giovanni Tesori. Above these two portraits, the Slaughter of the Innocents in Bethlehem is shown. The town beyond this, in which we can see monuments such as the Colosseum, Trajan's Column, the Torre delle Milizie, and a pyramid, is meant to be reminiscent of Rome.
_ Detail 2 _ The self-portrait of the artist behind the young king is very similar to that of the Santa Maria Novella painting of the Expulsion of Joachim from the Temple and the other of the Adoration of the Shepherds at Santa Trinità. The priest nearby is almost certainly the man who commissioned the work, Francesco di Giovanni Tesori, the prior who embellished the Spedale degli Innocenti with many important works of art. Ghirlandaio's portrait shows him to be a keen, sharp and intelligent man.
_ Detail 3 _ In the harrowing scene of the Slaughter of the Innocents in the background, Berenson recognized the hand of Bartolomeo di Giovanni, the author of the stories from the predella, whom he poetically called "Domenico's friend". The town beyond this, in which we can see monuments such as the Colosseum, Trajan's Column, the Torre delle Milizie, and a pyramid, is meant to be reminiscent of Rome.
_ Detail 4 _ A peculiarly Flemish attention to detail emerges in Ghirlandaio's art — and particularly in the lavish oriental costumes, which were in fact probably inspired by the grandeur of those great occasions frequented by the richest citizens of Florence. Note the great turban of the fat man on the right, studded with pearls and rubies, or the hat of the person next to him, with its raised side edged with precious jewels and with the gold chain around his neck and the huge precious pendent; or the border of pearls and other gold-work ornaments of the dark young man standing slightly back from the others. The three men's heads appear to be portraits, but can no longer be identified.
_ Detail 5 _ Beyond the wall is an imaginary city, and an open landscape of limpid radiance, shining waters and mountains. Boats, ships and figures move about in it in a calm, peaceful atmosphere. A small tree is silhouetted against the clearness of the sky.
_ Detail 6 _ Beyond the wall is an imaginary city, and an open landscape of limpid radiance, shining waters and mountains. The landscape is filled with many figures. Ships of all sort are sailing across the water, some of them with billowing sails. From behind a wall, two simply dressed men are watching the Adoration.
_ Detail 7 _ Four angels float above the scenes holding a banderole on which there are the words "Gloria in excelsis deo", set to music. Already singing, the angels are pointedly holding the notes out for the observer to see, as an invitation to take part in the song of praise to God.

Died on a 14 January:
1879 (or 1841?) James Arthur O'Connor, Irish painter born in 1792 — A Sailing Ship, Other Ships in the Distance (11x16cm)
1871 Eduardo Zamachois y Zabala, Spanish artist born in 1842.
1846 Jan Hendrik Verkeyen, Dutch artist born on 22 December 1778.
1813 William Marlow, British painter born in 1740. — LINKS

Born on a 14 January:
1878 Augustus Edwin John, British painter who died in 1961. — LINKS — Robin C. (1909) — Casper C. (1909) — Pyramus (1910)
1866 Art Young, US cartoonist who died on 29 December 1943.
1860 Domenico Pennachini, Italian artist who died in 1910.
1859 Paolo Sala, Italian artist who died on 20 December 1929. — Relative? of George Augustus Henry Sala [1828-1896]?
1852 Johannes Karel Christiaan Klinkenberg, Dutch artist who died in 1924.
1833 Ferdinand Meyer-Wismar, German artist who died on 26 March 1917.
1600 Pieter van Avont, Flemish artist who died in 1652.
1507 Luca Longhi (or Lunghi) “le Raphäel de Ravenne”, Italian artist who died on 12 August 1580. — Relative? of Barbara Longhi [1552-1638]?

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