Ridolfo Ghirlandaio
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Ridolfo di Domenico Bigordi, better known as Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (14 February 1483 – 6 June 1561) was an
Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...
painter active mainly in
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
. He was the son of Domenico Ghirlandaio.


Biography

He was born in
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
. Since he was eleven years old when his father died, Ridolfo was brought up by his uncle
Davide Ghirlandaio Davide Ghirlandaio (1452–1525), also known as David Ghirlandaio and as Davide Bigordi, was an Italian painter and mosaicist, active in his native Florence. His brothers Benedetto Ghirlandaio (1458–1497) and Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449–14 ...
, also a painter.
Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...
states that he received further training under Fra Bartolomeo. His works painted between 1504 and 1508 show a marked influence from Fra Bartolomeo and
Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...
, with whom he was friends. Raphael asked Ridolfo to join him in Rome in 1508, but the Florentine painter stayed. In Florence, he became one of the most prominent painters of altarpieces, frescoes, and portraits, many of which survive. He was also the head of a thriving workshop whose pupils included Michele Tosini (also known as Michele di Ridolfo), Domenico Puligo, Bartolomeo Ghetti, Antonio del Ceraiolo, Toto del Nunziata, Mariano Graziadei da Pescia, Carlo Portelli and others. Ridolfo was prominent in the execution of works for various public occasions, such as the wedding of Giuliano de' Medici, and the entry of
Leo X Pope Leo X ( it, Leone X; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521. Born into the prominent political an ...
into Florence in 1515. By 1527 he had already accumulated a handsome property, more than sufficient in maintaining the affluence of his large family of fifteen children. His sons traded in France and in Ferrara, and he himself took a part in commercial affairs. The family villa at Colle Ramole, near Florence, still has a chapel with frescoes by Ridolfo depicting the Virgin and Child with saints adored by members of the Ghirlandaio family. In addition to painting, Ridolfo also experimented with
mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...
s, but it seems that only one such work, the ''Annunciation'' over the door of the Santissima Annunziata, survives today. In his old age Ridolfo was greatly disabled by
gout Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intens ...
. File:Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio - Adoration of the Shepherds (detail) - WGA08920.jpg, ''Nativity'' (detail), 1510. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts. File:Madonna col bambino, sant'anna e santi, michele tosini e ridolfo del ghirlandaio, prato, chiesa di santo spirito.jpg, ''Madonna and Child with Saint Anne, and Saints Roch and James below'', circa 1520. Prato, Santo Spirito. File:Ridolfo del ghirlandaio, annunciazione, 1515 ca, da pieve di s. pietro a pitiana (reggello) 05.JPG, ''Annunciation'' (detail), Pieve a Pitiana (Reggello), San Pietro.


Works

Ridolfo's masterpieces include a number of altarpieces, including the ''Madonna della Cintola'' (1503–09) over the door of the cathedral in Prato; the ''Way to Calvary'' for the church of San Gallo, Florence (now London,
National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...
); the ''Coronation of the Virgin'' (1504), originally at San Jacopo di Ripoli, Florence, and now at the
Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon The Musée du Petit Palais is a museum and art gallery in Avignon, southern France. It opened in 1976 and has an exceptional collection of Renaissance paintings of the Avignon school as well as from Italy, which reunites many "primitives" from ...
; and the ''Nativity'' for the cathedral in Basel, Switzerland, and now at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. For the Oratory of the Bigallo, Florence, he painted the predella (1515) to its venerated altarpiece; this predella consists of five panels representing the ''Nativity, Flight into Egypt, Madonna of Mercy'' and other subjects such as the Bigallo performing charitable burials. He painted several altarpieces for the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, Florence, and its dependencies. In 1514 Ridolfo completed one of his most prominent civic commissions: the frescoes in the chapel of Saint Bernard in the Palazzo Pubblico (now Palazzo Vecchio), Florence. These include images of the ''Trinity'' surrounded by the heads of the twelve apostles and other accessories, a lunette of the ''Annunciation'' and another with the ''Vision of Saint Bernard''. In 1517 he painted two large panels of ''Saint Zenobius Resuscitating a Child'' and the ''Translation of the Body of Saint Zenobius''. These panels, now at the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, originally flanked a large ''Annunciation'' by
Mariotto Albertinelli Mariotto di Bindo di Biagio Albertinelli (13 October 1474 – 5 November 1515) was an Italian Renaissance painter active in Florence. He was a close friend and collaborator of Fra Bartolomeo.Ludovico Borgo and Margot Borgo.Albertinelli, Mario ...
, now also at the Accademia. Later works include the ''Assumption of the Virgin'' (1519–24) for Santa Maria dei Battillani, Florence (now Berlin, Gemäldegalerie), which includes a self portrait; a ''Pietà'' (1521) for Sant'Agostino, Colle di Val d'Elsa; and the ''Madonna and Child with Saints'' (1528) for at San Pietro Maggiore in Pistoia. He painted a portrait of a young Cosimo I de' Medici, future Grand-Duke, now in the Uffizi. In 1543 he completed a series of frescoes in the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence. Many of his last works were finished or realized entirely by his pupil and heir, Michele Tosini, also called Michele di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio on account of his close relationship with Ridolfo. His portraits include fine examples at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Galleria Palatina in Florence, the
Dunedin Public Art Gallery The Dunedin Public Art Gallery holds the main public art collection of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. Located in The Octagon in the heart of the city, it is close to the city's public library, Dunedin Town Hall, and other facilities such as ...
, the Museo Thyssen Bornemisza in Madrid and the
Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...
s, among others. Among his small-scale devotional works is a beautiful ''Adoration by the Shepherds'' at the Snite Museum of Art at Notre Dame University, Indiana, and a small triptych of the same subject at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, New York. File:Ridolfo Ghirlandaio Columbus.jpg, ''Portrait of Columbus''. Pegli (Genoa), Museo Navale. File:Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio - Portrait of a Woman - WGA08926.jpg, ''Portrait of a Lady''. Florence, Galleria Palatina. File:Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio 003.jpg, ''Portrait of a Man''. Madrid, Museo Thyssen Bornemisza. File:Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio 005.jpg, ''Portrait of Baldo Magni''. Prato, Museo di Palazzo Pretorio. File:Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio - Portrait of an Old Man - WGA08924.jpg, ''Portrait of a Man''. Saint Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum.


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghirlandaio, Ridolfo 1483 births 1561 deaths 15th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 16th-century Italian painters Painters from Florence Italian Renaissance painters