Domenico Ghirlandaio

Domenico Ghirlandaio (* 1449 in Florence, † January 11, 1494 ibid; actually Domenico di Tommaso di Corradi Doffo Bigordi ) was a Florentine painter of the Renaissance.

Life

As the first of eight children born in Florence, Domenico Ghirlandaio first took on an apprenticeship as a goldsmith before he learned to paint in the workshop of Alesso Baldovinetti and put mosaics. During his early years, little is known, it is known that he was from 1480 to 1491 a very productive, technically excellent and widely recognized artists. For the last three years of life, however, not a single work has been preserved. Ghirlandaio died of the plague in 1494. He was married twice and left three sons and three daughters.

To Ghirlandaio's pupils included the role Michelangelo, who was paid with 13 years assistant in his workshop.

Work

Ghirlandaio created panel paintings, monumental frescoes and mosaics. The secular life of the Renaissance reflected in his religious paintings that he painted mostly in contemporary surroundings. In his frescoes in the churches of Santa Maria Novella ( scenes from the life of Mary and scenes from the life of John the Baptist in the Tornabuoni Chapel, 1485-1490 ) and Santa Trinita ( life of St. Francis in the Sassetti Chapel, 1485 ) appear numerous personalities of his time, including several members of the Medici family. Ghirlandaio also painted numerous portraits in which he is individual of his models showed ( Old man with grandson, about 1490, wood 62 x 46 cm, the old man will probably make a Florentine patrician from - as individual and yet so unflattering that medical skin disease were able to diagnose the nose of the ancients as Rosenakne ( rhinophyma ) ).

In the Berlin Gemäldegalerie the 44.5 × 31.3 cm big picture Ghirlandaio Judith is on the way to Bethulien from the year 1489th

Among the most beautiful portraits of the Florentine Quattrocento counts the portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni by 1488th It is now kept in the Madrid Museo Thyssen- Bornemisza Palacio Villahermosa.

Pictures

(Selection)

Old man with grandson, Paris, Louvre, 1488

Putative model for the portrait of his grandfather

Portrait of a Lady, Williamstown, Clark Art Institute, about 1490

Tornabuoni Chapel, detail

Adoration of the Shepherds, 1485

Pala Tornabuoni (former high altar of S. Maria Novella, Florence), here fragments in the Alte Pinakothek