Hall of Council are certain figures, partly by his hand, and partly by an older master, but restored by him.[1] For the monks of Monte Oliveto, in the same district, he painted a Crucifix and other pictures; but the best work executed by Benozzo in that place was a fresco in the principal chapel of the church of Sant’Agostino, where he painted stories from the life of the titular saint, from his conversion, that is, to his death.[2] Of all this work I have the design, by the master’s own hand, in my book, with several drawings of those described above, as executed in the Campo Santo of Pisa. In Volterra, likewise, Benozzo performed certain works, but these do not require further mention.[3]
Now it happened that when Benozzo was working in Rome, there was another painter then in that city called Melozzo, and who came from Forlì; many, therefore, not being better informed, and having found written Melozzo, while the dates agreed, have believed that this Melozzo should have been Benozzo;[4] but they are in error, for the painter Melozzo was one who lived at the same time with Gozzoli, and was very zealous in the study of art; he gave his attention more particularly to foreshortening, which he executed with great care and diligence; of this a proof may be seen in the church of Sant’ Apostolo, in Rome, on the tribune of the High Altar, where there are certain figures gathering grapes, in a frieze painted in perspective as an ornamental framework to the picture, with a cask, which are exceedingly well done. But this quality of Melozzo is even more obviously apparent in the Ascension of Jesus Christ, whose figure is seen in the midst of a choir of angels, by whom he is borne to heaven.[5] In this picture the figure of
- ↑ This is the fresco of Lippo Memmi.
- ↑ This fresco, some parts excepted, is still in good preservation; the works previously described as existing in Monte Oliveto, are probably those still to be seen in the cloisters, but they are rudely executed, and much defaced.
- ↑ The Adoration of the Magi’ in the chapel of the Madonna, is still pointed out in the cathedral of Volterra, as the work of Benozzo Gozzoli.
- ↑ An error into which Vasari himself fell in the first instance, not having, as he tells us himself in the first edition, then seen any work of Melozzo’s, or obtained any exact information concerning him.
- ↑ This artist has been rarely alluded to by English writers, but “the grand and beautiful angels of Melozzo of Forli ” are cited in terms of high commendation by Mrs. Jameson. See Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art, voL i. p. 20.
