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lives of the artists.
to illuminating and painting in miniature to the elder Boccardino,[1] by whom the greater part of the books in the Abbey of Florence were illuminated.[2] Gherardo departed this life at the age of seventy-three, and his works date about the year of our redemption 1470.[3]
DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO,[4] FLORENTINE PAINTER.
[born 1449—died about 1498.]
Domenico, son of Tommaso del Ghirlandajo, who, by the pre-eminence of his talents and the importance and number of his works, is entitled to be placed among the first and most excellent masters of his time, was formed by nature to
- ↑ Bottari observes that no further notice of Stefano and Boccardino was to be found in his day, but later Italian writers mention two artists of the name, both illuminators or miniaturists. The artist here alluded to by Vasari, was called Giovanni di Giuliano. His name, Avith that of Francesco, his son, will be found in the old book of the painters before cited, under the date 1525.
- ↑ The reader who shall desire minute details on this subject, is referred to Schottky, Pergamentmalereien, &c., des Mittelalters.— Munich, 1833. Shaw and Madden, Coloured Ornaments, &c., London, 1835. Dr. Waagen, Reise. Kunstwerke, &c. See also Bastard's costly Avork on miniature painting, published in Paris, &c. On the suppression of this convent by the French GoA^ernment, the miniatures Avere in many instances cut from the books; in others, books and illuminations Avere destroyed together.
- ↑ It has been generally agreed, among the annotators on our author, to accept these dates as an intimation of the time about Avhich the works ot the master ceased to appear, or sometimes as that of his death; but this cannot here be the case, since the mosaics of the chapel of San Zanobi were not commenced until somewhere about 1490; and the prints of Martin Shon and Albert Diirer did not appear in Italy until the beginning of the sixteenth century. Gherardo must consequently have been living, and even working in the early years of that century. He must therefore have been tlie survivor of Ghirlandajo, Avho died in 1495.
- ↑ Much dispute has arisen concerning the true name of this master, whom Del Migliore and Orlando call Currado, or De Curradi; but Manni (in a note to Baldinucci), and after him the later annotators, affirm Currado to have been the baptismal name of Ghirlandajo’s grandfather, and declare his family name to have been Bigordi; citing documents in proof.
