GHIRLANDAJO, Organ-dilly& A family of Florentine painters. Their real family name was Bigordi, and the name Ghirlandajo or Grillandajo (garland-maker) was first given to TOMMASO Brconnr, a goldsmith, because he invented a fashionable silver wreath, used in ladies' head dresses. His son DomENrco (1449-94), the chief member of the family, was born in Flor ence, and brought up in his father's trade. He studied painting and mosaic under Alesso Bal dovinetti, and was also influenced by Castagno and Verrocchio (q.v.). The earliest record of his activity is in 1475, when we find him employed in the Vatican library at Rome. The works executed there have been lost, but there is a possibility that his fresco "Call of Saints Peter and Andrew," in the Sistine Chapel, was painted then, although it is usually assigned to 1485. It is, perhaps, the best of the fifteenth-century paintings of the Sistine Chapel, being excellent in composition, with good landscape and perspec tive; the color is unattractive. His frescoes in the Capella Fina, in the Collegiate Church of San Gimignano, treating the "Life of Saint Fina," were completed, for the most part, before 1475. They are especially remarkable for the modesty and grace of the female figures. The frescoes in Ognisanti, Florence, finished in 1480, show the painter fully developed. Of these only two paintings survive, the "Last Supper" and "Saint Jerome." The former is probably the best representation of the subject painted in the fifteenth century, and far excels his later fresco of the same subject in San Marco. His Saint Jerome is a companion piece to Botticelli's Saint Augustine. From 1481 to 1485 Domenico was occupied in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, which in point of historic decoration was long the rival of the Sistine Chapel at Rome. Of all its frescoes only Ghirlandajo's survive, and of these the decorations of the chapel have been spoiled by restoration. His "Saint Zenobius Enthroned" is a grand architectural composition.
On December 15, 1485, he completed the fres coes of the Sassetti Chapel in Santa Trinity, Flor ence. The figures of the donor and his family on either side of the altar are comparable in the dignity of their realism with those of the Ghent altar by the Van Eycks (q.v.). The frescoes represent scenes from the life of Saint Francis, and show the decided influence of the same sub ject by Giotto in Santa Croce. The heads are
nearly all portraits, and the scenes are set amid views of Florence. This work is better in color and in technique than any of his previous pro ductions; but the finest of his frescoes are those in the Tornabuone Chapel, Santa Maria Novel la, finished in 1490. Here, too, are figures of the donors; in lunette above is God the Father surrounded by the patron saints of Florence. Be low them are the "Annunciation" and the "Bap tist" on either side, typifying the subjects of the' frescoes represented, that is to say, the "Legend of the Virgin" and the "Life of John the Baptist." On the vaulted roof are frescoes representing the "Four Evangelists." Domenico's easel pictures are not of equal importance; his art was more adapted to monu mental fresco. Among his chief easel pictures, all of which are painted in tempera, are the altarpiece of the Sassetti Chapel (1485), now in the Uffizi; "Coronation of the Virgin" (1486), in the Palazzo Publico, Narni; the circular "Adora tion of the Kings" (1487) in the Uffizi, and the altarpiece of Santa Maria deg,li Innocenti repre senting the same subject. The latter is one of his best works. A dignified work is the "Virgin Enthroned," now in the Uffizi. The altarpiece of Santa Maria Novella (1490) is divided between Berlin and Munich, and his last easel picture. "The Visitation" (1491), is in the Louvre.
Domenico passed practically all his life in Florence, where he died January 11, 1494. He was the painter par excellence of Florentine life.
He represents the highest development of realism in the art of his century. He united in himself in a remarkable manner all the tendencies of Florentine art, ancient and modern, Masaccio, even Giotto, having influenced him. From the purely technical side he was one of the greatest painters that Florence ever produced. Although somewhat lacking in originality, he excelled in composition, was a fine draughtsman, and, for Florence, an excellent colorist.
Divine (1452-1525) and BENEDETTO GIIIR LA NDAJO (1458-97), brothers and pupils of Do menico, assisted their brother, but painted no in dependent works that survive. The mosaic of the "Annunciation" over the first north portal of the Cathedral of Florence is the work of Do menico and Davide. Among Domenico's other pupils were his brother-in-law Bastiano Mai nardi, Francesco Granacci (q.v.), and, for a brief time, Michelangelo.