GOZZOLI, gat'so-M, IIENozzo (1420-98). A Florentine painter of the early Renaissance. His real name was Benozzo di Lese, and he was born near Florence. He began his career as a goldsmith, and assisted Ghiberti on the bronze gates of the Baptistery at Florence. A pupil of Fra Angelico, he assisted him in the painting of the vault in the Chapel of the Madonna di San Brizio, in the cathedral at Orvieto, in 1447; the follow ing two years he was at Rome, and from 1450 to 1452 at Montefaleo. Perhaps the greatest monument to his style is in the frescoes, executed in 1459, in the private chapel of the Riccardi Palace, Florence. The subject of the paintings is the "Story of the Magi," which is interpreted with a true love for the pageant of the fifteenth century. It is executed with the charm of a miniature on a large scale, and a decorative quality rarely equaled in the same century. From 1464 to 1467 he painted an important series from the life of Saint Augustine, in the Church of San Agostino at San Gimignano. The series of twenty-two frescoes on the wall of the Campo Santo, Pisa, is a testimony to his versa tility in the interpretation of scenes from the history of the Old Testament, beginning with the "Life of Noah," and ending with the "Visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon." The Pisans
showed their appreciation of this great work by presenting him with a sarcophagus, in which he was interred on his death at Pisa, in 1498. His color was light in tones; his technique smooth in quality; his subjects were interpreted with a religious feeling and poetic naturalness, each detail being painted with a goldsmith's love for the decorative quality. His story-telling quality is his greatest achievement, revealing his varied interests as a portrait painter, landscape painter, animal painter, costumer, architect, and decorator. His easel pictures are rare. The best known are two "Madonnas with Four Saints," in the Gallery of Perugia, and in the National Gallery, London; and the "Apotheosis of Saint Thomas Aquinas," in the Louvre. Consult: Vasari, Fite, ed. by Milanesi (Florence, 1878-85; English translation, Blashfield and Hopkins, vol. ii. (New York, 1897) ; Liibke, Geschichte der italienischen Ma lerci, vol. i. (Stuttgart, 1878) ; P. Lasinio, Pit tare a fresco del Campo Santo di Pisa (Florence, 1832).