DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51584#0151
GHIBLANDAJO.
147
time, expressed a wish that Ghirlandajo would be
content with the sum first stipulated, and forego the
additional two hundred ducats. The high-minded
painter, who esteemed glory and honour much more
than riches, immediately withdrew his claim, saying
that he cared far more to have satisfied his employer
than for any amount of payment.
Besides his frescoes, Ghirlandajo painted many
easel pictures in oil and in distemper. There is one
of great beauty in the Louvre—the Visitation
(1022), about four feet in height: but the subject
he most frequently repeated was the Adoration of
the Magi. In the Florence Gallery are two pic-
tures of this subject: another of a circular form,
which had been painted for the Tornabuoni family,
was in the collection of Lucien Bonaparte. In the
Munich Gallery there is one picture by Ghirlan-
dajo, and in the Museum at Berlin there are six;
one of them a beautiful portrait of a young girl of
the Tornabuoni family, whom he has also intro-
duced into his frescoes.
It may be said, on the whole, that the attention
of Ghirlandajo was directed less to the delineation
of form than to the expression of his heads and the
imitation of life and nature as exhibited in feature
and countenance. He also carried the mechanical
and technical part of his art to a perfection it had
not before attained. He was the best colourist in
147
time, expressed a wish that Ghirlandajo would be
content with the sum first stipulated, and forego the
additional two hundred ducats. The high-minded
painter, who esteemed glory and honour much more
than riches, immediately withdrew his claim, saying
that he cared far more to have satisfied his employer
than for any amount of payment.
Besides his frescoes, Ghirlandajo painted many
easel pictures in oil and in distemper. There is one
of great beauty in the Louvre—the Visitation
(1022), about four feet in height: but the subject
he most frequently repeated was the Adoration of
the Magi. In the Florence Gallery are two pic-
tures of this subject: another of a circular form,
which had been painted for the Tornabuoni family,
was in the collection of Lucien Bonaparte. In the
Munich Gallery there is one picture by Ghirlan-
dajo, and in the Museum at Berlin there are six;
one of them a beautiful portrait of a young girl of
the Tornabuoni family, whom he has also intro-
duced into his frescoes.
It may be said, on the whole, that the attention
of Ghirlandajo was directed less to the delineation
of form than to the expression of his heads and the
imitation of life and nature as exhibited in feature
and countenance. He also carried the mechanical
and technical part of his art to a perfection it had
not before attained. He was the best colourist in