DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68073#0095
FLORENTINE
69
undoubtedly have some particular and sentimental association for
Giovanna. Giovanna died the same year this portrait was painted;
in this year her father-in-law, Giovanni Tornabuoni, also uncle of Lo-
renzo de’ Medici, commissioned Ghirlandaio to decorate the walls of
the choir of Sta. Maria Novella with the Lives of John the Baptist
and the Virgin; and here again the portrait of Giovanna degli Albizzi
appears. Let us turn to Mrs. Cartwright for a description of this
remarkable series of frescoes:
“These twenty-one subjects have been much injured by damp and
restoration and the hand of inferior assistants is plainly seen in many
of the best preserved portions. But as a splendid illustration of Flor-
entine life the whole series is of rare interest. On the one hand we have
the public and official life of the Tornabuoni, their stately banquets
and processions; on the other, we catch a glimpse of their private and
domestic history. In the guests seated at Herods Feast, in the crowds
who throng the temple court, we recognize the Tornabuoni and their
kinsmen, the partners of the Medici bank, Gianfrancesco Ridolfi,
Roderigo Sassetti, and Andrea de’ Medici. On one side we have a
group of famous humanists—Angelo Poliziano, Marsilio Ficino, Cristo-
foro Landino, and Lorenzo’s tutor, Gentile de’ Becchi; on the other,
we see the painter with his aged father and his brother, David, and
brother-in-law, Sebastiano Mainardi, the assistants who helped in the
decoration of the choir. Giovanna degli Albizzi, the fair maiden who
on the 16th of June, i486, became the bride of Lorenzo Tornabuoni,
is here in her stiff brocades and rich jewels with her young sister-in-law,
Lodovica, and many noble dames on their way to visit the mother and
new-born babe. These frescoes, which were finally completed in 1490,
filled the Tornabuoni family with delight and wonder, and Ghirlandaio
was next employed to paint the chapel of their villa near Fiesole, which
was unfortunately destroyed by floods in the next century.”
As in the case of so many Italian painters, the name by which Ghir-
landaio is known is only a nickname: it means “Garland-maker,” and
was given to him because his first reputation was derived from the
beautiful gold and silver garlands and wreaths he made for the wealthy
ladies of fashion. Ghirlandaio, son of Tommaso Bigordi, a silk mer-
69
undoubtedly have some particular and sentimental association for
Giovanna. Giovanna died the same year this portrait was painted;
in this year her father-in-law, Giovanni Tornabuoni, also uncle of Lo-
renzo de’ Medici, commissioned Ghirlandaio to decorate the walls of
the choir of Sta. Maria Novella with the Lives of John the Baptist
and the Virgin; and here again the portrait of Giovanna degli Albizzi
appears. Let us turn to Mrs. Cartwright for a description of this
remarkable series of frescoes:
“These twenty-one subjects have been much injured by damp and
restoration and the hand of inferior assistants is plainly seen in many
of the best preserved portions. But as a splendid illustration of Flor-
entine life the whole series is of rare interest. On the one hand we have
the public and official life of the Tornabuoni, their stately banquets
and processions; on the other, we catch a glimpse of their private and
domestic history. In the guests seated at Herods Feast, in the crowds
who throng the temple court, we recognize the Tornabuoni and their
kinsmen, the partners of the Medici bank, Gianfrancesco Ridolfi,
Roderigo Sassetti, and Andrea de’ Medici. On one side we have a
group of famous humanists—Angelo Poliziano, Marsilio Ficino, Cristo-
foro Landino, and Lorenzo’s tutor, Gentile de’ Becchi; on the other,
we see the painter with his aged father and his brother, David, and
brother-in-law, Sebastiano Mainardi, the assistants who helped in the
decoration of the choir. Giovanna degli Albizzi, the fair maiden who
on the 16th of June, i486, became the bride of Lorenzo Tornabuoni,
is here in her stiff brocades and rich jewels with her young sister-in-law,
Lodovica, and many noble dames on their way to visit the mother and
new-born babe. These frescoes, which were finally completed in 1490,
filled the Tornabuoni family with delight and wonder, and Ghirlandaio
was next employed to paint the chapel of their villa near Fiesole, which
was unfortunately destroyed by floods in the next century.”
As in the case of so many Italian painters, the name by which Ghir-
landaio is known is only a nickname: it means “Garland-maker,” and
was given to him because his first reputation was derived from the
beautiful gold and silver garlands and wreaths he made for the wealthy
ladies of fashion. Ghirlandaio, son of Tommaso Bigordi, a silk mer-