Albertinelli, Mariotto, 1474-1515; Bartolomeo, fra, 1472-1517; Sarto, Andrea del, 1486-1530
His two masterpieces are now in the Uffizi; they were painted for
the Brotherhood of S. Zenobio, 1510, to stand one on each side of
Albertinelli's _Annunciation_. One is _S. Zenobio_ (the first bishop and
patron saint of Florence) _restoring a dead child to life_; the other
the _Funeral Procession of the Saint passing the Baptistery_, where an
elm tree, which had been withered, put forth fresh leaves as the coffin
of the bishop touched it. A marble column, with a bronze tree in relief
on it, stands on the spot as a memorial of this miracle. In these two
works Ridolfo Ghirlandajo proved the power which was in him, but they
are the culmination of his art; he never surpassed, or indeed equalled
them again. His richness of colouring and deep relief equalled that of
the Frate, the animation and expression rivalled Andrea del Sarto. In
the first picture, the eagerness of the crowd, the intense feeling of
the mother, in whom grief for the dead child seems almost greater
than the hope of his resuscitation, the sturdy, solid character of the
Florentines of the Republic, are all given with a masterly hand, while a
rich blending of colour fuses the animated crowd in a harmonious unison.
In the latter, grandeur and dignity mark the group of ecclesiastics
which surrounds the archbishop's bier, the full solid falls of their
drapery show that he had well studied his father's works.
Ridolfo's brothers became monks, Don Bartolommeo lived in the
Camaldoline Monastery of the Angeli, which Ridolfo beautified with many
works. Paolo Uccelli had adorned the Loggia with frescoed stories from
the life of S. Benedict. Ridolfo added two to the series. In one the
Saint is at table with two angels, waiting for S. Romano to send his
bread from the grotto, but the devil has cut the cord and taken it.
Another is _S, Benedict investing a youth with the habit of the order_.
In the church of the same monastery he painted a beautiful _Madonna and
Child, with Angels_, above the holy water vase, and _S. Romualdo with
the Camaldolese Hermitage in his Hand_, in a lunette in the cloister.
All these were done as a brotherly gift, and after they were finished,
the abbot, Don Andrea Dossi, gave him a commission to paint a _Last
Supper_ in the refectory, which he did, placing the portrait of the
abbot in the corner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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