Gozzoli, BENOZZO

Gozzoli, BENOZZO (properly Benozzo di Lese), an Italian fresco-painter, a pupil of Fra Angelico, was born at Florence about 1420. At Montefalco (1450-52) he painted the 'Virgin giving her Girdle to St Thomas' in S. Fortunato, and a series of frescoes illustrating the life of St Francis, an Annunciation, and a Crucifixion, in the monastery of S. Francesco. At Florence (1456-64) he adorned the Palazzo Riccardi with scriptural subjects, and painted various similar frescoes at San Gemignano (1464-67). His name is likewise intimately associated with a series of twenty-four fine frescoes in the Campo Santo or cemetery at Pisa (1468-84). He died at Pisa in 1498. His works show great individuality of treatment, true landscape feeling, and something of the naturalistic tendencies of Fra Filippo. See an article by Stillman in the Century for November 1889.