Apprenticeship[edit]

Gozzoli was born Benozzo di Lese,[2] son of a tailor, in the village of Sant'Ilario a Colombano around
1421. His family moved to nearby Florence in 1427. According to the 16th century Italian
biographer Giorgio Vasari, Gozzoli was a pupil and assistant of Fra Angelico in the early part of his
career. In this role, Gozzoli assisted Angelico in the execution of fresco decorations in the dormitory
cells of the Convent of San Marco in Florence. Established contributions here include The Adoration
of the Magi in Cosimo de' Medici's cell and the Women at the Tomb in a larger depiction of
the Resurrection of Christ in cell 8. Like many other Early Renaissance painters, Benozzo was
initially trained as a goldsmith as well as a painter. Between 1444 and 1447, he was therefore able
to collaborate with Lorenzo Ghiberti on the famous Gates of Paradise of the Florence Baptistery.

Madonna and Child Giving Blessings, Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Rome, 1449 (also attributed to Fra
Angelico).

On May 23, 1447, Benozzo was with Fra Angelico in Rome, to where they were called by Pope
Eugene IV to carry out fresco decorations in a chapel in the Vatican Palace. This chapel was later
demolished, so nothing of these works remains. He then accompanied Angelico to Umbria, where
they decorated a chapel vault in the Orvieto Cathedral. Due to political complications in the city, they
completed only two of the four vault webs and were again summoned to the Vatican. There, the pair
worked for Nicholas V in the Niccoline Chapel until June 1448. Gozzoli is assumed to have made
significant contributions in the chapel's frescoes. Furthermore, the attribution of a 1449 Madonna
and Child Giving Blessings in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva is disputed between Gozzoli
and Fra Angelico. In Rome, Gozzoli also executed a fresco of St Anthony of Padua in the Basilica of
Santa Maria in Aracoeli.
Both Fra Angelico and Lorenzo Ghiberti were to influence much of Gozzoli's work for the rest of his
life. From Ghiberti he learned precision in depicting the finest details and how to illustrate a story
vividly, while from Fra Angelico, he took his bright color palette, transferring it to the art of fresco
painting.[3]

In Umbria[edit]
Scenes from the Life of St Francis, Museum Complex of San Francesco, Montefalco, 1452.

In 1449, Gozzoli left Angelico and moved to Umbria. In the hilltown of Narni there is
an Annunciation from 1450, signed OPU[S] BENOT[I] DE FLORENT[IA]. In the monastery of San
Fortunato, near Montefalco, Gozzoli painted a Madonna and Child between St. Francis and St.
Bernardine of Siena, and three other works. One of these, the altarpiece Madonna of the Girdle, is
now in the Vatican Museums and shows the affinity of Benozzo's early style to Angelico's.
In 1450, Gozzoli received his first major independent commission from the monastery of S.
Francesco in Montefalco. There, he filled the choir chapel with three registers of episodes from the
life of St Francis of Assisi and various accessories, including portrait heads
of Dante, Petrarch and Giotto. These works were completed in 1452, and are still marked by the
style of Angelico, crossed here and there with a more distinctly Giottesque influence.[4] In the same
church, in the chapel of Saint Jerome, there is a fresco by Gozzoli of the Virgin and Saints,
the Crucifixion and other subjects.
Gozzoli probably remained at Montefalco (with an interval at Viterbo) until 1456, employing Pier
Antonio Mezzastris as an assistant. Then, he went to Perugia and painted a Virgin and Saints that is
now in the local academy.