Providing a reassessment of Benozzo Gozzoli, one of the most esteemed and prolific artists of the Renaissance, this work focuses on the social and cultural context within which he worked. The book provides stylistic and technical discussions of each of his major works.
Includes bibliography: p. 312-332 and index.
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Library Journal Review
Was artist Benozzo Gozzoli an accomplished Quatrocento artist or a second-rate Fra Angelico? Thanks to this first comprehensive study of the artist in English in nearly a century, a verdict is possible. Ahl (art, Lafayette Coll.) consolidates ten years of fresh research into a lavishly illustrated, seminal work detailing Gozzoli's 60-year artistic career. Analysis of drawings, sinopie (red-pigmented fresco underdrawing), and historic documents portray Gozzoli as a prolific, talented artist who was widely commissioned. A full chapter is devoted to what is probably his most famous work, the "Procession of the Magi" frescoes at the Medici Palace in Florence. Restoration of this work in 1992 provided great opportunity for thorough examination of the artist's technique and style. Other restoration projects support the belief that, far from being provincial, Gozzoli was sensitive to the traditions of a diverse clientele and well versed in sacred narrative. Highly recommended for art history collections and informed lay readers on the eve of the quincentennial of Gozzoli's death.Nadine Dalton Speidel, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L., Parma, Ohio (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
CHOICE Review
This monograph on Benozzo Gozzoli is a long-overdue account in English of the life of this underappreciated Florentine Renaissance artist. Benozzo enjoyed a long career, and among his patrons were the Medici, a variety of different religious orders, and even the most humble patrons in Florence and in smaller communities. Ahl (Lafayette College) has written a book impressive for its tight prose, extensive documentation, and excellent color illustrations. She has organized the monograph chronologically, establishing Benozzo's early work in Fra Angelico's shop, then detailing his stylistic development and examining the needs and goals of his patrons. For example, Ahl's discussion of Benozzo's Journey of the Magi, painted in 1459 for the Medici palace private chapel in Florence, comes alive with her sensitive formal analysis of the newly cleaned murals, her presentation of documents that reveal Benozzo's repeatedly patient and diplomatic requests for finances and materials from the temperamental Cosimo de' Medici, and finally her examination of the Medici devotion to the cult of the Magi and how Benozzo's murals respond to Medici spiritual and political needs. One wonders only if we will ever know more about Benozzo's ideas, his philosophy of art, and his own needs. Recommended acquisition for lower-division undergraduates (for the plates) and for upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty. A. L. Palmer University of Oklahoma
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BookPublisher: New Haven : Yale University Press, c1996Description: vii, 340 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm.ISBN: 0300066996.Subject(s): Benozzo, di Lese, 1420-1497 -- Criticism and interpretation | Benozzo, di Lese, 1420-1497 -- Catalogues raisonnes | Painting, Italian