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The History of Art And The Curious Lives of Famous Painters

 

Ridolfo Ghirlandaio

1483 - 1561

 High Renaissance Painter Associated with the Florentine School of Painting

Stylistically influenced by the following painters  - Fra BartolommeoRaphael, Giorgione and Leonardo da Vinci

Education - apprenticed to his uncle, a mediocre painter.

Cause of Death -  Old Age

 
 

 

About the Artist

Ridolfo Ghirlandaio came from a long line of famous painters and fine craftsmen. From an early age he exhibited exceptional artistic abilities. He was gifted with the exceptional skill of portraying the likeness and personality of his subjects. Ghirlandaio was a master at using a newly developed painting technique called sfumato or chiaroscuro. This technique imparted a dramatic, almost a sense of otherworldly radiance for which his masterpieces are famous.

 

 

About The High Renaissance Period

Artists of the Renaissance were elevated in social standing and their art was no longer looked upon as simple handicrafts, but as divinely inspired creations. The spirit of an era awoke, revitalized with knowledge and creativity. The major painters of the Renaissance were not only artists but men of great genius who gave the world their great intellectual gifts. Florentine and Venetian painting were both formed by extraordinary personalities. These men tackled mathematical, artistic and philosophical problems of the highest interest, and presented solutions that have never lost their value. Baldassare Castiglione, the great Italian Writer of the High Renaissance advised painters, "Employ in everything a certain casualness which conceals art and creates the impression that what is done and said is accomplished without effort and without its being thought about. It is from this, in my opinion, that grace largely derives." The sense of humanism pervading renaissance painting is still palpable. The painters touched on a multitude of  issues regarding the human condition - death, love, reason, religion, universal morality, social problems.

Until the Middle Ages men regarded themselves as following the Good Shepherd, and art consequently did not recognize the individual in particular. In the structure and position of  the figures, as in their expression, a general and uniform type of beauty prevailed. The early Renaissance marks the victory of individualism and the uncompromising prominence of he individual.  According to Renaissance historian Walter Pater  "Here, artists and philosophers and those whom the action of the world has elevated and made keen, do not live in isolation, but breathe a common air, and catch light and heat from each other’s thoughts. There is a spirit of general elevation and enlightenment in which all alike communicate. The unity of this spirit gives unity to all the various products of the Renaissance; and it is to this intimate alliance with the mind, this participation in the best thoughts which that age produced, that the art of Italy in the fifteenth century owes much of its grave dignity and influence.."


 

 
   
   

Key Descriptive Words  and Phrases associated with the Renaissance Movement rebirth, rediscovery of the classical world,  publication of Della Pittura, a book about the laws of mathematical perspective for artists,  sfumato, chiaroscuro, spiritually significant,  illuminated manuscript,  idealized biblical themes, scriptorium, illuminator, plague, Age of Discovery, curiosity about the natural world,  realistic use of colours and  light, Old Testament stories, ethereal and vaporous surroundings, Gospel parables, romanticized landscapes,  Christian symbolism.

Require more facts and information about Ridolfo Ghirlandaio and the artists of the renaissance era? Poke around every nook and cranny of the known universe for information this subject. Search Here

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Last Supper
Domenico Ghirlandaio
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The Adoration of the Magi...
Domenico Ghirlandaio
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Madonna and Child with Ss. Justus, Ze...
Domenico Ghirlandaio
24x18 Giclee Print
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Major Painters of the Italian High Renaissance

Andrea del Sarto
Mariotto Albertinelli
Fra Bartolommeo
Jacopo Bassano
Giovanni Bellini 
Domenico Brusasorci
Giulio Campi
Domenico Di Michelino
Lorenzo Costa
Dosso Dossi
Francesco Francia
Garofalo
Ridolfo Ghirlandaio
Giorgione
Leonardo da Vinci
Lorenzo Lotto
Bernardino Luini
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Baldassare Peruzzi
Piero di Cosimo
Jacob Tintoretto
Marcantonio Raimondi
Raphael
Titian 

 

References - HISTORY OF PAINTING by Walter Pater