17 Facts About Benozzo Gozzoli

Benozzo Gozzoli is considered one of the most prolific fresco painters of his generation.

Benozzo Gozzoli assisted Angelico in the execution of fresco decorations in the dormitory cells of the Convent of San Marco in Florence.

Benozzo Gozzoli then accompanied Angelico to Umbria, where they decorated a chapel vault in the Chapel of the Madonna di San Brizio in the Orvieto Cathedral.

Benozzo Gozzoli is assumed to have made significant contributions in the chapel's frescoes.

In Rome, Benozzo Gozzoli executed a fresco of St Anthony of Padua in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli.

In 1450, Gozzoli received his first major independent commission from the monastery of S Francesco in Montefalco.

Benozzo Gozzoli probably remained at Montefalco until 1456, employing Pier Antonio Mezzastris as an assistant.

That same year, Benozzo Gozzoli returned to his native city Florence, the epicenter of Quattrocento art.

In 1463, likely in fear of the plague, Benozzo Gozzoli left Florence for San Gimignano, where he executed some extensive works.

In that same church Benozzo Gozzoli completed a composition of St Sebastian Protecting the City from the Plague, in which he depicted St Sebastian fully clothed and unhurt, thereby going against iconographic canon.

In 1465, at the town's heart in the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Assunta, Benozzo Gozzoli furthermore painted a fresco of the Martyrdom of Sebastian.

Benozzo Gozzoli stayed in San Gimignano until 1467, completing some further works in the city and its vicinity.

In 1469, Benozzo Gozzoli moved to Pisa and began working on his most extensive commission: the vast series of mural paintings in the Campo Santo edifice of Pisa.

Benozzo Gozzoli was contracted to paint three subjects per year for about ten ducats each.

All this enormous mass of work, in which Benozzo Gozzoli was probably assisted by Zanobi Machiavelli, was performed, in addition to several other pictures during his stay in Pisa, in sixteen years, lasting up to 1485.

Benozzo Gozzoli died in Pistoia in 1497, perhaps of a pestilence.

Benozzo Gozzoli likewise had a house of his own in Pisa, and houses and land in Florence.