13 Facts About Ridolfo Ghirlandaio

Ridolfo di Domenico Bigordi, better known as Ridolfo Ghirlandaio was an Italian Renaissance painter active mainly in Florence.

Since he was eleven years old when his father died, Ridolfo was brought up by his uncle Davide Ghirlandaio, a painter.

Ridolfo Ghirlandaio's works painted between 1504 and 1508 show a marked influence from Fra Bartolomeo and Raphael, with whom he was friends.

Raphael asked Ridolfo Ghirlandaio to join him in Rome in 1508, but the Florentine painter stayed.

Ridolfo Ghirlandaio was the head of a thriving workshop whose pupils included Michele Tosini, Domenico Puligo, Bartolomeo Ghetti, Antonio del Ceraiolo, Toto del Nunziata, Mariano Graziadei da Pescia, Carlo Portelli and others.

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Ridolfo Ghirlandaio was prominent in the execution of works for various public occasions, such as the wedding of Giuliano de' Medici, and the entry of Leo X into Florence in 1515.

Ridolfo Ghirlandaio's sons traded in France and in Ferrara, and he himself took a part in commercial affairs.

The family villa at Colle Ramole, near Florence, still has a chapel with frescoes by Ridolfo depicting the Virgin and Child with saints adored by members of the Ghirlandaio family.

Ridolfo Ghirlandaio's masterpieces include a number of altarpieces, including the Madonna della Cintola over the door of the cathedral in Prato; the Way to Calvary for the church of San Gallo, Florence ; the Coronation of the Virgin, originally at San Jacopo di Ripoli, Florence, and now at the Musee du Petit Palais, Avignon; and the Nativity for the cathedral in Basel, Switzerland, and now at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

Ridolfo Ghirlandaio painted several altarpieces for the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, Florence, and its dependencies.

In 1514 Ridolfo Ghirlandaio completed one of his most prominent civic commissions: the frescoes in the chapel of Saint Bernard in the Palazzo Pubblico, Florence.

Ridolfo Ghirlandaio painted a portrait of a young Cosimo I de' Medici, future Grand-Duke, now in the Uffizi.

Ridolfo Ghirlandaio's portraits include fine examples at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Galleria Palatina in Florence, the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, the Museo Thyssen Bornemisza in Madrid and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, among others.