GOZZOLI, BENOZZO. — Painter, born in Florence ca. 1420, died in Pistoia on 4 Oct. 1497. His real name was Benozzo di Lese di Sandro, and the surname G. appears only in the 2nd ed. of Vasari’s *Vite*. He was a pupil and follower of Fra Angelico; he is first mentioned, however, in January 1444 in an agreement to collaborate on the famous doors of the Florentine Baptistery with Lorenzo and Vittorio Ghiberti. At Rome (1447) and Orvieto (1449) he worked instead with Fra Angelico as a painter.
The essential phases of his activity in Umbria and Tuscany may be summarized as follows: he painted at Montefalco (1450); at Viterbo (1453; *Stories of St Rose*, now lost); in Florence (1459; *Procession of the Magi*, Palazzo Riccardi); entirely at San Gimignano (1463–65); from 1467 to 1484 he executed the *Stories of the Old Testament* (Pisa, Camposanto, almost destroyed); he is found finally in Florence in January 1497.
The extent of his activity as a sculptor alongside the Ghiberti brothers is unknown, but it must have been limited and subordinate. On the other hand, while collaborating in Rome on the painted decoration of the Niccoline Chapel, Gozzoli remained faithful to Fra Angelico.
The same is true at Orvieto (Cathedral, Chapel of S. Brizio, the two spandrels in the vault), where it is not easy to isolate his artistic personality.
But at Montefalco (*Assumption* panel, Vatican Pinacoteca, ca. 1450; church of S. Francesco, *Stories of the Saint*, 1452), Gozzoli, now independent, shows a tendency to enlarge the forms of his master; to suggest a more generic plasticity through heavier colour, simplifying the effect of iridescent hues; to complicate perspective and landscape studies, without, however, achieving spatial synthesis. The art of Benozzo Gozzoli resolves itself into a pleasant, convincing, at times poetic narrative (*fresco* in Palazzo Riccardi), in a style that does not depart from the terms of Fra Angelico’s taste, without, however, grasping his inner and religious meaning. Gozzoli was not indifferent to the innovative achievements of Florentine painters such as Baldovinetti and Filippo Lippi, but without altering the formal typology of his own master. Among his most significant works are: the *Stories of St Augustine* at San Gimignano; the *Madonna, Angels and Saints* (1461) in the London Gallery; the *Madonna and Saints* (1466) in the Gallery of San Gimignano; another in the Gallery of Terni (1466), etc. The influence of Benozzo Gozzoli on Umbrian painting of the 15th century was very extensive, notably on the Alunno, Bonfigli, Mezzastris, Boccati and others.