Ghirlandajo
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
IL. DOMENICO CURRADI, nick-named Il Ghirlandajo ("the garland-maker"), an Italian painter; born in Florence, Italy, in 1449. As a youth he was apprenticed to a goldsmith, and it was not until his 31st year that he became known as a painter. He painted principally frescoes, The Church and in his native city. Ognisanti there contains from his hand a "St. Jerome" and a "Last Supper" (1480); the Palazzo Vecchio, the "Apotheosis of St. Zenobius" (1481-1485); the church of St. Trinità, six subjects from the life of St. Francis (1485) and an altar-piece, the "Adoration of the Shepherds"; the choir of St. Maria Novella, a series illustrating the lives of the Virgin and the Baptist (1490). Between 1482 and 1484 he painted for Pope Sixtus IV., in the Sistine Chapel at Rome, the excellent fresco "Christ Calling Peter and Andrew," and about the same time two pictures in the chapel of St. Fina at San Gimignano. Besides these he also executed some easel pictures of great merit, as "Adoration of the Magi" (1488), in the church of the Innocents at Florence; the "Visitation of the Virgin" (1491), in the Louvre; the "Adoration of the Virgin by the Saints," in the Uffizi at Florence; and "Christ in Glory," at Volterra. He also executed mosaics, that of the "Annunciation" in the cathedral of Florence being especially celebrated. He died in Florence, Italy, Jan. 11, 1494. GHÛR (gör), or GHORE (gōr), a mountainous district of western Afghanistan, lying S. E. from Herât and N. W. from Kandahar; inhabited by Hazaras and Eimaks , and since 1845 has been included in the territory of Herât.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The list of works Collier's gave in 1921 still stands almost intact, though two details have shifted. The family name is now given as Bigordi rather than "Curradi" — Vasari called him Domenico di Tommaso Bigordi — and modern writing spells the nickname Ghirlandaio rather than Ghirlandajo; the frescoes Collier's assigned to "St. Trinità" and "the choir of St. Maria Novella" are today known as the Sassetti and Tornabuoni chapels, the latter cleaned in a major restoration in the late twentieth century that recovered much of its colour. The one fact a modern account never omits and Collier's leaves out entirely is that the young Michelangelo was apprenticed in Ghirlandaio's busy Florentine workshop, which he ran with his brothers Davide and Benedetto. His reputation has if anything risen, less as a devotional painter than as the sharpest portraitist of Medici-era Florence — the crowds of named Tornabuoni and Sassetti citizens standing in the sacred scenes are now read as documents of the city itself.
Written for this edition, 2026.