Benozzo Gozzoli: The Great Artist During The Renaissance

“The Renaissance of the fifteenth century was, in many things, great rather by what it designed then by what it achieved.” - Walter Pater. Benozzo Gozzoli was an early Italian painter during the Renaissance. He designed and painted many of the Renaissance’s greatest masterpieces, such as the Procession of the Magi, The Conversion of Saint Paul, and Virgin and Child with Angels. Gozzoli’s artwork was influenced by many things and people around him, that helped shape him to be one of the greatest painters during the Renaissance. His paintings and other achievements were very important during the Renaissance, and impacted the Renaissance in many ways. The exact date of Benozzo Gozzoli’s birth is unknown, but his artwork dates his birth

Gozzoli started his career as a painter around the age of 27, when he began his apprenticeship with Fra Angelico. Fra Angelico influenced Benozzo’s use of bright color palettes, which he transferred into the art of fresco paintings. Lorenzo Ghiberti taught Gozzoli how to illustrate a story eloquently and the use of fine, precise detail in his artwork. Benozzo Gozzoli worked with Lorenzo Ghiberti for a while on the second floor of the Baptistery, before returning to Angelico again in 1447. Gozzoli collaborated with many different artists throughout his career, learning from them as they worked on their artwork. Gozzoli made intentional efforts in creating artwork that appealed to every class from the uneducated peasants, to the clergy. Benozzo Gozzoli painted portraits as well as religious subjects. His paintings have intriguing layers of meaning and are bursting with religious and biblical symbolism. The ruling Church hierarchy and wealthy merchants admired his passionate style of artwork, and commanded Gozzoli to do paintings for them. Gozzoli’s canny business procedures allowed him to live lavishly for the remaining years of his life, and his artwork to become some of the finest artwork to ever be