Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/272

230 Filippino, Ghirlandajo was gifted with rare facility of hand and a keen eye for all the small details of domestic life, which he reproduces with Dutch-like accuracy and minuteness. No doubt, like other Tuscan masters, he was familiar with some of the fine examples of Flemish art which had found their way to Florence, and especially with the imposing triptych by Hugo van der Goes, which Tommaso Portinari had brought back from Bruges to adorn his family chapel in S. Maria Nuova. And the natural bent of his mind led him to tread in the steps of these Northern artists and paint every vein and wrinkle in the faces of his personages, and every brooch or jewel in their robes, with the same minute realism. Ghirlandajo's marvellous industry, as Lodovico Sforza's envoy told his master, was another striking feature of his character. His appetite for work was insatiable, and he is said to have declared that he would like to decorate the whole circle of the walls of Florence with frescoes. As it is, the number and variety of paintings which he executed during his comparatively short life is amazing.

The earliest work that we have from his hand is probably the fresco of the Madonna della Misericordia, which he painted for the Vespucci on the walls of Ognissanti. After being whitewashed, in 1616, this long-lost picture was lately brought to light, and among other family portraits contains one of a youth who is said to be the famous navigator Amerigo Vespucci. In 1475, Ghirlandajo paid a visit to Rome, and we learn from recently discovered documents that he painted a fresco over the tomb of Francesco Tornabuoni's wife in S. Maria Minerva, and was also