Gozzoli, Benozzo di Lese (1420–1497) Italian painter
Celebrated as a painter of frescoes in the early Renais-
sance, Gozzoli was apprenticed as a goldsmith and
worked (1444–47) with GHIBERTIon the Baptistery doors
in his native Florence. He also assisted Fra ANGELICO,
working with him at the Vatican and in the cathedral at
Orvieto (1447), but maintained a more secular approach
in his own frescoes at Viterbo and Perugia (1453–56). In
1459 Piero de’ Medici, who shared Gozzoli’s taste for
pageantry, chose him to decorate the chapel in the Palazzo
Medici-Riccardi, Florence. The Procession of the Magi is
Gozzoli’s masterpiece, covering three of the chapel’s walls
and revealing him as an artist of considerable decorative
talent and ability as a portraitist. A large entourage coils
through a typical Tuscan crete landscape, enabling Gozzoli
to show off his mastery of perspective in the disposition of
the horses and figures; in pride of place, the youthful
Lorenzo de’ Medici as the youngest of the Magi, a golden
Renaissance prince on a richly caparisoned gray horse,
gazes out at the viewer. A number of other recognizable
contemporaries are depicted among the figures, including
himself, wearing a cap on which his name is inscribed. A
major fresco cycle of Old Testament scenes (1468–84) in
the Campo Santo at Pisa, where Gozzoli died, is much
damaged.
Further reading: C. Acidini Luchinet (ed.) The
Chapel of the Magi: Benozzo Gozzoli’s Frescoes in the
Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence (London and New York:
Thames & Hudson, 1994).
Graces In classical mythology, the three daughters of
Zeus, the personifications of grace and beauty, known to
the Greeks as Charites and to the Romans as Gratiae.
Their names were Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia. They
were often depicted or described in the company of the
MUSESor APOLLOor as attendants on VENUS, and the Re-
naissance artists and poets accepted these associations as
part of the iconography. Annibale CARRACCI, for instance,
in a picture in the Kress Collection, National Gallery,
Washington, shows the Graces adorning the goddess of
love at her toilette.
Characteristically the Graces are shown linked to-
gether in a dancing group in such a way that two face the
viewer and the third has her back turned, as in RAPHAEL’s
stucco roundel in the Loggie of the Vatican. This image
was interpreted by the Stoic writers of antiquity as an al-
legory of liberality—giving, receiving, and returning ben-
efits—and the interpretation was inherited by the
Renaissance along with the icon. To the Neoplatonists, the
dancing Graces, being closely associated with Venus, were
emblematic of the operations of love in the universe, mov-
ing in a ceaseless circle (see also PRIMAVERA, LA).
They appear on the reverse of the personal medal of
Giovanni PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA with the inscription
CASTITAS–PULCHRITUDO–AMOR (chastity–beauty–
love).Graf, Urs (c. 1485–c. 1528) Swiss artist, goldsmith, and
designer
Graf was born in Solothurn and was probably taught by
his goldsmith father before being apprenticed at Stras-
bourg. He led a somewhat irregular life, but in 1509 he
settled at Basle, where he executed his chief work as a
goldsmith: a reliquary for the monastery of St. Urban
(1514; now lost). He was exceptionally talented as a
draftsman; over 200 drawings by him survive, many de-
picting mercenaries and courtesans and others with evoca-
tively drawn mountain landscapes. Graf also made
engravings and designs for woodcuts, stained glass, and
goldsmith’s work, and the Basle publisher Johan FROBEN
employed him to ornament his books.Granada A city in southern Spain on the slopes of the
Sierra Nevada. A fifth-century BCEIberian settlement,
Granada was refounded in the seventh century CEand
taken by the Moors in the eighth century. It became the
capital of the Moorish state of Granada and an important
center of Islamic learning and culture. The Alhambra
(completed in the 14th century) is a supreme example of
Moorish architecture. In 1492 FERDINAND II AND ISABELLA
I completed the Christian Reconquista by driving the
Moors out of Granada. Under Castilian and Spanish rule
Granada’s importance declined, and the expulsion of the
Jews (1492) and the unconverted Moors (1502) deprived
Granada of many enterprising citizens. The Moriscos
(Moors who had converted to Christianity in order to
avoid exile) were harried by the SPANISH INQUISITIONuntil
their final expulsion (1610).
In addition to the Alhambra the monastery of San
Jerònimo (1492), the Carthusian monastery (1516), and
the cathedral (1523–1703) have survived from the Re-
naissance period. The Catholic university of Granada was
founded in 1531.Granjon, Robert (1513–1589) French type designer, type
cutter, and printer
The son of a printer, Granjon worked in his native Paris,
Lyons (1556–62), and Rome (c. 1578–89), where he cut
types for the Typographia Vaticana and oriental founts, in-
cluding Arabic, for the religious propaganda of the Stam-
peria Orientale Medicea. His cursive civilité type was
designed in 1557, but never achieved the widespread pop-
ularity of italics, though Granjon’s roman and italic faces
were transmitted across Europe by Dutch founders. His
Greek, Syriac, and civilité founts were used in PLANTIN’s
polyglot Bible (1568–73) and he worked for the Plantin
press for many years. He is credited with being the first to
make printers’ flowers as units of decoration to be used in
borders or headpieces.222200 GGoozzzzoollii,, BBeennoozzzzoo ddii LLeessee