wealthy and too much at his ease, and therefore did not keep his thoughts fixed with sufficient firmness on art, who is never to be found in her perfection but by him who zealously seeks her; being found, moreover, she will not be neglected without at once taking flight.
At the upper end of an avenue in the garden which belongs to the Monks of the Angeli in Florence, there are two figures in fresco by the hand of David Ghirlandajo; they stand at the foot of a Crucifix, and represent San Benedetto and San Romualdo: these works are opposite to the door by which entrance to that garden is obtained.[1] He did other things of similar kind, but they do not merit that any particular record should be made of them.
But although David would not give much attention to art liimself, it was not a little to his credit that he caused his nephew Ridolfo, the son of Domenico, to devote his hours with all study thereto, and to walk in the footsteps of his father, insomuch that this youth, who was the ward of David, and was endowed with a fine genius, received all possible aid from his uncle, who, having engaged him to study the art of painting, supplied him with all the facilities and encouragement necessary to forward his progress in the same, and this all the more readily, as he had begun to repent when too late of not having laboured earnestly himself, and of having consumed his time with mosaic.
For the King of France,[2] David Ghirlandajo executed a large picture in mosaic on a thick panel of walnut-wood. The subject of this work is the Madonna, with numerous Angels around her, and the mosaic was very highly praised. David passed much of his time at Montaione, which is a fortified place in the Valdelsa, and he dwelt there, principally because in that place he had furnaces, and could
- ↑ These works, having suffered by time, were re-painted by a modem artist of very common-place character. —Masselli-
- ↑ Bottari affirms this to have been the first Mosaic sent into France,
but it was to the President de Guisnes, who obtained it when be accompanied Charles VIII. to Naples, and not to the king of France, that the
work was sent. This is proved by an inscription, also in mosaic, on the
lower part of the picture itself, and which is as follows:—
Dominus Johannes de Ganai praesidens Parisiensis primus adduxit de Italia Parisium hoc opus mosaicum.
