The life and inspiring works of the artist who gives your room his name: 10. Domenico Ghirlandaio***

Resurrection of the Boy: fresco by Domenico Ghirlandaio. Sasseti Chapel, Florence. Image from Web Gallery of Art, Public Domain.

Domenico Ghirlandaio (1448-1494) a Florentine Renaissance painter, is perhaps most famous for his frescoes. Those in the Sassetti Chapel of the Santa Trinità church in Florence, with scenes from the life of St. Francis, are a knockout.

Sassetti chapel, Santa Trinità, Florence. I Sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons.

We particularly like the miracle of The Resurrection of the Boy, (1483/5, top above). The fresco shows a posthumous miracle by St Francis, bringing back to life a boy who died falling from a window in a palazzo in the square in front of the church. The saint appears as an apparition and blesses the boy.

As well as his religious frescoes, Ghirlandaio’s portraits are also superb: calm, colourful, and sometimes very moving, like this Old Man and his Grandson, painted around 1490.

Old Man and his Grandson, Tempura. Domenico Ghirlandaio. The Louvre, Paris. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

A Last Supper with plants, fruits and birds

In the refectory of the Ognissanti monastery, also in Florence, you can see another Ghirlandaio masterpiece, a Last Supper depicting the moment Jesus tells the disciples that one of them will betray Him. At the request of the monks, Ghirlandaio also painted realistic plants, fruits and birds in the alcoves behind: all have religious symbolism.

The Last Supper. Domenico Ghirlandaio. Ognissanti monastery, Florence. Public domain, via Web Gallery of Art.

Ghirlandaio is in the Sistine Chapel, too     

Ghirlandaio was also one of the famous Renaissance artists asked to paint a fresco in the Sistine Chapel. His The Calling of the Apostles shows Christ as a fisher of men.

The Calling of the Apostles. Domenico Ghirlandaio. The Sistine Chapel, Florence. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

***  Who wants a number on the bedroom door when they could be staying in Botticelli, Bronzino or Brunelleschi? Or Donatello,  Gentileschi, Ghirlandaio or Ghiberti? Or in one of another half-dozen famous Italian artists, from Alberti to Fra Angelico, from Lippi to Vasari?

Some years ago, we decided to switch from numbers to names in each of our rooms. They celebrate famous Italian artists, mainly from the Renaissance and mainly men, because (a) the early Renaissance is our favourite artistic period and (b) because few women were painting professionally in those days, and even fewer have become famous.

At Lois’ insistence we included Artemesia Gentileschi on our list a few years ago, and in 2026 we have introduced Sofonisba Anguissola, despite her tongue-twisting name.