Domenico Ghirlandaio and his Workshop in Pisa: Panel Paintings for the Gesuati
Sarah M. Cadagin
Domenico Ghirlandaio’s three paintngs in Pisa’s Museo Nazionale di San Mateo have long been the subject of connoisseurial investgaton, but have been litle examined in light of their origins in Pisa’s Gesuat church of San Girolamo. Exploring Ghirlandaio’s presence in Pisa in the late 1470s as well as the religious culture of the Gesuat, this study proposes that Ghirlandaio’s Pisan panels were an early turning point in his career, as he moved from working in smaller centers in Tuscany to undertaking some of the most memorable mural programs in late ffeenth-century Florence. In considering the iconography and patronage of these paintngs, this study furthermore illuminates new connectons between Ghirlandaio and the Medici, who had long sponsored architectural and artstc renewal in Pisa. Lorenzo de’ Medici, in partcular, emerges as powerful, yet discreet patron of Ghirlandaio’s who defly used the artst’s works to promote his family and Florentne hegemony.