thumb|The Adoration of the Kings, and Christ on the Cross, Benedetto Bonfigli, [[National Gallery|National Gallery, London]]

thumb|332x332px|Adoration of the Child, Benedetto Bonfigli, Berenson foundation Settignano, Florence  

Benedetto Bonfigli (c. 1420 – 8 July 1496) was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Perugia, and part of the Umbria school of painters including Raphael and Perugino. He is also known as Buonfiglio. Influenced by the style of Domenico Veneziano, Benozzo Gozzoli, and Fra Angelico, Bonfigli primarily painted frescos for the church and was at one point employed in the Vatican. His best-preserved work is the Annunciation, but his masterpiece is the decoration of the chapel of the Palazzo dei Priori. Bonfigli specialized in gonfaloni, a Perugian style using banners painted on canvas or linen. Little is known of his personal life, but he was an esteemed painter in Perugia before Perugino, who is said to be his pupil.

Style

Bonfigli as a painter was heavily influenced by Fra Angelico. His attention to detail in smaller areas of his paintings, as well as his use of gold to highlight both sacred and earthly elements, can be attributed to Fra Angelico. Bonfigli frequently used backdrops of forestry and cityscapes to provide an additional sense of depth to his pieces. His backgrounds are often said to have been influenced by Domenico Veneziano, who used rolling hills and trees as backdrops to make his paintings more realistic. These stylistic influences of Angelico and Veneziano's are particularly pertinent in Bonfigli's Annunciation and Adoration of the Child. Most of Bonfigli's frescos use softer colours in the fabrics on his figures, but typically highlights the Virgin Mary in blue, an expensive dye attributed with royalty and sanctity, with a gold halo. He often incorporates historical architecture from his home town Perugia in his works, sometimes meshing buildings of different eras. Bonfigli's method is also similar to his teacher, Benozzo Gozzoli, who had been Fra Angelico's assistant and had worked in Umbria from 1450 to 1456, in that he uses softer colours on the garments of his figures that brings additional depth to his paintings.

Early life and first works

Bonfigli trained in Perugia from 1430 to 1440, while the late-Gothic style was still dominant. Bonfigli's earliest surviving work is a dismembered polyptych, depicting Virgin and Child on the central panel, St Sebastian and a Bishop Saint on another wing, and what is believed to be St Bernardino of Siena and St Anthony Abbot on another.

The painter's first commissioned work is attributed to the Virgin and Child with Two Angels for a chapel near S. Pietro, Perugia on 7 March 1445. He was influenced by the works of Fra Angelico, particularly during his employment in the Vatican by Pope Nicholas V in 1450, where many of Angelico's frescoes were displayed in the Cappella Niccolina of the Palazzo Vaticano, the pope's private chapel.

We know Bonifgli was held in high regard by the pope due to his high salary at the time (seven ducats a month). Other works, such as Fra Angelico's Cortona Polyptych commissioned in 1437, and the works of Domenico Veneziano in Perugia also heavily influenced Bonfigli's style. A close interpretation of Bonfigli's style is evident in a fresco dated 1446 of SS Catherine and Clement I in S. Cristoforo, Passigano; this piece, likely not the work of Bonfigli, demonstrates the influence the painter had on the region.<!-- link to subscriber page, no date -->

thumb|Madonna and Child with Angels (ca. 1450), Altarpiece, Benedetto Bonfigli, [[Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria]]

Maturity

Bonfigli reached maturity as an artist after returning to Perugia from Rome between 1453 and 1470.

The commission was supposed to be completed in two years, but the work took far longer because of a delay of payment by the Commune for the first commission. The contract was renegotiated in 1469 with a debt owed by one Bartolomeo di Gregorio to Bonfigli. The frescoes were not completed by Bonfigli's death in 1496, but the painter dedicated the outstanding debt to complete the rest of the chapel frescoes.

The Annunciation

thumb|357x357px|Annunciation, Benedetto Bonfigli, [[Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum|Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid]]

One of Bonfigli's best-preserved works, the Annunciation depicts Mother Mary receiving two small flames into her heart from the Dove of the Holy Spirit, sent down by God surrounded by cherubs. The work is believed to have been executed between 1440 and 1445. The Virgin Mary appears to pray on the right next to the Archangel Gabriel with gold wings on the left. Gabriel is kneeling with a lily in his left hand, and his right hand raised in blessing while he pronounces the phrase on the marble-panelled parapet, "AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA," or "Hail Mary full of grace." Others argue that much of Bonfigli's work was critical in the birth of the Umbria school of art, that had lagged behind Florence and Northern Italy until the mid 15th century, but quickly rose as a first rank with Perugino, his student, and then Raphael.

Major works

  • Adoration of the Child (1450; Florence, I Tatti)
  • Adoration of the Kings, and Christ on the Cross (1465–75; London, N.G.)
  • Altarpiece Adoration of the Magi with the predella of Episodes from the Life of Christ and a Miracle of St Nicholas (Perugia, G.N. Umbria)

thumb|Adoration of the Magi (ca. 1466), Benedetto Bonfigli, [[Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria]]

  • Annunciation (Madrid, Mus. Thyssen-Bornemisza)
  • Annunciation with St Luke (Perugia, G.N. Umbria)
  • Christ Hurling Thunderbolts on Perugia with the Virgin and Saints Interceding (1472; Perugia, S Maria Nuova)
  • Crucifixion with SS Francis and Herculanus (restored 1565; Perugia, G.N. Umbria)
  • Gonfalon of San Bernardino (1465; Perugia, G.N. Umbria)
  • Lives of St. Louis of Toulouse and St. Herculanus (1454- 61; Perugia, G.N. Umbria)
  • Madonna of Misericordia (Perugia, S Francesco al Prato)
  • Miracles of St Bernard&nbsp;(1473; Perugia, G.N. Umbria)
  • Sant Ercolano and San Ludovico (1454; Palazzo del Consiglio)
  • St Bernard Interceding for the Citizens of Perugia (1465; Perugia, G.N. Umbria)
  • Totila's siege of Perugia (Late 15th century; Perugia, G.N. Umbria)
  • Virgin and Child with Two Angels (El Paso, TX, Mus. A.)
  • Virgin and Four Saints (Perugia, G.N. Umbria)
  • Virgin and Saints Interceding for Perugia (1476; Perugia, S Fiorenzo)

References