Chap. XVI. RIDOLFO GHIRLANDAIO. 529 of S. Maria del Fiore. Masquerades and triumphs were imitated from those of heathen times. The guilds, as they followed the procession of Leo, were all gaily dressed in new costumes, and waved flaunting banners or flags on models invented by Ridolfo and his journeyman Granacci. Ghirlandaio himself adorned, with the help of his ap prentices, the papal residence at S. Maria Novella, and the palace of the Medici, and produced, with Granacci, the scenes for the comedies that were given in the evening. From festive days like these to mournful ones which also required the aid of artists, there was but a step; and Ridolfo arranged the funeral of Giuliano de’ Medici who died in retirement at the abbey of Fiesole in March 1516. 1 From grave to gay again. In 1518 Lorenzo de’ Me dici, duke of Urbino, held grand court on the day of his wedding at Florence, the “apparato” and plays being prepared under the joint superintendence of Ridolfo and Francia Bigio, with the assistance of Aristotile da S- Gallo and Andrea di Cosimo. 2 Equal pomp, but of a dole ful kind, at Lorenzo’s death in 1519, when Ridolfo is more in request than ever. 3 The Medici were grateful to him for his success and punctuality on so many of these occasions of joy or grief. They gave him special marks of honour as a citizen of Florence; and he was made “painter” of the opera of S. Maria del Fiore. 4 The property which he had inherited from his father increased, in spite of the heavy charges that weighed upon him in the shape of fifteen children; and he was able to number, in his returns to the “catasto”, a con tinual increase in his possessions of land. 5 In the midst 1 lb. XI. 293. 2 lb. IX. 101. XI. 203—293. 3 lb. XI. 293. 4 "We find him in this capacity VOL. III. in records of 1519. See annot. Vas. XI. 293—4. 5 Gaye, Carteggio, I. 268. The last “Portata” is of 1534. 34