The most famous paintings by Botticelli. Biography and paintings by Sandro Botticelli Religious paintings by Sandro Botticelli

Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) - the famous painter of Italy, who worked in the Renaissance, is one of the main representatives of the Florentine art school.

Birth and family

Sandro was born on March 1, 1445 in the Italian city of Florence. His full real name is Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi.

His father, Mariano di Giovanni Filipepi, was a leather craftsman. Near the bridge of Santa Trinita in Oltrarno, Mariano kept his workshop. He had very little money from her, so the man dreamed of one thing - that his children would grow up faster and settle down in life. The head of the family really wanted to take a break from his laborious craft.

Mom, Zmeralda, was engaged in raising sons, of whom four were born in the family, Sandro was the youngest among them.

The family lived in the parish of the Church of All Saints (Ognisanti). The parish was located in the Florentine quarter of Santa Maria Novella on Via Nuova. Here the family rented a small apartment in a building that belonged to Mr. Rucellai.

The first mention of Sandro Botticelli can be found in the inventory of the Italian Republic. Back in 1427, a decree was issued in the Republic that the head of each Florentine family must make a statement in the cadastre, where income was displayed (this was necessary for taxation). In 1458, in his cadastral statement, Mariano Filipepi wrote that he had four sons - Giovanni, Antonio, Simone and Sandro, who was thirteen years old. In this historical record, it was added that the boy grew up very sickly, so at such a late age he only began to learn to read.

Origin of the surname "Botticelli"

There is no reliable data on where the nickname of the future artist, Botticelli, came from. There are only a few versions. His older brother Giovanni was a fat man and was nicknamed "botticelli" which meant "keg". By seniority, Giovanni tried to help his father in everything, especially the upbringing of his younger brother Sandro fell on his shoulders. Perhaps the nickname simply passed from the older brother to the little one.

According to the second version, the father of the family had a godfather - a certain "Botticello", he was engaged in jewelry making. By that time, the eldest sons had already settled down well in life and helped their parents (Giovanni and Simone were engaged in trade, Antonio was a jeweler). The head of the family, Mariano Filipepi, wanted the younger Sandro to follow in the footsteps of Antonio. He dreamed that two brothers would open a (albeit small but reliable) family business for the production of jewelry. Seeing that the youngest son is very gifted and capable, but who has not yet found a true calling in life, his father decided to send him into the jewelry channel, sending him to study with godfather Botticello.

So at the age of twelve, Sandro began to study jewelry art, which later played a significant role in his painting.

The third version is associated with brother Antonio, who was engaged in jewelry business. Sandro helped his older brother in the workshop, and he gave him the nickname Botticelli, which translates from Florentine as “silver craftsman” (though in a slightly distorted version).

Painting training

In those days, there was such a close relationship between jewelers and artists that young people who were fond of drawing made excellent goldsmiths. And, on the contrary, talented painters came out of jewelry workshops.

This is what happened with Sandro. After learning from a jeweler, in 1462 Botticelli began to study painting with the Florentine artist, whose work belongs to the early Renaissance period, Fra Filippo Lippi. This painter was a Carmelite monk from the monastery of Carmine, his works were distinguished by their naturalness and cheerfulness. Lippi's workshop was located in the city of Prato, where the artist worked on painting the cathedral with frescoes.

Botticelli spent five years in Lippi's workshop, until the teacher left for the Italian province of Perugia, in the city of Spoleto, where he soon died. In Prato, Filippo Lippi had a romantic relationship with a nun from a convent. This woman, Lucrezia Buti, later gave birth to a son, Filippino Lippi, who later was a student of Botticelli.

After the death of Lippi, Sandro began to study with another famous Italian sculptor and painter, Andrea del Verrocchio, who was the teacher of Leonardo da Vinci himself. Verrocchio owned a workshop, the strongest at that time in Florence. From him, Sandro learned to anatomically accurately convey the human figure in strong movement.

Sandro learned painting from the Early Renaissance period from both of his teachers. The first works of Botticelli are a bit like the work of Lippi, you can see the same richness of detail and an abundance of portraits in them. Nevertheless, contemporaries recognized Sandro as a strong master and noted the originality of his paintings.

On his first independent canvases, Botticelli depicted the Madonna:

• "Madonna and Child, two angels and young John the Baptist";
• "Madonna and Child with Two Angels";
• "Madonna in the Rose Garden";
• "Madonna of the Eucharist".

Already these early works of the artist were distinguished by poetic images and a barely perceptible atmosphere of spirituality.

Creation

From 1469, Botticelli began to work independently. At first he painted at home, later he rented a studio, which was located near the Church of All Saints.

Already in the following paintings, Sandro did not have even a shadow of imitation of his teachers, his own style was traced everywhere:

• "Allegory of strength";
• "Return of Judith";
• "Finding the body of Holofernes";
• "Saint Sebastian".

In 1472, Botticelli became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke. Artists united here, thanks to their membership in the guild, they received the right to conduct independent painting activities, open their own workshops and have assistants.

In the 1470s, a wealthy citizen, a Medici courtier and a member of the Guild of Arts and Crafts of Florence, Gaspare del Lama ordered Botticelli to paint the painting The Adoration of the Magi. The artist finished it in 1475, on the canvas he depicted the Medici family in the images of oriental sages and their retinue, and painted himself in the lower right corner.

In The Adoration of the Magi, Sandro brought the drawing, as well as compositional and colorful combinations, to such a level of perfection that the canvas is called a great miracle, which still amazes every artist.

This picture brought fame to Botticelli, he had a lot of orders, especially often he was asked to paint portraits. The most popular are:

• "Portrait of an unknown person with a medal of Cosimo Medici";
• "Portrait of Giuliano Medici";
• "Portrait of a young woman";
• "Portrait of Dante";
• portraits of Florentine ladies.

The glory of the artist went beyond Florence, and in 1481 Botticelli was summoned to Rome to paint the chapel at the palace of Pope Sixtus IV. Sandro worked in the Vatican on painting the chapel with frescoes, along with other leading Italian artists of that time - Rosselli, Ghirlandaio, Perugino. This was the birth of the famous Sistine Chapel, the painting of which was completed by Michelangelo at the beginning of the 16th century (he designed the altar wall and ceiling), after which the chapel gained worldwide fame.

In the Sistine Chapel, Botticelli painted eleven papal portraits and three frescoes:

• "The Temptation of Christ";
• "The Punishment of Korea, Daphne and Aviron";
• "The Call of Moses".

In 1482, Sandro returned from Rome to Florence, where he continued to paint paintings commissioned by the Medici family and other noble Florentine persons. These were mainly canvases with secular and religious subjects:

• "Pallas and the Centaur";
• "Venus and Mars";
• "Madonna della Melagrana";
• "Annunciation";
• "Lamentation of Christ".

The most famous and mysterious painting by the artist Sandro Botticelli is "Spring". Until now, art historians have not been able to fully reveal the painter's plot intent. It is only known that he was inspired to create this masterpiece by Lucretius's poem "On the Nature of Things."

At the end of the 15th century, round-shaped paintings or bas-reliefs, which were called tondo, came into fashion. The most famous works of Botticelli in this style:

• "Madonna Magnificat";
• "Madonna and Child, Six Angels and John the Baptist";
• "Madonna with a book";
• "Madonna and Child with Five Angels";
• "Madonna with Pomegranate"

last years of life

At the end of the 15th century, the monk and reformer Girolamo Savonarola arrived in Florence. In his sermons, he urged people to give up their sinful life and repent. Botticelli was literally fascinated by the speeches of Savonarola. In February 1497, a bonfire of vanity was organized in the city square of Florence. According to the monk's sermons, secular books, rich and magnificent mirrors and clothes, musical instruments, perfume products, dice and cards were confiscated and burned from citizens. Impressed by the sermons, Sandro Botticelli personally sent several of his canvases on mythological themes to the fire.

Since then, Sandro's artistic style has changed dramatically. His paintings became more ascetic, dominated by a restrained range of colors in dark tones. It was no longer possible to see elegance and festive elegance in his canvases. He stopped even painting portraits against some kind of interior or landscape background; instead, blank stone walls were depicted in the background. These changes became especially noticeable in the painting “Judith leaving the tent of Holofernes”.

In 1498, Savonarola was captured, charged with heresy, and sentenced to death. This event made an even greater impression on Botticelli than the heretic's sermons. The artist began to write much less and less often, of his last works, the most famous were:

• "Mystical Christmas";
• "Abandoned";
• a series of works on the life of St. Zenobius;
• scenes from the history of the Roman women Lucretia and Virginia.

The last time he showed himself as a famous artist in 1504, when he participated in the work of the commission to select a site for the installation of a marble statue of Michelangelo "David".

After that, he completely stopped working, became very old and became so impoverished that if friends and admirers of his talent had not remembered him, he could have died of hunger. His soul, which so subtly felt the beauty of the world, but at the same time was afraid of sinfulness, could not stand the torment and doubt.

Sandro passed away on May 17, 1510. He was buried in Florence in the cemetery of the Ognisanti Church. Over the past five centuries since his death, no one could even compare with the richness of poetic fantasy that is present on the canvases of Botticelli.

Personal life

Botticelli is considered both a happy and unhappy person. He was as if not of this world, shy and at the same time dreamy, distinguished by fantastic reasoning and illogical actions. He absolutely did not care about material well-being and wealth. Sandro did not build his house, he did not have a wife and children.

But he was extremely happy that he had the opportunity to stop and capture beauty in his works. He transformed the surrounding life into art. And art, in turn, became his true life.

Each creator of the Renaissance had his own source of inspiration. For Botticelli, it was Simonetta Vispucci (for her indescribable beauty in Florence she was called the Incomparable, Incomparable, Beautiful Simonetta). From the artist's Platonic love for this woman, masterpieces of world painting were born. Moreover, Simonetta herself did not pay attention to the modest painter and did not even realize that she had become for him a Deity and an ideal of beauty.

She died at 23, never knowing that Botticelli kept her image forever. Many art historians claim that after the death of Simonetta Vispucci in all the paintings, Botticelli depicted only her - in the form of Venus, Madonnas, on his most famous canvases "The Birth of Venus" and "Spring". After the death of the first beauty of the Florentine Renaissance, Sandro painted her image for 15 years.

Sandro Botticelli, (Italian Sandro Botticelli, real name - Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi; 1445 - May 17, 1510) - Italian painter of the Tuscan school.

Biography of Sandro Botticelli

Sandro Botticelli is an Italian painter of the Tuscan school.

Representative of the Early Renaissance. He was close to the Medici court and the humanistic circles of Florence. Works on religious and mythological themes ("Spring", circa 1477-1478; "The Birth of Venus", circa 1483-1484) are marked by spiritualized poetry, the play of linear rhythms, and subtle coloring. Under the influence of the social upheavals of the 1490s, Botticelli's art becomes intensely dramatic ("Slander", after 1495). Drawings for the "Divine Comedy" by Dante, sharply graceful portraits ("Giuliano Medici").

Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi was born in 1445 in Florence, the son of a tanner Mariano di Vanni Filipepi and his wife Smeralda. After the death of his father, the elder brother, a wealthy stock exchange businessman, nicknamed Botticelli ("Keg"), became the head of the family, either because of his rounded figure, or because of intemperance to wine. This nickname spread to other brothers. (Giovanni, Antonio and Simone) The Filipepi brothers received their primary education in the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria Novella, for which Botticelli later performed work. First, the future artist, along with his middle brother Antonio, was sent to study jewelry making. The art of goldsmith, a respected profession in the middle of the 15th century, taught him a lot.

The clarity of contour lines and the skillful use of gold, acquired by him when he was a jeweler, will forever remain in the artist's work.

Antonio became a good jeweler, and Alessandro, after completing his studies, became interested in painting and decided to devote himself to it. The Filipepi family was respected in the city, which, later, provided him with impressive connections. The Vespucci family lived next door. One of them, Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512), a famous merchant and explorer, after whom America is named. In 1461-62, on the advice of George Antonio Vespucci, he was sent to the studio of the famous painter Filippo Lippi, in Prato, a city 20 km from Florence.

In 1467-68, after the death of Lippi, Botticelli returned to Florence, having learned a lot from his teacher. In Florence, the young artist, studying with Andreo de Verrocchio, where Leonardo da Vinci is studying at the same time, becomes famous. This period includes the first independent works of the artist, who since 1469 worked in his father's house.

In 1469, Sandro was introduced by George Antonio Vespucci to the influential politician and statesman Tommaso Soderini. From this meeting, abrupt changes take place in the fate of the artist.

In 1470 he receives, with the support of Soderini, the first official order; Soderini brings Botticelli together with his nephews Lorenzo and Giuliano Medici. Since that time, his work, and this is the heyday, is associated with the name of the Medici. In 1472-75. he writes two small works depicting the story of Judith, apparently intended for cabinet doors. Three years after the "Force of the Spirit" Botticelli creates St. Sebastian, who was very solemnly installed in the church of Santa Maria Maggiori (Maggiori), in Florence, Beautiful Madonnas appear, radiating enlightened meekness. But he received his greatest fame when, around 1475, he performed the “Adoration of the Magi” for the monastery of Santa Maria Novella, where, surrounded by Mary, he depicted members of the Medici family. Florence during the reign of the Medici was a city of knightly tournaments, masquerades, festive processions. On January 28, 1475, one of these tournaments took place in the city. It took place in Piazza Santa Corce, and its main character was to be the younger brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Giuliano. His "beautiful lady" was Simonetta Vespucci, with whom Giuliano was hopelessly in love and, apparently, he was not alone. The beauty was subsequently depicted by Botticelli in the form of Pallas Athena on the standard of Giuliano. After this tournament, Botticelli took a strong position among the inner circle of the Medici and his place in the official life of the city.

Lorenzo Pierfrancesco Medici, cousin of the Magnificent, becomes his regular customer. Shortly after the tournament, even before the artist left for Rome, he commissioned several works for him. Even in his early youth, Botticelli gained experience in painting portraits, this characteristic test of the artist's skill. Having become famous throughout Italy, starting in the late 1470s, Botticelli received increasingly lucrative commissions from clients outside of Florence. In 1481, Pope Sixtus IV invited the painters Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Pietro Perugino and Cosimo Rosselli to Rome to decorate the walls of the papal chapel, called the Sistine Chapel, with frescoes. The wall painting was completed in a surprisingly short period of only eleven months, from July 1481 to May 1482. Botticelli performed three scenes. After returning from Rome, he painted a number of paintings on mythological themes. The artist is finishing the painting "Spring", begun before his departure. During this time, important events took place in Florence that influenced the mood inherent in this work. Initially, the theme for writing "Spring" was drawn from Poliziano's poem "The Tournament", which glorified Giuliano de' Medici and his beloved Simonetta Vespucci. However, during the time that has elapsed from the beginning of the work to its completion, the beautiful Simonetta died suddenly, and Giuliano himself, with whom the artist had a friendship, was murdered villainously.

This was reflected in the mood of the picture, introducing into it a note of sadness and understanding of the transience of life.

"The Birth of Venus" was written a few years later than "Spring". It is not known who from the Medici family was her customer. Around the same time, Botticelli wrote episodes from "The History of Nastagio degli Onesti" (Boccaccio's "The Decameron"), "Pallas and the Centaur" and "Venus and Mars". In the last years of his reign, Lorenzo the Magnificent, in 1490, called the famous preacher Fra Girolamo Savonarola to Florence. Apparently, with this, the Magnificent wanted to strengthen his authority in the city.

But the preacher, a militant champion of the observance of church dogmas, entered into a sharp conflict with the secular authorities of Florence. He managed to acquire many supporters in the city. Many talented, religious people of art fell under his influence, and Botticelli could not resist. Joy, the worship of Beauty forever left his work. If the previous Madonnas appeared in the solemn grandeur of the Queen of Heaven, now this is a pale woman, with eyes full of tears, who has experienced and experienced a lot. The artist began to gravitate more to religious subjects, even among official orders, he was primarily attracted to paintings on biblical themes. This period of creativity is marked by the painting "The Coronation of the Virgin Mary", commissioned for the chapel of the jewelers' shop. His last great work, on a secular theme, was "Slander", but in it, with all the talent of execution, there is no luxuriously decorated, decorative style inherent in Botticelli. In 1493, Florence was shocked by the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent.

Savonarola's fiery speeches resounded throughout the city. In the city that was the cradle of humanistic thought in Italy, there was a reassessment of values. In 1494, the heir of the Magnificent, Pierrot, and other Medicis were expelled from the city. During this period, Botticelli continued to be greatly influenced by Savonarola. All this affected his work, in which there was a deep crisis. Longing and sadness emanates from the two “Lamentations of Christ” Savonarola’s sermons about the end of the world, Judgment Day and God’s punishment led to the fact that on February 7, 1497, thousands of people made a bonfire in the central square of the Signoria, where they burned the most valuable works of art seized from rich houses: furniture, clothes, books, paintings, decorations. Among them, who succumbed to psychosis, were artists. (Lorenzo de Credi, Botticelli's former companion, destroyed several of his nude sketches.)

Botticelli was in the square and, some biographers of those years, write that, succumbing to the general mood, he burned several sketches (the paintings were with the customers), but there is no exact evidence. With the support of Pope Alexander VI, Savonarola was accused of heresy and sentenced to death.

The public execution had a great effect on Botticelli. He writes "Mystical Birth", where he shows his attitude to what is happening.

The last of the paintings are dedicated to two heroines of Ancient Rome - Lucretia and Virginia. Both girls, for the sake of honor, accepted death, which prompted the people to depose the rulers. The paintings symbolize the expulsion of the Medici family and the restoration of Florence as a republic. According to his biographer, Giorgio Vasari, the painter was tormented by illness and infirmity at the end of his life.

He became "so stooped that he had to walk with the help of two sticks." Botticelli was not married, he had no children.

He died alone, at the age of 65, and was buried near the monastery of Santa Maria Novella.

Creativity of the Italian painter

His art, designed for educated connoisseurs, imbued with motives of Neoplatonic philosophy, was not appreciated for a long time.

For about three centuries, Botticelli was almost forgotten, until in the middle of the 19th century interest in his work revived, which has not faded to this day.

Writers of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. (R. Sizeran, P. Muratov) created a romantic and tragic image of the artist, which has since firmly established itself in the minds. But the documents of the late XV - early XVI centuries do not confirm such an interpretation of his personality and do not always confirm the data of the biography of Sandro Botticelli written by Vasari.

By 1470, the first work undoubtedly belonging to Botticelli, “The Allegory of Power” (Florence, Uffizi), belongs. It was part of the series "Seven Virtues" (the rest are performed by Piero Pollaiolo) for the hall of the Commercial Court. Filippino Lippi, who later became famous, son of Fra Filippo, who died in 1469, soon became a student of Botticelli. On January 20, 1474, on the occasion of the feast of St. Sebastian in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Florence, a painting by Sandro Botticelli "Saint Sebastian" was exhibited.

Allegory of power Saint Sebastian

In the same year, Sandro Botticelli was invited to Pisa to work on the frescoes of Camposanto. For some unknown reason, he did not fulfill them, but in the Cathedral of Pisa he painted the fresco “Ascension of Our Lady”, which died in 1583. In the 1470s, Botticelli became close to the Medici family and the “medical circle” - neoplatonist poets and philosophers (Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola , Angelo Poliziano). On January 28, 1475, the brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent Giuliano took part in a tournament in one of the Florentine squares with a standard painted by Botticelli (not preserved). After the failed Pazzi conspiracy to overthrow the Medici (April 26, 1478), Botticelli, commissioned by Lorenzo the Magnificent, executed a fresco over the gates of the della Dogana, which led to the Palazzo Vecchio. It depicted the hanged conspirators (this painting was destroyed on November 14, 1494 after the flight of Piero de Medici from Florence).

Among the best works of Sandro Botticelli of the 1470s is the Adoration of the Magi, where members of the Medici family and persons close to them are shown in the images of oriental sages and their retinue. At the right edge of the picture, the artist also depicted himself.

Between 1475 and 1480 Sandro Botticelli created one of the most beautiful and mysterious works - the painting "Spring".

It was intended for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco Medici, with whom Botticelli had friendly relations. The plot of this picture, which combines the motives of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, has not been fully explained so far and is obviously inspired by both Neoplatonic cosmogony and events in the Medici family.

The early period of Botticelli's work is completed by the fresco "St. Augustine" (1480, Florence, Ognisanti Church), commissioned by the Vespucci family. She is a pair of compositions by Domenico Ghirlandaio "St. Jerome" in the same temple. The soulful passion of the image of Augustine contrasts with the prosaism of Jerome, clearly demonstrating the differences between the deep, emotional creativity of Botticelli and the solid craft of Ghirlandaio.

In 1481, along with other painters from Florence and Umbria (Perugino, Piero di Cosimo, Domenico Ghirlandaio), Sandro Botticelli was invited to Rome by Pope Sixtus IV to work in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. He returned to Florence in the spring of 1482, having managed to write three large compositions in the chapel: "The Healing of a Leper and the Temptation of Christ", "The Youth of Moses" and "The Punishment of Korah, Dathan and Aviron".

In the 1480s, Botticelli continued to work for the Medici and other noble Florentine families, performing paintings on both secular and religious subjects. Around 1483, together with Filippino Lippi, Perugino and Ghirlandaio, he worked in Volterra at the villa of Spedaletto, which belonged to Lorenzo the Magnificent. The famous painting by Sandro Botticelli “The Birth of Venus” (Florence, Uffizi), made for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, dates back to 1487. Together with the previously created “Spring”, she became a kind of iconic image, the personification of both the art of Botticelli and the refined culture of the Medicaean court.

Two of the best tondos (round paintings) by Botticelli belong to the 1480s - Madonna Magnificat and Madonna with a Pomegranate (both - Florence, Uffizi). The latter, perhaps, was intended for the audience hall in the Palazzo Vecchio.

Madonna Magnificat Madonna with Pomegranate

It is believed that since the late 1480s, Sandro Botticelli was strongly influenced by the sermons of the Dominican Girolamo Savonarola, who denounced the orders of his contemporary Church and called for repentance.

Vasari writes that Botticelli was an adherent of the "sect" of Savonarola and even gave up painting and "fell into the greatest ruin." Indeed, the tragic mood and elements of mysticism in many of the master's later works testify in favor of such an opinion. At the same time, the wife of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, in a letter dated November 25, 1495, reports that Botticelli is painting the Medici villa in Trebbio with frescoes, and on July 2, 1497, the artist receives a loan from the same Lorenzo for the execution of decorative paintings at the Villa Castello (not preserved). In the same 1497, more than three hundred supporters of Savonarola signed a petition to Pope Alexander VI asking him to remove the excommunication from the Dominican. Among these signatures, the name of Sandro Botticelli was not found. In March 1498 Guidantonio Vespucci invited Botticelli and Piero di Cosimo to decorate their new home on Via Servi. Among the paintings that adorned it were The History of the Roman Virginia (Bergamo, Accademia Carrara) and The History of the Roman Woman Lucretia (Boston, Gardner Museum). Savonarola was burned that same year on May 29, and there is only one direct evidence of Botticelli's serious interest in his person. Almost two years later, on November 2, 1499, Sandro Botticelli's brother Simone wrote in his diary: “Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, my brother, one of the best artists that were in these times in our city, in my presence, sitting at home by the hearth, about three o'clock in the morning, told how that day, in his boat in the house, Sandro talked with Doffo Spini about the case of Frate Girolamo. Spini was the chief judge in the trial against Savonarola.

The most significant late works by Botticelli include the two Entombments (both after 1500; Munich, Alte Pinakothek; Milan, Poldi Pezzoli Museum) and the famous Mystical Nativity (1501, London, National Gallery) - the only one signed and dated work of the artist. In them, especially in "Christmas", they see Botticelli's appeal to the methods of medieval Gothic art, primarily in violation of perspective and scale relationships.

Entombment Mystic Nativity

However, the later works of the master are not a stylization.

The use of forms and techniques that are alien to the Renaissance artistic method is explained by the desire to enhance emotional and spiritual expressiveness, for the transfer of which the specifics of the real world were not enough for the artist. One of the most sensitive painters of the Quattrocento, Botticelli extremely early felt the impending crisis of the humanistic culture of the Renaissance. In the 1520s, his offensive will be marked by the addition of the irrational and subjective art of Mannerism.

One of the most interesting aspects of Sandro Botticelli's work is portraiture.

In this area, he established himself as a brilliant master already in the late 1460s (“Portrait of a Man with a Medal”, 1466-1477, Florence, Uffizi; “Portrait of Giuliano Medici”, c. 1475, Berlin, State Assemblies). In the best portraits of the master, the spirituality and refinement of the appearance of the characters are combined with a kind of hermeticism, sometimes closing them in arrogant suffering (“Portrait of a Young Man”, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art).

One of the most magnificent draftsmen of the 15th century, Botticelli, according to Vasari, painted a lot and "exceptionally well." Contemporaries highly valued his drawings, and in many workshops of Florentine artists they were kept as samples. So far, very few of them have survived, but the skill of Botticelli as a draftsman can be judged by a unique series of illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy. Executed on parchment, these drawings were intended for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco Medici. Dante Sandro Botticelli turned to illustration twice. The first small group of drawings (not preserved) was apparently made by him in the late 1470s, and Baccio Baldini made nineteen engravings from it for the 1481 edition of the Divine Comedy. Botticelli's most famous illustration to Dante is the drawing "Map of Hell" ( La mappa dell inferno).

Botticelli began to complete the sheets of the Medici code after returning from Rome, using partly his first compositions. 92 sheets have been preserved (85 in the Cabinet of Prints in Berlin, 7 in the Vatican Library). The drawings are made with silver and lead pins, the artist then circled their thin gray line with brown or black ink. Four sheets are painted with tempera. On many sheets, the ink stroke is not finished or not done at all. It is these illustrations that especially clearly make you feel the beauty of the light, precise, nervous line of Botticelli.

According to Vasari, Sandro Botticelli was "a very pleasant person and often liked to play a trick on his students and friends."

“They also say,” he writes further, “that he loved above all those of whom he knew that they were diligent in their art, and that he earned a lot, but everything went to dust for him, because he was a bad manager and was careless. In the end, he became decrepit and incapacitated and walked leaning on two sticks ... "On the financial situation of Botticelli in the 1490s, that is, at the time when, according to Vasari, he had to give up painting and go bankrupt under the influence of Savonarola's sermons, partly allow judging documents from the State Archives of Florence. It follows from them that on April 19, 1494, Sandro Botticelli, together with his brother Simone, acquired a house with land and a vineyard outside the gates of San Frediano. The income from this property in 1498 was determined at 156 florins. True, since 1503 the master has been indebted for contributions to the Guild of St. Luke, but the record of October 18, 1505 reports that he has been fully repaid. The fact that the elderly Botticelli continued to enjoy fame is also evidenced by a letter from Francesco dei Malatesti, an agent of the ruler of Mantua, Isabella d'Este, who was looking for craftsmen to decorate her studiolo. On September 23, 1502, he informs her from Florence that Perugino is in Siena, Filippino Lippi is too burdened with orders, but there is also Botticelli, who "praises me a lot." The trip to Mantua did not take place for an unknown reason.

In 1503, Ugolino Verino, in the poem "De ilrustratione urbis Florentiae", named Sandro Botticelli among the best painters, comparing him with the famous artists of antiquity - Zeuxis and Apelles.

On January 25, 1504, the master was a member of the commission discussing the choice of location for the installation of Michelangelo's David. The last four and a half years of Sandro Botticelli's life are not documented. They were that sad time of decrepitude and inoperability about which Vasari wrote.

Interesting facts: the origin of the nickname "Botticelli"

The real name of the artist is Alessandro Filipepi (for Sandro's friends).

He was the youngest of the four sons of Mariano Filipepi and his wife Smeralda, and was born in Florence in 1445. By profession, Mariano was a tanner and lived with his family in the Santa Maria Novella quarter on Via Nuova, where he rented an apartment in a house owned by Rucellai. He had his own workshop near the bridge of Santa Trinita in Oltrarno, the business brought a very modest income, and old Filipepi dreamed of quickly attaching his sons and finally being able to leave the laborious craft.

The first mention of Alessandro, as well as of other Florentine artists, we find in the so-called "portate al Catasto", that is, the cadastre, where income statements were made for taxation, which, in accordance with the decree of the Republic of 1427, the head of each Florentine was obliged to do. families.

So in 1458, Mariano Filipepi indicated that he had four sons Giovanni, Antonio, Simone and thirteen-year-old Sandro and added that Sandro "learns to read, he is a sickly boy." The four brothers Filipepi brought the family significant income and position in society. Filipepi owned houses, land, vineyards and shops.

Until now, the origin of the nickname Sandro - "Botticelli" is in doubt.

It is possible that the slender and dexterous Maestro Sandro inherited the curiosity street nickname “Botticella”, which meant “Keg”, from his fatherly guardian of his fat man Giovanni, Sandro's older brother, who became a broker and served as a financial intermediary for the government.

Apparently, Giovanni, wanting to help his aging father, did a lot of raising his youngest child. But maybe the nickname arose in consonance with the jewelry craft of the second brother, Antonio. However, no matter how we interpret the above document, the art of jewelry played an important role in the development of the young Botticelli, for it was precisely in this direction that the same brother Antonio directed him. To the jeweler (“a certain Botticello,” as Vasari writes, a person whose identity has not been established to this day), Alessandro was sent by his father, tired of his “extravagant mind”, gifted and capable of learning, but restless and still not finding the true vocations; perhaps Mariano wanted his youngest son to follow in the footsteps of Antonio, who had been working as a goldsmith since at least 1457, which would mark the beginning of a small but reliable family business.

According to Vasari, there was such a close connection between jewelers and painters at that time that to enter the workshop of one meant to get direct access to the craft of others, and Sandro, who was pretty adept at drawing - the art necessary for accurate and confident "blackening", soon became interested in painting. and decided to devote himself to it, while not forgetting the most valuable lessons of jewelry art, in particular the clarity in drawing contour lines and the skillful use of gold, which was later often used by the artist as an admixture to paints or in its pure form for the background.

A crater on Mercury is named after Botticelli.

Bibliography

• Botticelli, Sandro // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg, 1890-1907.
• Jump to: 1 2 3 4 Giorgio Vasari. Biographies of the most famous painters, sculptors and architects. - M.: ALPHA-BOOK, 2008.
• Titus Lucretius Kar. About the nature of things. - M.: Fiction, 1983.
• Dolgopolov IV Masters and masterpieces. - M.: Visual arts, 1986. - T. I.
• Benois A. History of painting of all times and peoples. - M.: Neva, 2004. - T. 2.

When writing this article, materials from such sites were used:bottichelli.infoall.info ,

If you find any inaccuracies or wish to supplement this article, please send us information to the email address [email protected] site, we and our readers will be very grateful to you.

Sandro Botticelli is an outstanding representative of the Florentine painting of the Quattrocento era. After his death, the master went into oblivion. This continued until the middle of the 19th century, when the public reawakened interest in his work and biography. The name Sandro Botticelli is one of the first to come to mind for both ordinary people and specialists when it comes to the art of the early Renaissance.

Childhood and youth

An interesting fact that not everyone knows about: Botticelli is not the real name of the artist. As a child, his name was Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi. On March 1, 1445, the youngest son, Sandro, was born in the family of the Florentine tanner Mariano. In addition to him, the parents had three eldest sons: Giovanni and Simone, who devoted themselves to trade, and Antonio, who chose the jewelry craft.

There is no consensus on the origin of the painter's surname. The first theory connects Botticelli's nickname with the trading activities of the artist's two older brothers ("botticelle" translates as a barrel). Supporters of another theory also believe that Sandro got the nickname from his brother Giovanni, but for a different reason: he was a fat man. Other researchers claim that the new surname passed to Botticelli from another brother - Antonio ("battigello" - "silver craftsman").

In his youth, for 2 years, Sandro was a jeweler's apprentice. But in 1462 (or in 1464 - the opinions of researchers differ) he entered the art workshop of Fra Filippo Lippi. When the latter left Florence in 1467, Andrea Verrocchio became the mentor of the future genius. By the way, he studied in the workshop of Verrocchio at the same time as Botticelli. Two years later, in 1469, Sandro began independent work.

Painting

The exact dates of writing most of the artist's paintings are not known. Experts have determined approximate dates based on stylistic analysis. The work that went down in history as the first and wholly owned by Botticelli is “The Allegory of Power”. Written in 1470, it was intended for the hall of the Florentine Commercial Court. Now it is an exhibit of the Uffizi Gallery.

Numerous images also belong to the first independent works of the artist. The most famous is the Madonna of the Eucharist, written around 1470. In the same period, Botticelli has his own workshop. The son of his former mentor, Filippino Lippi, comes to Sandro as a student.

After 1470, the features of the master's style are increasingly manifested: a bright palette, the transfer of skin tones with the help of rich ocher shadows. The achievement of Botticelli as a painter is the ability to vividly and succinctly reveal the drama of the plot, endowing the images with expression, feelings and movement. This was clearly manifested already in the early (1470-1472) diptych about the Old Testament feat, which beheaded the Assyrian invader Holofernes.

The first image of a naked body by Botticelli is the painting "Saint Sebastian". On the day of the holy martyr, January 20, 1474, she was solemnly presented to the inhabitants of the city. The vertical canvas was hung on a column of the church of Santa Maria Maggiore.

In the mid-1470s, Sandro turned to the portrait genre of fine art. During this period, the “Portrait of an Unknown Man with a Cosimo Medici Medal” appeared. Who was the young man depicted in the picture of 1474-1475 is not known for certain. There is an assumption that this is a self-portrait. Some researchers believe that brother Antonio served as a model for the artist, others that the author of the medal himself or a representative of the Medici family is depicted on the canvas.

With this powerful Florentine family and their entourage, the painter became close in the 70s. On January 28, 1475, Giuliano Medici, brother of the head of the Florentine Republic, participated in a tournament with a standard painted by Botticelli. Around 1478, the artist painted a portrait of Giuliano himself.

On the famous canvas "The Adoration of the Magi", the Medici family is depicted almost in full force along with their retinue. Botticelli was also a part of it, whose figure can be seen in the right corner.

On April 26, 1478, as a result of a failed plot against the Medici, Giuliano was killed. By order of the surviving Lorenzo, the artist painted a fresco over the gate leading to the Palazzo Vecchio. The image of the hanged conspirators, made by Botticelli, did not last even 20 years. After the less fortunate ruler Piero de' Medici was expelled from Florence, it was destroyed.

By the end of the 1470s, the painter was becoming popular outside of Tuscany. Pope Sixtus IV wished to see Sandro in charge of painting the walls of the newly built chapel. In 1481, Botticelli arrived in Rome and, together with other artists, began work on frescoes. His brushes belong to three, including "The Temptation of Christ", as well as 11 portraits of popes. After 30 years, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel will be painted, and it will become famous throughout the world.

After returning from the Vatican, in the first half of the 1480s, Botticelli creates the main masterpieces. They are inspired by ancient culture and the philosophy of the humanists, followers of Neoplatonism, with whom the artist became close during that period. "Spring", written in 1482, is the author's most mysterious work, which still has no clear interpretation. It is believed that the artist created the picture, inspired by the poem "On the Nature of Things" by Lucretius, namely the passage:

“Here comes Spring, and Venus is coming, and Venus is winged

The messenger is coming ahead, and, Zephyr after, before them

Flora-mother walks and, scattering flowers on the way,

It fills everything with colors and a sweet smell ...

Winds, goddess, run before you; with your approach

The clouds are leaving from heaven, the earth is a masterful lush

A flower carpet is being laid, sea waves are smiling,

And the azure sky shines with spilled light.

This painting, as well as two other pearls of this period - the canvases "Pallas and the Centaur" and "The Birth of Venus", was owned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco Medici, the second cousin of the Duke of Florence. Characterizing these three works, the researchers note the melodiousness and plasticity of the lines, the musicality of color, the sense of rhythm and harmony, expressed in subtle nuances.

In the late 1470s and early 1480s, Botticelli worked on illustrations for The Divine Comedy. Few survived from a series of drawings with a pen on parchment, among them - "The Abyss of Hell". Of the works on the religious theme of this period, the Madonna and Child Enthroned (1484), The Annunciation of Cestello (1484-1490), the Madonna Magnificat tondo (1481-1485) and the Madonna with a Pomegranate (c. 1487) are distinguished .

In the years 1490-1500, Botticelli was influenced by the teachings of the Dominican monk Girolamo Savonarola, who criticized the church orders of that time and the excesses of secular life. Imbued with calls for asceticism and repentance, Sandro began to use darker and more restrained shades.

Landscapes and interior elements have disappeared from portrait backgrounds, as can be seen in the “Portrait of Dante” (c. 1495). Written around 1490, “Judith leaving the tent of Holofernes” and “Lamentation of Christ” are the painter’s characteristic works of that time.

The accusation of Savonarola of heresy and execution in 1498, and even earlier - the death of Lorenzo Medici and the ensuing political unrest in Tuscany shocked Botticelli. Mysticism and gloom in creativity has increased. The Mystical Nativity of 1500 is the main monument of this period and the last significant work of the artist.

Personal life

Little is known about Botticelli's personal life. The artist did not have a wife and children. A number of researchers believe that Sandro was in love with Simonetta Vespucci, the first beauty of Florence and the lady of the heart of Giuliano Medici.

She served as a model for many of the painter's paintings. Simonetta died in 1476 at the age of 23.

Death

In the last 4.5 years of his life, Botticelli did not write and lived in poverty. The great master of the Quattrocento era was buried in the cemetery of the Florentine church of Ognisanti on May 17, 1510.

Artworks

• OK. 1470 - "Allegory of strength"
• OK. 1470 - "Adoration of the Magi"
• c.1470 - "Madonna of the Eucharist"
• 1474 - "Saint Sebastian"
• 1474-1475 - "Portrait of an unknown person with a medal of Cosimo Medici"
• OK. 1475 - "Portrait of Giuliano Medici"
• 1481-1485 - Madonna Magnificat
• OK. 1482 - "Spring"
• 1482-1483 - "Pallas and the Centaur"
• OK. 1485 - "Venus and Mars"
• OK. 1485 - "Birth of Venus"
• OK. 1487 - "Madonna with a Pomegranate"
• OK. 1490 - "Lamentation of Christ"
• OK. 1495 - "Slander"
• OK. 1495 - "Portrait of Dante"
• 1495-1500 - "Judith leaving Holofernes' tent"
• 1500 - "Mystical Nativity"

Abstract on the topic

The life and work of Sandro Botticelli

Saint Petersburg 2008

The beginning of the creative path. 3

Study in the workshop of Fra Filippo Lippi, the influence of Andrea Verrocchio and the first works.. 4

Florence. The flowering of creativity. 6

Madonnas.. 12

Late paintings. Sermons of Savanarola. Sunset of the artist 13

References.. 17

Sandro Botticelli (1444 or 1445 - 1510) belongs to the most significant artists of the early Renaissance in Florence.

There is no painting more poetic than the painting of Sandro Botticelli. "How beautiful youth is, but it passes" - these are the words of Lorenzo Medici himself, whose favorite artist was Botticelli, words in which the final sad reservation is most important.

The work of this artist stands apart in the art of the Italian Renaissance. Botticelli was a peer of Leonardo da Vinci, who affectionately called him "our Botticelli". But it is difficult to rank him among the typical masters of both the Early and High Renaissance. In the world of art, he was neither a proud conqueror, like the first, nor an all-powerful Master of life, like the second.

The beginning of the creative path

Sandro Botticelli (real name of the artist - Alessandro Filipepi) was born in Florence in 1445. Mariano Filipepi's father was a tanner by profession and lived with his family (of which Alessandro was the youngest son) in the Santa Maria Novella quarter on Via Nuova, where he rented an apartment in a house owned by Rucellai. He had his own workshop near the bridge of Santa Trinita in Oltrarno, the business brought a very modest income, and old Filipepi dreamed of quickly attaching his sons and finally being able to leave the laborious craft.

The four brothers Filipepi brought the family significant income and position in society. Sandro studied with his second brother, Antonio, who was a jeweler, and helped him in his business. Jewelry art played an important role in the development of the young Botticelli. To the jeweler ("a certain Botticello," as Vasari writes, a man whose identity has not been established to this day), Alessandro was sent by his father, tired of his "extravagant mind", gifted and capable of learning, but restless and still not finding the true vocations; perhaps Mariano wanted his youngest son to follow in the footsteps of Antonio, who had been working as a goldsmith since at least 1457, which would mark the beginning of a small but reliable family business.

According to Vasari, there was such a close connection between jewelers and painters at that time that to enter the workshop of one meant to get direct access to the craft of others, and Sandro, who was pretty adept at drawing - the art necessary for accurate and confident "blackening", soon became interested in painting. and decided to devote himself to it, while not forgetting the most valuable lessons of jewelry art, in particular the clarity in drawing contour lines and the skillful use of gold, which was later often used by the artist as an admixture to paints or in its pure form for the background.

Study in the workshop of Fra Filippo Lippi, the influence of Andrea Verrocchio and the first works

Around 1464, Sandro entered the workshop of the Carmelite monk Fra Filippo Lippi from the monastery of Carmine, the most excellent painter of that time. Fra Filippo Lippi created cheerful images, marked by naturalness, while not retreating from the main conquests of the Renaissance.

Devoted entirely to painting, he became a follower of his teacher and imitated him so that Fra Filippo fell in love with him and by his training soon raised him to a degree that no one could have imagined.

Even the early works of Sandro are distinguished by a special, almost elusive atmosphere of spirituality, a kind of poetic veil of images.

His first work could have been frescoes made by his teacher with his students in the cathedral in Prato. But already in 1469, Botticelli was an independent artist, for in the cadastre of the same year, Marano, his father, stated that "Sandro works at home."

After the death of Fra Filippo in 1467, Botticelli, still wanting to quench his thirst for knowledge, began to look for another source among the highest artistic achievements of the era. For a time he attended the studio of Andrea Verrocchio, a versatile craftsman, sculptor, painter and jeweler who led a team of multi-talented emerging artists; here at that time the atmosphere of "advanced" creative search reigned, it is no coincidence that the young Leonardo studied with Verrocchio.

Andrea Verrocchio approached painting analytically, was fond of anatomically accurate rendering of the human figure in strong movement; in Florence he ran a famous workshop.

Sandro Botticelli mastered well the main achievements of early Renaissance painting. And contemporaries saw in his art the most valued qualities at that time: "a courageous manner of writing, strict adherence to rules and perfection of proportions." This was facilitated by his stay after studying with Philippe Lippi in the workshop of Verrocchio in 1467-1468. Initiation to the skill of the painter and sculptor was carried out here on a scientific basis, great importance was attached to the experiment.

Sandro Botticelli learned from these two great masters and formed himself as an independent artist, inheriting some qualities from his teachers, but at the same time becoming a completely original and strong master. In his early works, he somewhat resembles Fra Philippe Lippi with an abundance of portraits and a wealth of details.

Such, for example, is his painting "The Adoration of the Magi" (c. 1475, London, National Gallery), in which members of the Medici family and their entourage are represented in the form of Magi. However, already in this picture, attention is drawn to the extraordinary expressiveness and spirituality of the images, which far exceed anything that was created by his teacher. The desire for realism is obvious in the picture: it is reflected not only in the abundance of portraits of Botticelli's contemporaries (for all their magnificence, they participate in the depicted scene very relatively, only as side motives), but also in the fact that the composition is built more in depth than on plane (in the arrangement of the figures one feels artificiality, especially in the scene on the right). The execution of each image is a miracle of grace and nobility, but everything as a whole is too limited and compressed in space; there is no physical movement, and with it a spiritual impulse.

Florence. The heyday of creativity

In the last third of the 15th century, the process of gradual transformation of the republic into tyranny is completed in Florence.

If Cosimo Medici still sought to disguise his power with the appearance of republican freedoms, then under his grandson Lorenzo (1449-1492), who ruled in Florence from 1469, the monarchical tendencies of the Medici house are already very clear.

Lorenzo Medici, nicknamed "The Magnificent", was a bright and very typical figure for his time. In the 15th century, many small Italian states were headed by tyrants, often terrifying with their unbridled cruelty and, at the same time, striving to play the role of enlightened sovereigns, patrons and connoisseurs of the arts and sciences. Lorenzo was one of these "enlightened tyrants". A brilliantly educated person, an outstanding politician and diplomat, poet, connoisseur and lover of literature and art, he managed to attract many major poets, humanists, artists and scientists. Constant festivities, carnivals, tournaments, competitions of poets created the appearance of a brilliant government, behind the magnificent facade of which, however, not all was well. In Florence and its possessions, there were more than once protests against tyranny, which were supported by numerous enemies of the Medici outside Florence, led by Pope Sixtus IV. All these conspiracies and uprisings were suppressed by Lorenzo with extreme cruelty, especially the so-called Pazzi conspiracy of 1478, during which Lorenzo's younger brother Giuliano Medici was killed. But, although Lorenzo managed to maintain power, the situation in the city remained tense. It was tense throughout the country. The approach of the crisis was felt everywhere. The fall of Constantinople (1453) and the collapse of Levantine trade, the loss of Italy's leading positions and the gradual return to feudal systems, political fragmentation and ever-increasing contention between individual cities and states weakened Italy and made it an attractive and easy prey for the strengthened neighboring states. All this gave rise to that mood of anxiety and uncertainty about the future, which left its mark on the entire culture of the late 15th century, including the culture of Florence. Florence lived in these years some kind of hectic life, but even in the most violent fun, it seemed, anxiety and forebodings of impending disasters lurked. Lorenzo Medici himself perfectly expressed the general mood in his "Carnival Song", each stanza of which ends with the words: "Who wants to be cheerful - have fun, no one knows what will happen tomorrow!"

All the complexity and inconsistency of the life of this time found expression in the works of Sandro Botticelli. Pictures of this time leave a dual impression. Colorful and elegant, created in order to please the eye, at the same time, they are always full of some kind of internal painful burning. And his Madonnas, and Venus, and Spring are covered with sadness, their eyes betray hidden pain. It is on this inner state and mood that Botticelli focuses his attention. He does not show much interest in the development of the plot, in the depiction of everyday details, so dear to the heart of his teacher. He is also far from conveying dramatic collisions or heroic deeds. Even in such a plot as the story of the biblical heroine Judith, who, in order to save her native city, penetrated into the camp of the enemy and beheaded the leader of the enemy troops, King Holofernes, Botticelli avoids depicting the very scene of the murder, as Donatello once did, for example, in the sculptural group "Judith and Holofernes" . In his early painting The Death of Holofernes (1470, Florence, Uffizi), Botticelli depicts the moment when everything had already happened and Judith left the tent, taking with her the severed head of the king. In the cold dusk of dawn, Holofernes's associates freeze in a daze in front of the headless corpse of their leader.