The painting "Portrait of a Young Man" was made by Sandro Botticelli with tempera and oil paints on wood approximately in 1483. Genre - portrait. The full-face portrait depicts a young man with a pleasant, dreamy face, large expressive […]

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi was born in Florence to a tanner's family. His older brother Giovanni, an incredibly fat boy, was teased as Barrel (Botticelli), and the nickname stuck with both brothers - some illiterate neighbors […]

The Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli often depicted St. John the Baptist in his works. The Forerunner of Christ was one of the most popular in the painting of the entire Renaissance, second only in popularity to […]

The Temptation of Christ or in other words Temptation of Christ (in Italian Tentazione di Cristo) is a fresco made by the great Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli. The size of the painting is 345.5 by 555 cm. It was painted between […]

The great Italian Renaissance artist immortalized the Prince of Youth in many of his paintings, which were striking in their beauty. Giuliano Medici attracted the attention of many artists, poets, who mentioned him in their […]

During the years of his life, Sandro Botticelli was a well-known artist, who was often approached with commissions for portraits. One of those who wanted to order a portrait for themselves was Simonetta, one of the most beautiful women of the Renaissance. "Portrait […]

Botticelli is rightfully one of the most prominent representatives of the Renaissance. The original style of the master, was obtained from his teacher, which is largely determined solely in color, his own type of faces and […]

The painting is currently in the El Paso Museum of Art (USA). By genre, it certainly should be attributed to religious painting, it was written in tempera. As for the direction of fine arts, the work belongs to the Early […]

Botticelli Sandro(Botticelli, Sandro)

Botticelli Sandro(Botticelli, Sandro) (1445-1510), one of the most prominent artists of the Renaissance. Born in Florence in 1444 in the family of leather tanner Mariano di Vanni Filipepi (Botticelli's nickname, meaning "barrel", actually belonged to his older brother). After an initial apprenticeship with a jeweler, ca. 1462 Botticelli entered the workshop of one of the leading painters of Florence, Fra Filippo Lippi. Filippo Lippi's style had a huge influence on Botticelli, manifested mainly in certain types of faces, ornamental details and color. In his works of the late 1460s, the fragile, planar linearity and grace, adopted from Filippo Lippi, are replaced by a more powerful interpretation of figures and a new understanding of the plasticity of volumes. Around the same time, Botticelli began to use energetic ocher shadows to convey flesh color - a technique that became a characteristic feature of his painting style. These changes appear in their entirety in Botticelli's earliest documented painting, Allegory of Power (c. 1470, Florence, Uffizi Gallery) and in a less pronounced form in two early Madonnas (Naples, Capodimonte Gallery; Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum). Two famous paired compositions The Story of Judith (Florence, Uffizi), also among the early works of the master (c. 1470), illustrate another important aspect of Botticelli's painting: a lively and capacious narrative, in which expression and action are combined, revealing the dramatic essence with complete clarity plot. They also reveal an already begun change in color, which becomes brighter and more saturated, in contrast to the pale palette of Filippo Lippi, which prevails in Botticelli's earliest painting, the Adoration of the Magi (London, National Gallery).

Paintings by Botticelli:

Among the works of Botticelli, only a few have reliable dates; many of his paintings have been dated based on stylistic analysis. Some of the most famous works date back to the 1470s: the painting of St. Sebastian (1473), the earliest depiction of a naked body in the work of the master; Adoration of the Magi (c. 1475, Uffizi). Two portraits of a young man (Florence, Pitti Gallery) and a Florentine lady (London, Victoria and Albert Museum) date from the early 1470s. Somewhat later, perhaps in 1476, a portrait of Giuliano de' Medici, Lorenzo's brother, was made (Washington, National Gallery). The works of this decade demonstrate the gradual growth of Botticelli's artistic skill. He used the techniques and principles set forth in Leon Battista Alberti's first outstanding theoretical treatise on Renaissance painting (On Painting, 1435–1436) and experimented with perspective. By the end of the 1470s, the stylistic fluctuations and direct borrowings from other artists inherent in his early works disappeared in the works of Botticelli. By this time, he already confidently mastered a completely individual style: the figures of the characters acquire a strong structure, and their contours surprisingly combine clarity and elegance with energy; dramatic expressiveness is achieved by combining active action and deep inner experience. All these qualities are present in the fresco of St. Augustine (Florence, Ognisanti Church), written in 1480 as a paired composition to the fresco of Ghirlandaio St. Jerome.

Items around St. Augustine, - a music stand, books, scientific instruments - demonstrate Botticelli's skill in the still life genre: they are depicted with accuracy and clarity, revealing the artist's ability to grasp the essence of form, but at the same time they are not striking and do not distract from the main thing. Perhaps this interest in still life is associated with the influence of Netherlandish painting, which was admired by the Florentines of the 15th century. Of course, Netherlandish art influenced Botticelli's interpretation of the landscape. Leonardo da Vinci wrote that "our Botticelli" showed little interest in the landscape: "... he says that this is an empty occupation, because it is enough just to throw a sponge soaked in colors on the wall, and it will leave a spot in which one can discern a beautiful landscape" . Botticelli generally contented himself with using conventional motifs for the backgrounds of his paintings, varying them by incorporating Netherlandish painting motifs such as Gothic churches, castles and walls to achieve a romantic-painterly effect.

In 1481, Botticelli was invited by Pope Sixtus IV to Rome, along with Cosimo Rosselli and Ghirlandaio, to paint frescoes on the side walls of the newly rebuilt Sistine Chapel. He completed three of these frescoes: Scenes from the life of Moses, Healing of a leper and the temptation of Christ, and Punishment of Korah, Dathan and Abiron. In all three frescoes, the problem of presenting a complex theological program in clear, light and lively dramatic scenes is masterfully solved; while making full use of compositional effects.

After returning to Florence, perhaps in late 1481 or early 1482, Botticelli painted his famous paintings on mythological themes: Spring, Pallas and the Centaur, the Birth of Venus (all in the Uffizi) and Venus and Mars (London, National Gallery), belonging to the number the most famous works of the Renaissance and representing the true masterpieces of Western European art. The characters and plots of these paintings are inspired by the works of ancient poets, primarily Lucretius and Ovid, as well as mythology. They feel the influence of ancient art, a good knowledge of classical sculpture or sketches from it, which were widespread in the Renaissance. Thus, the graces from Spring go back to the classical group of three graces, and the pose of Venus from the Birth of Venus goes back to the Venus Pudica type (Venus bashful).

Some scholars see these paintings as a visual embodiment of the main ideas of the Florentine Neoplatonists, especially Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499). However, adherents of this hypothesis ignore the sensual principle in the three paintings depicting Venus and the glorification of purity and purity, which is undoubtedly the theme of Pallas and the Centaur. The most plausible hypothesis is that all four paintings were painted on the occasion of the wedding. They are the most remarkable surviving works of this genre of painting, which celebrates marriage and the virtues associated with the birth of love in the soul of a pure and beautiful bride. The same ideas are the main ones in four compositions illustrating the story of Boccaccio Nastagio degli Onesti (located in different collections), and two frescoes (Louvre), painted around 1486 on the occasion of the marriage of the son of one of the closest associates of the Medici.

The magical grace, beauty, imaginative richness and brilliant execution inherent in mythological paintings are also present in several of Botticelli's famous altarpieces painted during the 1480s. Among the best are the Bardi Altarpiece depicting the Virgin and Child with St. John the Baptist (1484) and the Annunciation of Cestello (1484–1490, Uffizi). But in the Annunciation of Cestello, the first signs of mannerisms already appear, which gradually grew in Botticelli's later works, leading him away from the fullness and richness of nature of the mature period of creativity to a style in which the artist admires the peculiarities of his own manner. The proportions of the figures are violated to enhance psychological expressiveness. This style, in one form or another, is characteristic of the works of Botticelli of the 1490s and early 1500s, even for the allegorical painting Slander (Uffizi), in which the master exalts his own work, associating it with the creation of Apelles, the greatest of ancient Greek painters. Two paintings painted after the fall of the Medici in 1494 and influenced by the sermons of Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498), the Crucifixion (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fogg Art Museum) and the Mystical Nativity (1500, London, National Gallery), represent the embodiment of an unshakable faith Botticelli in the revival of the Church. These two paintings reflect the artist's rejection of the secular Florence of the Medici era. Other works by the master, such as Scenes from the Life of the Roman Woman Virginia (Bergamo, Accademia Carrara) and Scenes from the Life of the Roman Woman Lucretia (Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum), express his hatred of the tyranny of the Medici.

Few drawings by Botticelli himself have survived, although it is known that he was often commissioned for sketches for fabrics and prints. Of exceptional interest is his series of illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy. The deeply thought-out graphic commentaries on the great poem have largely remained unfinished.

About 50 paintings are entirely or largely by Botticelli. He was the head of a flourishing workshop, working in the same genres as the master himself, in which products of different quality were created. Many of the paintings are written by Botticelli's own hand or made according to his plan. Almost all of them are characterized by pronounced flatness and linearity in the interpretation of form, combined with frank mannerism. Botticelli died in Florence on May 17, 1510.

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 was very gifted and capable, but who had 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" (albeit 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 a 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, perfumery 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 argue 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 di Vanni Filipepi (Italian Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi; March 1, 1445 - May 17, 1510) is a great Italian Renaissance painter, a representative of the Florentine school of painting.

Botticelli was born to Mariano di Giovanni Filipepi, a tanner, and his wife, Smeralda, in the Santa Maria Novella quarter of Florence. The nickname "Botticelli" (keg) passed to him from his older brother Giovanni, who was a fat man.

Teaching craftsmanship (1445-1467)

Botticelli did not come to painting right away: at first he was a student of the goldsmith master Antonio for two years (there is a version that the young man got his last name from him). In 1462 he began to study painting with Fra Filippo Lippi, in whose studio he stayed for five years. In connection with the departure of Lippi to Spoleto, he moved to the workshop of Andrea Verrocchio.

The first independent works of Botticelli - several images of the Madonnas - in terms of the manner of execution demonstrate closeness to the works of Lippi and Masaccio, the most famous are: "Madonna and Child, two angels and young John the Baptist" (1465-1470), "Madonna and Child and two angels" ( 1468-1470), Madonna in the Rose Garden (circa 1470), Madonna of the Eucharist (circa 1470).

"Madonna of the Eucharist"

Early work (1470-1480)

From 1470 he had his own workshop near the Church of All Saints. The painting "Allegory of Strength" (Fortitude), written in 1470, marks the acquisition of Botticelli's own style. In 1470-1472 he wrote a diptych about the history of Judith: "The Return of Judith" and "Finding the Body of Holofernes".

In 1472, the name Botticelli was first mentioned in the "Red Book" of the company of St. Luke. It also indicates that a student of Filippino Lippi works for him.

At the feast in honor of the saint on January 20, 1474, the painting "Saint Sebastian" was placed with great solemnity on one of the pillars in the Florentine church of Santa Maria Maggiore, which explains its elongated format.

Around 1475, the painter painted the famous painting “Adoration of the Magi” for the wealthy citizen Gaspare del Lama, in which, in addition to representatives of the Medici family, he also depicted himself. Vasari wrote: “Truly, this work is the greatest miracle, and it has been brought to such perfection in color, drawing and composition that every artist is still amazed at him.”

"Adoration of the Magi" (circa 1475)

At this time, Botticelli becomes famous as a portrait painter. The most significant are the "Portrait of an Unknown Man with a Cosimo Medici Medal" (1474-1475), as well as portraits of Giuliano Medici and Florentine ladies.

In 1476, Simonetta Vespucci dies, according to a number of researchers, a secret love and a model for a number of paintings by Botticelli, who never married.

"Portrait of an unknown person with a medal of Cosimo de Medici the Elder"

Giuliano Medici

Portrait of a young woman

Stay in Rome (1481-1482)

The rapidly spreading fame of Botticelli went beyond Florence. Since the late 1470s, the artist has received numerous commissions. “And then he won for himself ... in Florence and beyond its borders such fame that Pope Sixtus IV, who built a chapel in his Roman palace and wished to paint it, ordered to put him at the head of the work.”

In 1481, Pope Sixtus IV summoned Botticelli to Rome. Together with Ghirlandaio, Rosselli and Perugino, Botticelli frescoed the walls of the papal chapel in the Vatican, which is known as the Sistine Chapel. After Michelangelo painted the ceiling and the altar wall under Julius II in 1508-1512, it will gain worldwide fame.

Botticelli created three frescoes for the chapel: “The Punishment of Korea, Daphne and Aviron”, “The Temptation of Christ” and “The Calling of Moses”, as well as 11 papal portraits.

"The Temptation of Christ"

"The Call of Moses"

Secular works of the 1480s

Botticelli attended the Platonic Academy of Lorenzo the Magnificent, where he met with Ficino, Pico and Poliziano, thereby falling under the influence of Neoplatonism, which was reflected in his paintings of secular subjects.

The most famous and most mysterious work of Botticelli - "Spring" (Primavera) (1482). The painting, together with Pallas and the Centaur (1482-1483) by Botticelli and Madonna and Child by an unknown author, was intended to decorate the Florentine palace of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, a representative of the Medici family. The creation of the canvas of the painter was inspired, in particular, by a fragment from Lucretius's poem "On the Nature of Things":

Here is 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.

The allegorical nature of "Spring" causes numerous discussions regarding the interpretation of the picture.

In 1483, the Florentine merchant Antonio Pucci commissioned four elongated paintings from Botticelli with scenes of a love story from Boccaccio's Decameron about Nastagio degli Onesti.

"History of Nastagio degli Onesti" from Boccaccio's Decameron. 2nd episode

Novel about Nastagio degli Onesti, a banquet in a pine forest.

Novel about Nastagio degli Onesti

The painting “Venus and Mars” (circa 1485) is dedicated to the theme of love.

"Venus and Mars"

Also, around 1485, Botticelli creates the famous painting "The Birth of Venus". “... What distinguishes the work of Sandro Botticelli from the manner of his contemporaries - the masters of the Quattrocento, and, by the way, painters of all times and peoples? This is a special melodiousness of the line in each of his paintings, an extraordinary sense of rhythm, expressed in the finest nuances and in the beautiful harmony of his “Spring” and “The Birth of Venus”. The coloring of Botticelli is musical, the leitmotif of the work is always clear in it. Few people in the world of painting have such a sound of plastic line, movement and an excited, deeply lyrical, far from mythological or other plot schemes. The artist himself is the director and composer of his creations. He does not use stilted canons, which is why his paintings excite the modern viewer so much with their poetry and the primacy of worldview.

"Birth of Venus"

In 1480-1490, Botticelli performed a series of pen illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy. “Sandro drew exceptionally well and so much that long after his death, every artist tried to get his drawings”

Dante Alighieri

Religious paintings from the 1480s

“Adoration of the Magi” (1478-1482), “Madonna and Child Enthroned” (Bardi altarpiece) (1484), “Annunciation” (1485) - the religious works of Botticelli of this time are the highest creative achievements of the painter.

"Madonna and Child Enthroned"

Adoration of the Magi

Annunciation

In the early 1480s, Botticelli created the Madonna Magnificat (1481-1485), a painting that became famous during the artist's lifetime, as evidenced by numerous copies. It is one of Botticelli's tondos. Such circle-shaped paintings were very popular in 15th-century Florence. The background of the painting is a landscape, as in Madonna with a Book (1480-1481), Madonna and Child with Six Angels and John the Baptist (circa 1485), Madonna and Child with Five Angels (1485-1490).

"Madonna Magnificat"

Madonna and Child with Six Angels and John the Baptist

In 1483, together with Perugino, Ghirlandaio and Filippino Lippi, he painted frescoes in the villa of Lorenzo the Magnificent near Volterra.

Around 1487, Botticelli wrote "Madonna with a Pomegranate". The Madonna holds a pomegranate in her hand, which is a Christian symbol (the Sistine Madonna of Raphael originally had a pomegranate instead of a book in her hand).

Later works (1490-1497)

In 1490, the Dominican monk Girolamo Savonarola appeared in Florence, in whose sermons there was a call for repentance and renunciation of a sinful life. Botticelli was fascinated by these sermons, and even, according to legend, watched how his paintings were burned at the stake of vanity. Since then, Botticelli's style has changed dramatically, it becomes ascetic, the range of colors is now restrained, with a predominance of dark tones.

The artist's new approach to creating works is clearly visible in The Coronation of Mary (1488-1490), Lamentation of Christ (1490) and a number of images of the Madonna and Child. The portraits created by the artist at this time, for example, the portrait of Dante (circa 1495), are devoid of landscape or interior backgrounds.

The change in style is especially noticeable when comparing “Judith leaving the tent of Holofernes” (1485-1490) with a picture created about twenty-five years earlier on the same subject.

In 1491, Botticelli participated in the work of the commission to consider the projects for the facade of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.

The only late painting on a secular theme was The Calumny of Apelles (circa 1495).

"Judith Leaving Holofernes' Tent"

"Slander"

King-judge Midas as an allegory of Stupidity, surrounded by similar Suspicion and Ignorance

Slander, hair-pulling Innocence, accompanied by her companions - Cunning and Lies

Truth, which personifies purity with its nakedness, and Repentance, which, with its inquiring and malicious look, is rather Envy

Last works (1498-1510)

In 1498, Savonarola was captured, accused of heresy, and sentenced to death. These events deeply shocked Botticelli.

In 1500, he created The Mystic Nativity, the only work signed and dated by him, where there is an inscription made in Greek: “I, Alessandro, painted this picture at the end of 1500 in the turmoil of Italy, half the time after the time when [said in chapter] the eleventh of John, about the second mount of the Apocalypse, at the time when the devil was released for three and a half years. Then he was shackled according to the twelfth, and we will see him [trampled on the ground] as in this picture.

Among the last few works of the artist of this period are scenes from the stories of the Roman women Virginia and Lucretia, as well as scenes from the life of St. Zenobius.

"Mystical Christmas"

Baptism of St. Zenobius and his appointment to the post of bishop

Scenes from the life of Saint Zenobius

Scenes from the life of Saint Zenobius

Three Miracles of Saint Zenobius

Scenes from the life of Saint Zenobius

In 1504, the painter participates in the work of the commission of artists, which was supposed to choose a place to install Michelangelo's "David".

Botticelli “withdrew from work and eventually grew old and impoverished so much that, if he had not been remembered when he was still alive, Lorenzo dei Medici, for whom, not to mention many other things, he worked a lot in a small hospital in Volterra , followed by his friends, and many wealthy people, admirers of his talent, he could have died of hunger. ”May 17, 1510, at the age of 66, Sandro Botticelli died. The painter was buried in the cemetery of the Church of All Saints in Florence.

Sandro Botticelli (Italian Sandro Botticelli, real name Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi (Italian Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi; March 1, 1445 - May 17, 1510) is a great Italian Renaissance painter, a representative of the Florentine school of painting.

Botticelli was born to Mariano di Giovanni Filipepi, a tanner, and his wife, Smeralda, in the Santa Maria Novella quarter of Florence. The nickname "Botticelli" (keg) passed to him from his older brother Giovanni, who was a fat man.

Botticelli did not come to painting right away: at first he was a student of the goldsmith master Antonio for two years (there is a version that the young man got his last name from him). In 1462 he began to study painting with Fra Filippo Lippi, in whose studio he stayed for five years. In connection with the departure of Lippi to Spoleto, he moved to the workshop of Andrea Verrocchio.

The first independent works of Botticelli - several images of the Madonnas - in terms of the manner of execution show closeness to the works of Lippi and Masaccio, the most famous are: “Madonna and Child, two angels and young John the Baptist” (1465-1470), “Madonna and Child and two angels” ( 1468-1470), Madonna in the Rose Garden (circa 1470), Madonna of the Eucharist (circa 1470).

From 1470 he had his own workshop near the Church of All Saints. The painting "Allegory of Strength" (Fortitude), written in 1470, marks the acquisition of Botticelli's own style. In 1470-1472 he wrote a diptych about the history of Judith: "Return of Judith" and "Finding the body of Holofernes".

In 1472, the name Botticelli was first mentioned in the "Red Book" of the company of St. Luke. It also indicates that a student of Filippino Lippi works for him.

At the feast in honor of the saint on January 20, 1474, the painting "Saint Sebastian" was placed with great solemnity on one of the pillars in the Florentine church of Santa Maria Maggiore, which explains its elongated format.

Around 1475, the painter painted the famous painting “Adoration of the Magi” for the wealthy citizen Gaspare del Lama, in which, in addition to representatives of the Medici family, he also depicted himself. Vasari wrote: “Truly, this work is the greatest miracle, and it has been brought to such perfection in color, drawing and composition that every artist is still amazed at him.”

At this time, Botticelli becomes famous as a portrait painter. The most significant are the "Portrait of an Unknown Man with a Cosimo Medici Medal" (1474-1475), as well as portraits of Giuliano Medici and Florentine ladies.

In 1476, Simonetta Vespucci dies, according to a number of researchers, a secret love and a model for a number of paintings by Botticelli, who never married.

The rapidly spreading fame of Botticelli went beyond Florence. Since the late 1470s, the artist has received numerous commissions. “And then he won for himself ... in Florence and beyond its borders such fame that Pope Sixtus IV, who built a chapel in his Roman palace and wished to paint it, ordered to put him at the head of the work.”

In 1481, Pope Sixtus IV summoned Botticelli to Rome. Together with Ghirlandaio, Rosselli and Perugino, Botticelli frescoed the walls of the papal chapel in the Vatican, which is known as the Sistine Chapel. After Michelangelo paints the ceiling and the altar wall under Julius II in 1508-1512, she will gain worldwide fame.

Botticelli created three frescoes for the chapel: “The Punishment of Korea, Daphne and Aviron”, “The Temptation of Christ” and “The Calling of Moses”, as well as 11 papal portraits.

Botticelli attended the Platonic Academy of Lorenzo the Magnificent, where he met with Ficino, Pico and Poliziano, thereby falling under the influence of Neoplatonism, which was reflected in his paintings of secular subjects.

The most famous and most mysterious work of Botticelli is "Spring" (Primavera) (1482).
The painting, together with Pallas and the Centaur (1482-1483) by Botticelli and Madonna and Child by an unknown author, was intended to decorate the Florentine palace of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, a representative of the Medici family.
The creation of the canvas of the painter was inspired, in particular, by a fragment from Lucretius's poem "On the Nature of Things":

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