There is no painting more poetic than the painting of Sandro Botticelli (Botticelli, Sandro). The artist was recognized for the subtlety and expressiveness of his style. The brightly individual style of the artist is characterized by the musicality of light, quivering lines, the transparency of cold, refined colors, the animation of the landscape, and the whimsical play of linear rhythms. He always sought to infuse the soul into new pictorial forms.

Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi was born on March 1, 1445 to Mariano and Smeralda Filipepi. Like many people in the area, his father was a tanner. 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. In 1458, Mariano Filipepi indicated that he had four sons: Giovanni, Antonio, Simone and thirteen-year-old Sandro, and added that Sandro was "learning to read, he is a sickly boy." Alessandro received his name-nickname Botticelli ("barrel") from his older brother. The father wanted the 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 relationship 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 dedicate himself to it, while not forgetting the most valuable lessons of jewelry art, in particular, clarity in outline drawing. Around 1464, Sandro entered the workshop of Fra Filippo Lippi from the monastery of Carmine, the most excellent painter of that time, which he left in 1467 at the age of twenty-two.

Early period of creativity

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 style. These changes are shown in full force in the earliest documented painting for the Merchant Court, 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).

Probably already in 1469, Botticelli can be considered an independent artist, since in the cadastre of the same year Mariano stated that his son was working at home. By the time of his father's death, the Filipepis owned considerable property. He died in October 1469, and the very next year Sandro opened his own workshop.

In 1472, Sandro entered the Guild of St. Luke. Botticelli receives orders mainly in Florence.

Rise of the Master

In 1469, power in Florence passed to the grandson of Cosimo the Old - Lorenzo Medici, nicknamed the Magnificent. His court becomes the center of Florentine culture. Lorenzo, a friend of artists and poets, a refined poet and thinker himself, becomes Botticelli's patron and customer.

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 - 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, stylistic fluctuations and direct borrowing 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 exercise, 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.

The artist writes a lot on orders from Lorenzo de' Medici and his relatives. In 1475, on the occasion of the tournament, he paints a banner for Giuliano Medici. And once he even captured his customers in the form of the Magi in the painting "The Adoration of the Magi" (1475-1478). Here you can also find the artist's first self-portrait. The most fruitful period in the work of Botticelli begins. Judging by the number of his students and assistants registered in the cadastre, in 1480 Botticelli's workshop was widely recognized.

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. So, the graces from Spring go back to the classical group of three graces, and the pose of Venus from the Birth of Venus - 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.

Crisis of the Soul Crisis of Creativity

In the 1490s, Florence experienced political and social upheavals - the expulsion of the Medici, the short-term rule of Savonarola with his accusatory religious and mystical sermons directed against papal prestige and the wealthy Florentine patriciate.

Torn apart by contradictions, the soul of Botticelli, who felt the beauty of the world discovered by the Renaissance, but was afraid of her sinfulness, could not stand it. Mystical notes begin to sound in his art, nervousness and drama appear. In the Annunciation of Cestello (1484-1490, Uffizi), the first signs of mannerisms already appear, which gradually increased 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.

In the painting "The Wedding of the Mother of God" (1490), a severe, intense obsession is visible in the faces of the angels, and in the swiftness of their postures and gestures - almost Bacchic self-forgetfulness.

After the death of the patron master Lorenzo Medici (1492) and the execution of Savonarola (1498), his character finally changed. The artist refused not only the interpretation of humanistic themes, but also the plastic language characteristic of him earlier. His latest paintings are distinguished by asceticism and conciseness of color scheme. His works are imbued with pessimism and hopelessness. One of the famous paintings of this time, "Abandoned" (1495-1500), depicts a weeping woman sitting on the steps against a stone wall with tightly closed gates.

“The growing religious exaltation reaches tragic heights in his two monumental Lamentations of Christ,” writes N.A. Belousova, “where the images of Christ’s loved ones, surrounding his lifeless body, are full of heartbreaking sorrow. Instead of fragile incorporeality - clear, generalized volumes, instead of exquisite combinations of faded shades - powerful colorful harmonies, where, in contrast to dark harsh tones, bright spots of cinnabar and carmine-red color sound especially pathetic. "

In 1495, the artist completed the last of the works for the Medici, writing in a villa in Trebbio several works for a side branch of this family.

In 1498, the Botticelli family, as the cadastral entry shows, owned considerable property: they had a house in the Santa Maria Novella quarter and, in addition, received income from the Belsguardo villa, located outside the city, outside the gates of San Frediano.

After 1500, the artist rarely picked up a brush. His only signature work of the early sixteenth century is The Mystical Nativity (1500, London, National Gallery). The attention of the master is now focused on the image of a wonderful vision, while the space performs an auxiliary function. This new trend in the relationship of figures and space is also characteristic of the illustrations for the Divine Comedy by Dante, made with a pen in a magnificent manuscript.

In 1502, the artist received an invitation to go to the service of Isabella d'Este, Duchess of Mantua. However, for unknown reasons, this trip did not take place.

Although he was already an elderly man and left painting, his opinion continued to be reckoned with. In 1504, together with Giuliano da Sangallo, Cosimo Rosselli, Leonardo da Vinci and Filippino Lippi, Botticelli participated in the commission that was supposed to choose a place for the installation of David, just sculpted by the young Michelangelo. Filippino Lippi's decision was considered the most successful, and the marble giant was placed on the plinth in front of the Palazzo della Signoria. In the memoirs of contemporaries, Botticelli appears as a cheerful and kind person. He kept the doors of his house open and willingly received his friends there. The artist did not hide the secrets of his skill from anyone, and he had no end to his students. Even his teacher Lippi brought his son Filippino to him.

Analysis of some works

"Judith", ca 1470

It is a work that is clearly related to Lipley's late work. It's a kind of reflection on what a feeling is. The heroine is depicted in the trembling light of dawn after accomplishing her feat. The breeze pulls at her dress, the excitement of the folds hides the movement of the body, it is not clear how she maintains her balance and maintains an even posture. The artist conveys the sadness that gripped the girl, that feeling of emptiness that replaced active action. Before us is not some definite feeling, but a state of mind, a striving for something obscure, either in anticipation of the future, or out of regret for what has been done, a consciousness of the futility, futility of history and the melancholy dissolution of feeling in nature, which has no history, where everything happens without the help of the will.

"Saint Sebastian" 1473

The figure of the saint is devoid of stability, the artist lightens and lengthens its proportion, so that the beautiful form of the saint's body can be compared only with the blueness of the empty sky, which seems even more inaccessible due to the remoteness of the landscape. The clear form of the body is not filled with light, the light surrounds the matter, as if dissolving it, and the line makes certain shadows and light against the sky. The artist does not exalt the hero, but only mourns the desecrated or defeated beauty, which the world does not understand, because its source is beyond worldly notions, beyond natural space, as well as historical time.

"Spring" c.1478

Its symbolic meaning is varied and complex, its idea can be understood in different ways. Its conceptual meaning is fully accessible only to specialist philosophers, moreover, to initiates, but it is clear to everyone who is able to feel the beauty of a grove and a flowering meadow, the rhythm of figures, the attractiveness of bodies and faces, the smoothness of lines, the thinnest. chromatic combinations. If the meaning of conventional signs is no longer reduced to fixing and explaining reality, but is used to overcome and encrypt it, then what is the point of all the wealth of positive knowledge that was accumulated by Florentine painting in the first half of the century and which led to grandiose theoretical constructions of Pierrot? And therefore, perspective as a way of depicting space loses its meaning, light as a physical reality does not make sense, it is not worthwhile to deal with the transfer of density and volume as specific manifestations of materiality and space. The alternation of parallel trunks or the pattern of leaves in the background of "Spring" have nothing to do with perspective, but it is precisely in comparison with this background, devoid of depth, that the smooth development of the linear rhythms of the figures, contrasting with the parallelism of the trunks, acquires special significance, just like subtle color transitions get a special sound in combination with dark tree trunks that stand out sharply against the sky foyer.

Frescoes in the Sistine Chapel 1481- 1482

Botticelli's frescoes are written on biblical and gospel subjects, but are not interpreted in a "historical" plan. For example, scenes from the life of Moses are meant to be a type of the life of Christ. The themes of other paintings also have a figurative meaning: "The Cleansing of a Leper" and "The Temptation of Christ" contain a hint of Christ's fidelity to the law of Moses and, consequently, the continuity of the Old and New Testaments. "Punishment of Korah, Dathan and Aviron" also alludes to the continuity of God's law (which is symbolically expressed by the arch of Constantine in the background) and the inevitability of punishment for those who transgress it, which is unequivocally linked in the mind of the viewer with heretical teachings. In some things one can see a hint of contemporary faces and circumstances of the artist. But, by linking together historically different events, Botticelli destroys the spatio-temporal unity and even the meaning of the narrative itself. Separate episodes, despite the time and space separating them, are soldered to each other by stormy upsurges of linear rhythm that occur after long pauses, and this rhythm, which has lost its melodic, smooth character, full of sudden outbursts and dissonances, is now entrusted with the role of a carrier of drama that cannot be more expressed through the actions or gestures of individual characters.

"Birth of Venus" c.1485

This is by no means a pagan chanting of female beauty: among the meanings inherent in it, the Christian idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe birth of the soul from water during baptism appears. The beauty that the artist seeks to glorify is, in any case, spiritual beauty, not physical beauty: the naked body of the goddess means naturalness and purity, the uselessness of jewelry. Nature is represented by its elements (air, water, earth). The sea, agitated by the breeze blown by Aeolus and Boreas, appears as a bluish-green surface, on which the waves are depicted in identical schematic signs. The shell is also symbolic. Against the background of a wide sea horizon, three rhythmic episodes develop with varying intensity - winds, Venus emerging from a shell, a maid accepting her with a veil decorated with flowers (a hint of the green cover of nature). Three times the rhythm is born, reaches its maximum tension and goes out.

"Annunciation"1489-1490

the artist brings into the scene, usually so idyllic, unusual confusion, the Angel bursts into the room and swiftly falls to his knees, and behind him, like jets of air cut through during flight, his clothes, transparent as glass, barely visible, rise up. His right hand with a large hand and long nervous fingers is stretched out to Mary, and Mary, as if blind, as if in oblivion, stretches out her hand towards him. It seems as if internal currents, invisible but clearly tangible, flow from his hand to Mary's hand and make her whole body tremble and bend.

"Mystical Christmas" 1500 g

Perhaps the most ascetic, but at the same time the most pointed and polemical of all the works of his last period. And it accompanies it with an apocalyptic inscription, which predicts great troubles for the coming age. He depicts an unthinkable space in which the figures in the foreground are smaller than the more distant ones, because the "primitives" did so, the lines do not converge at one point, but zigzag across the landscape, as if in a Gothic miniature inhabited by angels.

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We continue the story about the work of Sandro Botticelli.

Two of the most famous paintings by Botticelli, so-called " Primavera"("Spring") and " Birth of Venus"ordered by the Medici and embody the cultural atmosphere that arose in the medical circle. Art historians unanimously date these works 1477-1478 years . The paintings were painted for Giovanni and Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco - the sons of Piero's brother "Gouty". Later, after the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent, this branch of the Medici family was in opposition to the power of his son Piero, for which he earned the nickname "dei Popolani" (Popolanskaya). Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco was a student of Marsilio Ficino. For my villas in Castello he ordered frescoes from the artist, and these two paintings were also intended for her.

In art studies, the content of these paintings is interpreted in various ways, including its connection with classical poetry, in particular, with the lines of Horace and Ovid. But along with this, the ideas of Ficino, which found their poetic embodiment in Poliziano, should have been reflected in the concept of Botticell's compositions.

The presence of Venus symbolizes here not sensual love in its pagan sense, but acts as a humanistic ideal of spiritual love, " that conscious or semi-conscious aspiration of the soul upward, which purifies everything in its movement"(Chastel). Consequently, the images of Spring are cosmological and spiritual in nature. The fertilizing Zephyr unites with Flora, giving rise to Primavera, Spring - symbol of the life-giving forces of nature. Venus in the center of the composition (above her is Cupid blindfolded) - identified with Humanitas - a complex of spiritual properties of a person , manifestations of which represent the three Graces; looking up, Mercury scatters the clouds with his caduceus.

How beautiful is each group in the famous painting by Sandro Botticelli - "Spring" (also in the Uffizi), united, full of rhythmic movement, blissfully conjugated with all the lines with neighboring figures. Perhaps the ancient scenes of these compositions were suggested by the poet Poliziano, who labored at the court of Lorenzo. But their rhythm and charm are purely Botticelli.

then we see Venus,dance of the three graces

and, finally, Mercury, who, looking up, removes with the caduceus the veil of clouds that impedes contemplation.

What is the content of the picture? Researchers have offered several interpretations. The theme of the composition is spring with its accompanying ancient deities. The center of construction is Venus - not the embodiment of base passion, but the noble goddess of flowering and all goodwill on earth; this is a neoplatonic image. Expanding this context, scientists argued that the picture reflects the idea of ​​the generation of beauty by the light of divine love and the contemplation of this beauty, leading from the earthly to the superearthly .

In the literature about Botticelli, it is common and another interpretation three listed characters: it is believed that Zephyr, the nymph Chloris and the goddess of flowering Flora, born in the union of Chloris with Zemfir, are represented here.

Venus, the central figure of the composition, stands under the canopy of the trees in this enchanted expanse of the spring forest. Her dress of the finest fabric with golden threads of jewelry and a luxurious scarlet cloak, symbolizing love, indicate that we have before us the goddess of love and beauty. But in her fragile appearance, other features also appear. The bowed head is covered with a gas blanket, in which Sandro liked to dress his Madonnas. The face of Venus with raised eyebrows inquiringly expresses sadness and modesty, the meaning of her gesture is unclear - is it a greeting, timid protection or gracious acceptance?

The character resembles the Virgin Mary in the plot of the Annunciation (for example, in the painting by Alesso Baldovinetti). The pagan and the Christian are concealed in a spiritualized image.

In other figures, the compositions are also caught associations with religious motives. So, images of Zephyr and the nymph Chloris reminiscent of medieval the image of the devil, not letting the soul into Paradise .

Graces, companions and servants of Venus, are the virtues generated by Beauty, their names are Chastity, Love, Pleasure . Botticelli's depiction of the beautiful triad is the very embodiment of dance. Slender figures with elongated, smoothly curving forms intertwined in a rhythmic sequence of circular motion. The artist is extremely inventive in interpreting hairstyles, conveying hair as a natural element and as a decorative material at the same time. The hair of the Graces is collected in strands, now finely curly, now falling in a wave, now scattering over the shoulders, like golden jets.

Light bends and turns of the figures, dialogue of glances, graceful joining of the hands and setting of the feet - all this conveys the progressive rhythm of the dance. The relations of its participants reflect the classical formula and, at the same time, the Neoplatonic understanding of Eros: Love leads Chastity to Pleasure and binds their hands . In the image of Botticelli, the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bmythological splendor comes to life, but his images are painted with genuine purity.

Let's move on to the second picture. (this picture has already been published on the community pages , but I will try to dwell here on those points that were not touched upon in the previous publication)

"Birth of Venus circa 1477-85 Uffizi Gallery, Florence

The plot of Botticelli's masterpiece resurrects one of the most poetic legends of Ancient Greece. The goddess of love Aphrodite in Roman mythology Venus) was born from the foam of the sea waves near the island of Cyprus. Zephyr(west wind) blows on the shell with the young beauty and drives her to the shore. From his breath, roses are pouring, and it seems that they fill the picture with a subtle fragrance. Zephyr is depicted in the arms of his wife Chlorida(the Romans called her flora), the ruler of the plant kingdom. Spring awaits Venus, ready to throw royal clothes on the goddess of love to hide the perfect beauty of her body. Spring's neck is adorned with a garland of evergreen myrtle, symbolizing eternal love.

The gentle tones of dawn are used by the artist rather in the carnation of the figures than in the interpretation of the spatial environment surrounding them; they are also given to light robes, animated by the finest pattern of cornflowers and daisies. The optimism of the humanistic myth organically combined here with the light melancholy characteristic of the art of Botticelli. But after the creation of these paintings, the contradictions, gradually deepening in the culture and fine arts of the Renaissance, also touched the artist. The first signs of this become visible in his work in the early 1480s.

For the picture, the artist chose the pose of “chaste Venus”, shyly covering her captivating nakedness. The prototype of the goddess with the face of the Madonna was again Simonetta Vespucci.

As noted in the post this picture of Botticelli inspired many poets when creating their works. Poems were cited in the tagged post Novels by Matveeva and Paul Valery. Here is another poem Sarah Bernard "Birth of Venus"

It hit. Grumbled. It's gone.
Many rows of whirlwinds rose up from the bottom.
Uplifted from milky white foam
born Venus ... It immediately calmed down,

clinging to her divine feet.
Salty tongue caresses nakedness...
Zephyrs head towards the shores
her boat. On earth in love

meets a nymph. Flowers in the air
whirl and fly quietly into the water ...
Her face is full of dreams -
oh, the sensuality of the insight of Nature.

Goddess of love: hair gold,
face of a teenager, flawless body -
a premonition of passions ... Silent question -
does she care about these mortals?

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", about 1477-1478; "The Birth of Venus", about 1483-1484) are marked by spiritualized poetry, the play of linear rhythms, and subtle color. 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, from 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 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, the Day of Judgment 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, yielding 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.

The 1480s also include the two best tondos (round paintings) by Botticelli - the Madonna Magnificat and the 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 chief judge in the trial against Savonarola.

The most significant late works by Botticelli include the two "Deposition in the Coffin" (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 Botticelli's light, precise, nervous line.

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 zealous in their art, and that he earned a lot, but everything went to dust for him, because he was a poor 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 his 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 paternally guarded fat man Giovanni, Sandro's older brother, who became a broker and acted 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 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 have laid the foundation for 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 the outline of 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 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.

Biography of Sandro Botticelli very rich. Let's start with the fact that his name is a nickname. His real name was Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi. Sandro is an abbreviation for Alessandro, but the nickname Botticelli stuck to him, because that was the name of one of the artist's older brothers. In translation, it means "barrel". He was born in Florence in 1445.

The father of the future artist was a tanner. Around 1458, little Sandro was already working as an apprentice in a jewelry workshop, which belonged to one of his older brothers. But he did not stay there for a long time, and already in the early 1460s he was enrolled as an apprentice to the artist Fra Philippe Lippi.

The years in Lippi's art workshop were fun and productive. The artist and his student got along well. Subsequently, Lippi himself became a student of Botticelli. Since 1467, Sandro opened his own workshop.

Botticelli completed his first order for the courtroom. This was in 1470. By 1475, Sandro Botticelli was a well-known and sought-after master. He began to create frescoes, paint pictures for churches.

Botticelli was considered "their" person almost everywhere, including in rich royal families. So, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici, when he bought a villa for himself, invited Sandro Botticelli to live with him and paint pictures for the interior. It was at this time that Botticelli wrote his two most famous paintings - "" and "". Both paintings are presented on our website with a detailed description.

By 1481, Botticelli went to Rome at the invitation of Pope Sixtus IV. He took part in the painting, which had just been completed.

After his father's death in 1482, Botticelli returned to his native Florence. Having survived the tragedy, the artist took up the paintings again. Crowds of customers went to his workshop, so some of the work was done by a student of the master, and he only took on more complex and prestigious orders. This time was the peak of Sandro Botticelli's fame. He was known as the best artist in Italy.

But ten years later, the government changed. Savonarola ascended the throne, who despised the Medici, their luxury, venality. Botticelli had a hard time. In addition, in 1493, Botticelli's brother, Giovanni, whom he loved very much, died. Botticelli lost all support. Although this period did not last long, because in 1498 Savonarol was excommunicated and burned at the stake in public, it was still very difficult.

By the end of his life, Botticelli was very lonely. There is no trace of his former glory. He was rejected as an artist, and no more commissions were made. He died in 1510.

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 “The 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 Mystical 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.