Sandro Botticelli

Sandro Botticelli, a major artist of the 15th-century Florentine Renaissance, left the world an exceptionally rich artistic legacy. His work, comprising both religious and mythological paintings, is now exhibited in the world's greatest museums, including the Uffizi Museum in Florence, which has the largest collection.

This master of Italian painting was renowned for his mastery of drawing, his elegant compositions and the graceful expression of his figures. His most famous works include The Birth of Venus and Spring, two paintings from the artist's secular output, but also The Virgin and Child with an Angel, The Madonna of the Magnificat, and his painting of the Saint Sebastian, testimonies to his faith that show his ability to treat religious subjects with great finesse.

Botticelli also produced some magnificent portraits, such as Portrait of a Man with a Medal of Cosimo the Elder and Portrait of a Young Man. Canvases such as The Calumny of Apelles also illustrate his interest in allegorical themes.

While Botticelli excelled in the fresco technique, as evidenced by his participation in the decoration of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, where he created several frescoes according to a precise plan, he also used wood as a support for some of his paintings.

Botticelli's influence on the artists of his time and on subsequent generations was considerable. First cited in the 16th century by Giorgio Vasari, the famous biographer of Renaissance artists, the Florentine artist was belatedly rediscovered by the Pre-Raphaelites, who brought his work back into the limelight in the 19th century.

Biography of Sandro Botticelli

Youth and training of Sandro Botticelli

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, known as Sandro Botticelli, was born in Florence in 1445. At the time, the city was booming economically and teeming with craftsmen and merchants. The young man grew up in a modest family, with his three brothers Giovanni, Antonio and Simone. His father was a tanner and owned a small workshop near the Santo Spirito district.

There are several hypotheses as to the origin of the nickname Botticelli. Some attribute it to his older brother, Giovanni, nicknamed "Botticello", a nickname applied to the other male members of the family, others to a goldsmith named "Botticello", with whom the young painter is said to have apprenticed. This first contact with the goldsmith's trade, also practised by his brother Antonio, would undoubtedly influence the young artist's production, giving him great precision of line and a pronounced taste for detail.

About 1464, Sandro Botticelli entered the studio of Filippo Lippi, a renowned painter from Florence who was to become his master. Lippi, famous for his mastery of colour and his depiction of grace and emotion, made a profound mark on his pupil's style. It was in this studio that Botticelli produced his first works, such as The Virgin and Child with Two Angels, his painting The Virgin and Child with an Angel, and his Virgin and Child Supported by an Angel under a Garland. These paintings, still imbued with Lippi's style, bear witness to the young artist's apprenticeship and already reveal his talent for painting. It was also during this period that he perfected his apprenticeship by taking part in the frescoes of the Lives of Saint Stephen and Saint John the Baptist in the collegiate church of Prato, alongside his master.

The rise of Sandro Botticelli

In Florence, Sandro Botticelli took off after leaving Fra Filippo Lippi's workshop and doing a stint in the workshops of Antonio Pollaiuolo and Andrea del Verrocchio, a period from which religious works would emerge, such as the Madonna and Child in a Glory of Seraphim.

About 1469, aged barely twenty, the young artist set up his own business and opened his own studio. The young man quickly made a name for himself by distinguishing himself from his contemporaries, and received major commissions, first on behalf of the Commercial Court of Florence, then for the powerful Medici family, after they had seen his painting The Madonna of the Eucharist, a canvas modelled on Simonetta Vespucci, who was close to the Medici and considered the most beautiful woman in the world at the time. In the early days of the painter's independence, this close relationship with the Medici family, who ruled the Florentine Republic at the time, was reflected in several works, such as the Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici and the inclusion of portraits of Cosimo, Piero and Giovanni de' Medici in his Adoration of the Magi, which can be seen today in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Antonio Filipepi, a renowned goldsmith, also brought his brother Sandro a wealthy clientele right from the start.

At this time, Botticelli was also passionate about the portrait genre. The Portrait of a Young Man, and his work Portrait of a Man with a Medal by Cosimo the Elder, already show his mastery of line and his acute sense of psychology. In his painting, we find the quest for movement, anatomical precision and dynamism that characterised Florentine art of the period. The Saint Sebastian, painted in 1473 for the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, is a perfect illustration of this influence. The artist gradually moved away from the gentleness of his master Lippi to develop a more personal style. He also collaborated with Filippino Lippi, the son of his former master, who became his pupil.

The fame and consecration of Sandro Botticelli

Between 1480 and 1490, Sandro Botticelli reached the height of his fame in Florence and the rest of Italy. A protégé of Lorenzo de' Medici, known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, the painter was immersed in the intellectual and artistic effervescence of the Medici court. Lorenzo de' Medici, a great patron of the arts, entrusted him with prestigious commissions that would leave their mark on the history of painting.

It was during this period that Botticelli, imbued with the Neoplatonic culture dear to the Medici family, produced two of his most famous works: Spring (1482) and The Birth of Venus (1485). In these paintings, in which love and ideal beauty are celebrated, Botticelli features graceful mythological figures, in the image of the

Graces and Venus, the goddess of beauty and love. Spring, an allegory of renewal and abundance, features the Graces dancing in a flowering orchard, while The Birth of Venus depicts the goddess emerging from the waters on a shell, symbolising the birth of love and beauty.

Botticelli's fame spread beyond Florence. In October 1480, Pope Sixtus IV called on his talent to decorate the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Alongside other great masters such as Perugino, Rosselli and Ghirlandaio, Botticelli created three monumental frescoes: The Trials of Moses, The Temptation of Christ and The Punishment of the Rebels. These works, charged with theological meaning, feature a multitude of characters, including the most important of the Christian religion such as Moses, Joshua and Christ, in complex and dynamic compositions.

Alongside these prestigious commissions, Botticelli continued to produce religious paintings, including the magnificent Madonna of the Magnificat (1481), a circular work in which the Virgin, adorned in gold, writes the Magnificat at the instigation of the infant Jesus. He also painted for wealthy Florentine families, as evidenced by the fresco Venus and the Three Graces Offering Gifts to a Young Girl (1483), probably a wedding commission for the Tornabuoni family then residing at Villa Lemmi, and now on view at the Louvre Museum.

During the decade between 1480 and 1490, Botticelli was already considered one of the greatest painters of his time. His graceful, elegant style, mastery of composition and sense of colour influenced many artists of the Italian Renaissance during his lifetime.

The influence of Savonarola on Sandro Botticelli and the mystical turn for the painter

Florence, at the turn of the 1490s, was in the grip of the religious fervour instilled by the Dominican monk Savonarola. His fiery preaching against corruption and vanity, his call to repentance and simplicity, had a profound impact on the social, political and cultural life of the city. Florentine artists, including Sandro Botticelli, were not immune to this climate of spiritual renewal. Savonarola denounced the luxury and immorality he perceived in Renaissance art, encouraging a more austere and pious expression.

Botticelli, a painter renowned for his graceful and harmonious religious paintings, but also for some of his secular ones, was deeply disturbed by the monk's sermons. He is even said to have taken part in the famous "Bonfires of the Vanities", where objects deemed frivolous were burnt, including perhaps some of his own works. His pictorial style then changed, reflecting the asceticism advocated by Savonarola. Bright, shimmering colours gave way to darker, duller tones. The figures became longer, their expressions more intense, expressing torment and religious fervour.

The Calumny of Apelles, painted in 1495, bears witness to this mystical turn. The complex allegory, loaded with symbols, denounces slander and injustice, themes dear to Savonarola. The tight composition, the dramatic gestures of the figures and the general atmosphere of the work mark a break with the serenity that characterised Botticelli's earlier paintings.

Sandro Botticelli's last years and oblivion

After 1500, Florentine art changed. The death of Lorenzo de' Medici and the influence of Savonarola profoundly disrupted Florence. The intellectual and artistic climate that had encouraged Botticelli to flourish gradually faded. New generations of artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, were exploring new avenues, and the aesthetic that had made Botticelli famous now seemed somewhat old-fashioned. His paintings no longer met with the same success and the master's output became rarer during these years.

Isolated, Botticelli seemed to withdraw into himself. He experienced financial difficulties and his health declined. His last works, such as the Mystical Nativity (1501), show a return to a more austere religiosity, far removed from the mythological and allegorical themes that had made his reputation. Marked by intense mysticism, they seem to reflect the torments of a man prey to doubt and anguish. Botticelli died in Florence in 1510, almost forgotten by his contemporaries. His art, which had illuminated the Florentine Renaissance, then fell into relative oblivion for several centuries.

Rediscovery and legacy of Sandro Botticelli

In the 19th century, after several centuries of relative oblivion, Botticelli's work was rediscovered. The Pre-Raphaelites, fascinated by the art of the Quattrocento, admired the grace and spirituality that emanated from his paintings. Art critics such as John Ruskin helped to reassess Botticelli's importance in the history of art. His unique style, at once faithful to the canons of the early Renaissance and imbued with a singular poetry, set him apart from the other artists of his time. Gradually, Botticelli regained his place in the pantheon of great Renaissance masters.

Works such as The Calumny of Apelles, The Birth of Venus and Spring, kept at the Uffizi Museum in Florence, became icons of Italian art. The Louvre in Paris, the National Gallery in London and the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, among others, also own masterpieces by Botticelli, such as The Saint Sebastian, The Madonna of the Guidi of Faenza and Venus and Mars. Their collections allow the whole world to admire the Florentine master's virtuosity, both in painting on wood and in fresco, as evidenced by his contributions to the decoration of the Sistine Chapel.

Today, Botticelli is one of the most famous artists in the world. The Uffizi Museum attracts millions of visitors every year to contemplate his creations. His influence on the arts is considerable. Numerous exhibitions are devoted to him in the 21st century, and his style continues to inspire artists, creators and designers. Giorgio Vasari, in his Lives of the best painters, sculptors and architects, had already recognised Botticelli's exceptional talent. His plan, which structures the work, places Botticelli among the major figures of the Florentine Renaissance. The history of art has confirmed this judgement: Botticelli is a timeless artist whose legacy continues to fascinate.