The time period in which Bottecelli painted was known as the “Quattrocento.” This Florentine school of the Early Renaissance is defined as encompassing the cultural and artistic events of 15th century Italy. The decorative religious mosaic styles were gone and replaced with more classic forms developed by Roman and Greek sculptors. Later in Botticelli’s life, the Medici’s were expelled from Florence in 1494 by the fanatic Dominican monk Girolamo Savonarola, who preached religious reform in Italy. In 1497 he and his followers carried out the “Bonfire of the Vanities,” sending boys door to door collecting items associated with moral corruption, such as mirrors, cosmetics, lewd pictures, pagan books, gaming tables, fine dresses, and the works of immoral poets, and burnt them all in the center of Florence. Deeply religious and easily influenced, Botticelli became a follower of Savonarola, tossing some of his own paintings into the fires.
Botticelli was most influenced by his master Lippi, who taught him the techniques of panel painting and fresco and control over linear perspective. From Lippi he also acquired a fancifulness in costuming, linear sense of form, and partiality to paler colors that is still visible even after Botticelli had developed his own stronger color schemes and left Lippi. From Antonio del Pollaiolo, Botticelli gained a better sense of line, giving his paintings a sharply contoured, slender form. As part of the intellectual and artistic circle at the court of Lorenzo de' Medici, Botticelli was also influenced by its Christian Neoplatonism, “a fusion of pagan and Christian themes and elevation of pursuit of beauty as a fundamental element of art.”
Sandro Botticelli developed a highly personal style, characterized by an elegant execution, a sense of melancholy, and a strong emphasis on line. The forms in his paintings are defined with a sharp and flowing line, with the ability to suggest the character and even the mood of the figures by action, pose, and facial expression. The Virgin Mary is always a tall, queenly figure in conventional red robe and blue cloak, with an inner pensiveness of expression. Botticelli also harnessed the use of linear perspective, as most of his contemporaries were also able to do, and has been credited with a sophisticated understanding of perspective of the human body and anatomy. After the early 1490s—and his encounter with Savonarola—his style changed-- the paintings are smaller in scale, the figures in them are much more slender, accentuating their gestures and expressions and concentrating attention on an urgency of action.
One of his two most famous paintings, La Primavera, was completed in 1482. The work has been called “the most Pagan image of the entire Renaissance”—Botticelli steered away from the common portraits of the Virgin Mary to paint one of the classic, mythological scenes from antiquity. It was believed to have been commissioned by Lorenzo di Pierfranceso, a member of the Medici family, to whom the fashionable Neoplatonic philosophy would have appealed to. Venus, in the center, is in a grove with the Three Graces and Hermes to her rights and Zephyr, the wind god abducting the nymph Chloris, to her left. Eros flies overhead while Flora, the goddess of spring, stands beside her. There are supposedly 500 different kinds of plants on the orchard floor. The form of the Three Graces is taken from a classical statue of the same name, and the figure of Venus derives from the classical statue “Venus Pudica.” There is an emphasis on line and an elongation of the body. Botticelli also uses serene facial expressions and a gracefulness of pose, along with delicate coloring. The interpretation of the painting has been argued, some believing that Primavera is ultimately a statement about love and it’s fruition in marriage. Others say that Botticelli makes a distinction between spiritual love, represented to the right of Venus, and physical love, shown own her left. Some still claim that the painting is in fact a religious one, taking a new spin on the Last Judgment: Venus is Mary, Mercury is St. Michael, and Eros is the Holy Spirit. The three graces would represent the saved and the virtues of hope, love, and faith, and Zephyr is Satan stealing away the damned. Flora, in her aloofness, would stand for life on Earth.
The Birth of Venus, another allegorical painting of Botticelli’s, was done in 1485-86. It was also commissioned by the Medici’s, and shows Venus emerging from the sea on a shell, which is driven to shore by the wind gods amidst a shower of roses. The goddess of spring stands on shore to welcome Venus to the Earth. Botticelli’s figures form a harmonious pattern with their graceful movements and lines, making them look airy and less solid. Venus’s neck is an unnatural length in proportion to the rest of her body, and her steeply falling shoulders hide the strange way her left arm is hinged to her body. To counter criticism for creating a seemingly pagan image, Botticelli made the Gods look like Christian angels and leaves the beautiful portrait of Venus open for interpretation as a symbol of both pagan and Christian love.
Although Botticelli’s style seems to change drastically over time, I like the soft colors which he uses in the 1480’s and his choice of depicting Greek and Roman myths rather than the common Christian stories. I also like the beautiful and delicate costuming he chose for his characters, and the delicate way he painted their features. The detail in some of his paintings makes them seem more like still-life’s than creations from his imagination. His later, more religious images seem fanatical and bizarre, and don’t interest me as much as his earlier works.