A discussion on Sandro Botticelli.

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Kristen Verge                                                                                   3-17-05

                                                                                         Botticelli

Sandro Botticelli, born Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, lived all of his life in Florence, Italy, from 1445-1510. His nickname of “Botticelli” came from his elder brother Giovanni, a pawnbroker, who was called Il Botticello ("The Little Barrel"). Like most other artists at the time, Botticelli painted many religious and allegorical subjects, including numerous different renditions of Madonna's. He was apprenticed to three different men, the first being a goldsmith, Giorgio Vasari, than to the painter Fra Filippo Lippi, and finally with the painter and engraver Antonio del Pollaiolo, whom Botticelli worked with on a more professional level. Botticelli had his own workshop by 1470, and spent almost all of his life working for the great families of Florence, especially the Medici family, most notably Giuliano de' Medici, for whom he painted portraits. He is most well known for his allegorical paintings illustrating Greek and Roman legends, such as the two large panels Primavera and The Birth of Venus. The 1480s were Botticelli's most productive years, and by this time he was considered one of the most desirable painters in Florence. Botticelli experienced a religious crisis, however, after the rise of the monk Savonarola in the 1490’s and burned many of his own works, thinking them pagan and immoral. Although he is now considered one of the most individual painters of the Italian Renaissance, Sandro Botticelli remained little known for centuries after his death. He died in poverty and was supported by his long-time patrons, the Medici’s. His work was rediscovered late in the 19th century by a group of artists in England, known as the Pre-Raphaelites.

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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, ...

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