Botticelli

Sandro Botticelli

Period: 1445 to May 17, 1510

He grew up in Florence. And that’s where he established and maintained his workshop, on Via del Porcellana. It’s even where he died. By the time he died in 1510, Botticelli’s art had completely fallen out of fashion. He was largely forgotten for nearly 300 years, until he was rediscovered by the Pre-Raphelites in the 19th century. A group of English painters and poets rebelled against classical traditions, instead celebrating individuality, and were drawn to Botticelli’s expressive style.

Madonna della Loggia

1467

Madonna is wearing dark blue cloak with bright red dress underneath it. Blue in Madonna's clothes represents her purity and her red dress is a symbol of love. She has a head covering and a slightly visible, translucent halo. Baby Jesus is painted in a light pink robe, also with a big bright halo above his head. The loggia where Madonna and a Child are seated is depicted in brown and cream colors. On the background there is a green landscape with a road supposedly leading to the town.

Virgin and Child with Two Angels

1469

The work was once attributed to Filippino Lippi, master of Botticelli. The composition essentially derives from Botticelli's master (and Filippino Lippi's father) Filippo Lippi. The faces and other details suggest that the work is of around the same period as Botticelli's Fortitude and his other early Madonnas.

Fortitude

1470

It is portrayed as a young woman wearing armour over her graceful dress and holding a ruler's sceptre. In spite of the military attributes, the Virtue alludes to strength and perseverance in the pursuit of good.

Madonna of the Rose Garden

1470

It depicts the Virgin Mary, with a pensive attitude, holding the Christ Child on her knees beneath a loggia with columns supporting a semicircular arch with a coffered ceiling, framing the head of the Virgin and following the curved profile of the board. Behind Mary extends a garden with its pink roses dominating the foreground. Below her is a floor with framed marble tiles which demonstrates the painter's mastery of perspective technique.

Smeralda Bandinelli

1475

Before Botticelli, women were typically depicted in profile. They were represented as objects, the property of their fathers or husbands. In the revolutionary Portrait of a Lady at the Window, Known as Smeralda Bandinelli, Botticelli defied that convention. Here, the lady has agency, looking directly out at us.

Primavera

1478

It is a large panel painting in tempera. The painting depicts a group of figures from classical mythology in a garden, but no story has been found that brings this particular group together. Most critics agree that the painting is an allegory based on the lush growth of Spring, but accounts of any precise meaning vary, though many involve the Renaissance Neoplatonism which then fascinated intellectual circles in Florence.

Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist

1480

It includes several symbols of Mary's virginity purity, her sinless state and her status as a new Venus. The red flowers in the vase also allude to Christ’s Passion and to the two Johns' martyrdoms, whilst the olive and laurel branches refer to the mystery of the Incarnation. The ascetic character of the figure of Mary shows Savonarola's influence on the artist.

Madonna of the Magnificat

1481

It is a painting of circular or tondo form by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. It is also referred to as the Virgin and Child with Five Angels. In the tondo, we see the Virgin Mary writing the Magnificat with her right hand, with a pomegranate in her left, as two angels crown her with the Christ child on her lap. It is now in the galleries of the Uffizi, in Florence.

Madonna of the Book

1481

It is a soft and elegant work, in which Mary and the Child Jesus are seated by a window in the corner of a room. She holds a Book of Hours, the Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis, prayer books for laymen common in the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries. The infant is gazing at his mother whilst she is absorbed in reading the book. The hands of both mother and son are positioned similarly, with the right hands open as in a gesture of blessing, and left hands closed.

The story of Nastagio Degli Onesti, part one

1483

It is a painting in tempera on wood by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli. This theme was chosen for its happy ending to a love affair, in which the daughter of Paolo Traversari, who rejects Nastagio's courting, changes her mind after witnessing the infernal punishment of another woman guilty of the same sin of ingratitude towards her lover.

The birth of Venus

1486

It depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth, when she had emerged from the sea fully-grown.

Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman

1486

Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman shows a young woman, probably Giovanna Tornabuoni, being received by Venus and the three Graces. Giovanna holds open a white cloth, into which Venus is laying roses symbolizing beauty and love.

Madonna of the Pomegranate

1487

In the middle of the painting, Madonna is surrounded symmetrically by angels with three on each side of her. The angels that are surrounding the Virgin Mary are worshipping her with lilies and garlands of roses. Baby Jesus is lying gently in the Virgin Mary's arms with one hand from both on them on a pomegranate. Both the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus are displaying a sad face. The Child of God will endure in the future.

The Cestello Annunciation

1492

The subject of the painting is the Annunciation, in which the Archangel Gabriel visits the Virgin Mary to 'announce' to her that she has been chosen by God to bear the Christ child should she accept this invitation. Her 'fiat' is the Annunciation.

Holy Trinity

1493

The main scene shows the Holy Trinity within an mandorla (almond-shaped frame) with seraphim. In the background is a blue sky within two rocky spurs, in front of which are Mary Magdalene, taken in an intense praying posture, and St. John the Baptist, patron saint of Florence, who, as usual in the pictures of the period, is pointing to the centre of the composition.

Madonna and Child with Three Angels

1493

The Virgin Mary is portrayed with her right hand expressing milk from her exposed breast and gesturing to the Child, the latter being supported by an angel. The Italian name derives from the rich baldachin over the scene. The open book on a small prie-dieu is a familiar symbol of Christ, the "word made flesh" and the Christ child gestures toward the book to signal his identity.

Calumny of Apelles

1495

Based on the description of a lost ancient painting by Apelles, the work was completed in about 1494–95, and is now in the Uffizi, Florence.

Mystic Crucifixion

1500

Here Botticelli depicts themes from the cleric's fiery missives. Therein "Firebrands and weapons rain down from black storm clouds, and an angel of justice raises his sword to slay the marzocco, the small lion that is the emblem of Florence". A woman believed to be Mary Magdalene lies on the ground and wrapped around the cross, figuratively at Jesus Christ's feet. The shields of the angels in the picture bear red crosses, the symbol of the people of Florence.

The Mystical Nativity

1500

Botticelli included veiled messages and hidden meanings in his works. At the top of The Nativity of Christ, he includes an inscription in Greek. Angels in the painting hold crowns with paper scrolls that also have tiny inscriptions on them. They are all veiled references to the religious teachings of Girolamo Savonarola, who had been deemed a heretic by the Pope.

The Story of Virginia

1504

It is one of the last works that Botticelli made exemplifying virtue, like The Story of Lucretia.
The painting has as a fundamental theme of violated honor and matrimonial fidelity. The combination of several scenes in a single image was common in the art of the early Renaissance.