SANDRO BOTTICELLI
(1445 - 1510) |
Sandro Botticelli was born in Florence, Italy in 1445 as Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi. His nickname was derived from Botticello ("little barrel") either the nickname of his elder brother or the name of the goldsmith to whom Sandro was first apprenticed. He was the son of a tanner.
Botticelli is considered one of the leading painters of the Florentine Renaissance. By 1470 he had his own workshop. He spent almost all of his life working for the great families of Florence, especially the Medici family, for whom he painted portrays, most notably the Giuliano de' Medici (1475-1476), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., as well as the Primavera (1478?) and the Birth of Venus (1482).
Botticelli also painted religious subjects such as the Madonna of the Magnificat (1480s) and the Coronation of the Virgin (1490) both in the Uffizi museum in Florence, Italy. In 1481 Botticelli was one of several artists chosen to go to Rome to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel in the Vativan. There he executed The Youth of Moses and many other works, among which was the Temptation of Christ.
In the 1490's when the Medici were expelled from Florence and the fanatic Dominican monk Girolamo Savonarola preached austerity and reform, Botticelli experienced a religious crisis. His subsequent works such as the Pieta (1490s), Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, Italy and especially the Mystic Nativity (1490s), National Gallery, London, England and Mystic Crucification (1496) Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachussetts, reflect an intense religious devotion.
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