Sandro Botticelli
Sandro Botticelli painted the Florence of the Medici – delicate goddesses, flowing lines and a beauty that still feels like a dream.
Life
Born Alessandro Filipepi in Florence around 1445, he trained with Fra Filippo Lippi. He soon worked for the Medici and their circle; in 1481–82 he painted frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. His great mythological paintings, “The Birth of Venus” and “Primavera”, date from the 1480s. Under the influence of the preacher Savonarola his late pictures grew more sombre. He died in 1510, almost forgotten, and was only rediscovered in the 19th century.
Style & technique
Botticelli thinks in lines: contours sway, hair and robes stream as if in the wind, bodies seem light and almost weightless. Grace counts for more than strict perspective. He mostly painted in tempera on wood, in light, cool colours, and combined Christian subjects with the gods of antiquity, as the humanists at the Medici court admired.
Look closely
- The lines: follow a strand of hair or the hem of a robe – they form ornaments of their own.
- The faces: similar to one another, with heavy eyelids and a slightly wistful gaze.
- The hands: long, slender and elegantly curved.
Timeline
- c. 1445: Born in Florence.
- 1481–1482: Frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
- c. 1485: “The Birth of Venus”.
- 1490s: Later, more sombre works under Savonarola’s influence.
- 1510: Dies in Florence.