Art

Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510)

n his early years, Botticelli's father, a tanner, sent him to school and later apprenticed him to a goldsmith. Botticelli preferred painting, however, and was then placed unted Fra Filippo Lippi, an admire Florentine master. Lippi influenced Botticelli's work even later in life. Botticelli was so absorbed with his work that he never married, though he established himself in Florence as an independent master.

Botticelli's work is often seen as the essence of Renaissance art. His idealistic figures are present in his famous works "The Birth of Venus" and "Primavera."

Although a great number of Botticelli's works were of a religious nature, he also painted a number of secular works. He enjoyed the patronage of the famed Medici family, and he took much inspiration from Flemish works of the time. However, he is most famous for his work with mythological subjects. Inspired by classical literature, which was popular during the Renaissance, and also inspired by the Renaissance search for the ideal human figure, Botticelli helped to introduce mythological subjects back into main stream. Many of these paintings are partially symbolic of pastoral sentiments. Both "The Birth of Venus" and "Primavera" were painted for the villa of Lorenzo di Pierfancesco de' Medici. They are both allegorical in aspects of love.

Later in his life, probably due to ill health, Botticelli received few commissions. Though most likely not impoverished, as early biographers suggest, Botticelli lived modestly in the end. He died in 1510.