Sandro Botticelli's grave position. Comparative perception of two Botticelli "entombment" paintings. What will we do with the received material?

And Michelangelo found out - it was Sandro! Great, divine Sandro Botticelli, on whom Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco pinned so many hopes, and whom, needless to say, he himself once envied. Last time he saw him when the fate of his “David” was being decided, but God, how he has changed in these one and a half years! Michelangelo smiled, but Botticelli suddenly retreated from him, as if afraid of a blow. Suddenly Sandro extended his hand, and Michelangelo automatically wanted to extend his own to shake it. But suddenly I realized that Sandro’s gesture meant something else: he was asking for alms. And Michele thrust into this outstretched hand several scudi that had been accidentally preserved from the feast. And then, without saying anything, he walked away. He wondered: was Sandro driven to this step by hopeless need, or was he, recognizing a young, successful colleague, simply playing the fool in front of him? This thought haunted him, and he decided to return, ask questions, find out the truth. If Sandro really experiences bitter need, then Soderini needs to be told about this - let the city help him, because it has done a lot for him. Michelangelo looked back, but Sandro was no longer on the street; he disappeared, disappearing into one of the countless alleys of Florence.

Busy with the hassle of moving, Michelangelo forgot about this meeting and his desire to help Sandro. He remembered it already in Rome, when he saw Botticelli’s frescoes in Sistine. For only a few minutes he stood in front of them - of course, there was skill and imagination in them, but still they belonged to the past. These were the drawings of a child who imagined himself capable of competing with great masters, and Michelangelo considered himself first of all to be great. He expressed his attitude towards the work of his predecessor only by shrugging his shoulders in feigned bewilderment and ordering scaffolding to be erected for his great work. She really was great - unlike Sandro, Michelangelo knew his worth and never felt a sense of insecurity. He knew what he wanted and he knew he would achieve it.

A few years later, he was once given news from his native Florence - Sandro Botticelli died on May 17, 1510 and was buried in the Church of Ognisanti. He finally found his last refuge where I wanted. His death went completely unnoticed. For more than three centuries, Botticelli was almost forgotten. His works were confused with the works of Ghirlandaio, Masaccio, and Andrea Mantegna, who were so different from him. They all seemed equally primitive, flat and outdated against the backdrop of the splendor of the Cinquecento and the lush splendor of the Baroque. A certain art connoisseur complained about Pope Sixtus IV, who “with the ignorance characteristic of rulers entrusted the supervision of everything (the work in the Sistine Chapel - Art. 3.) to the most unqualified of all, whose barbaric taste and dry pettiness paralyzed his colleagues.”

But even then there were eccentrics who were ready to admire the master’s paintings and keep them, saving them from destruction. In 1800, the Englishman Ottley purchased at an auction in Rome " Mystical Christmas" - it became the first work of Botticelli exported outside Italy after the artist's death. In 1815, the miraculously surviving "Birth of Venus" was transported from the dilapidated Villa Castello to the Uffizi Museum, and "Spring" - to the Florence Academy of Painting. In 1865, the Englishman Barker acquired “Venus and Mars”, and in 1873, at the Villa Lemmi, Sandro’s wonderful paintings were discovered under a layer of plaster, which soon ended up in the Louvre’s storage. Soon the English Pre-Raphaelites called for a return to “spiritual” pre-Raphaelian painting, declaring Botticelli its main representative. new era interest in the artist, in which each generation discovers something new. If the Pre-Raphaelites considered him primarily a singer of feminine tenderness and exquisite sadness, then art critics of the mid-20th century started talking about his “masculine manner,” revealing the temperament of a fighter and a prophet.

Sandro himself, having heard all these philosophies, would probably have smiled his famous tenderly absent-minded smile. After all, he was not a titan who overthrew the foundations, but just a selfless singer of beauty and spring. It is a pity that he was not given the self-confidence and courage that fate generously endowed with his younger contemporary Michelangelo. But everyone has their own destiny and purpose. Everyone does only their own own way on this earth. Whether Sandro Botticelli wanted it or not, he became one of the first who loudly tried to glorify the beauty of man and his great destiny.

Key dates in the life and work of Sandro Botticelli

1445 - Sandro (Alessandro) Botticelli was born into the family of tanner Mariano di Giovanni Filipepi and his wife Smeralda in the Santa Maria Novella quarter of Florence.

1452 - Leonardo da Vinci was born.

1458 - Mariano Filipepi writes in the cadastre: “Sandro, my thirteen-year-old son, is learning to read and is in poor health.” His eldest son Giovanni, nicknamed “Botticelli” (barrel), is also mentioned there, which then passed to the artist.

1462 - after two years spent as an apprentice to the goldsmith Antonio, Sandro goes to study in the workshop of Fra Filippo Lippi.

1464, August- after the death of Cosimo de' Medici, his son Piero, nicknamed Gout, becomes the ruler of Florence.

1467 - in connection with Lippi’s departure to Spoleto, Botticelli moved to the workshop of Andrea Verrocchio and painted the first surviving paintings.

December- death of Piero de' Medici, the rise to power in Florence of his son Lorenzo the Magnificent.

1470 - Botticelli opens his own workshop and writes the allegory “Power” for the Commercial Court. 1471 - writes the diptych "The Story of Judith".

1473 - Botticelli’s painting “Saint Sebastian” is installed on the pillar of the central nave of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Florence.

1474 - Botticelli goes to Pisa to examine the frescoes of the Camposanto cemetery and paints the fresco “Assumption of Our Lady” in the Pisa Cathedral (died in 1583).

1475 - on the occasion of the tournament in Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, Botticelli painted a banner for Giuliano Medici, depicting Pallas Athena on it. Portraits of Giuliano Medici and his beloved Simonetta Vespucci were painted.

1476 - he painted the painting “The Adoration of the Magi”, commissioned by a wealthy city dweller, Giovanni Lamy, where he placed his own image next to portraits of members of the Medici family.

1477 - paints the picture “Spring” (“Primavera”).

1478, April- the failure of the Pazzi conspiracy, during which Giuliano Medici was killed and Lorenzo was wounded.

July- Botticelli painted frescoes for the Bargello Palace with figures of conspirators hanging on the customs gates. The frescoes were destroyed in 1494 after Piero de' Medici fled Florence.

1480 - competing with Ghirlandaio, who painted “St. Jerome” in the church of Ognisanti (All Saints), paints the fresco “St. Augustine” there.

1481, January- Botticelli’s father made an entry in the cadastre: “Sandro di Mariano, 33 years old, is an artist and works at home whenever he pleases.”

April- paints the fresco “The Annunciation” for the porch of the monastery of San Martino delle Scale.

1481-1482 - working in Rome on three frescoes Sistine Chapel: "The Temptation of Christ", "The Life of Moses" and "The Punishment of the Disobedient". The last one features his self-portrait.

1483 - paints frescoes at Villa Lemmy for Lorenzo Tornabuoni and his bride Giovanna Albizzi. Together with his students he is working on painting chests on the theme of Boccaccio’s short stories on the occasion of the marriage of Gianozzo Pucci and Lucrezia Bini. Together with Perugino, Ghirlandaio and Filippino, Lippi painted frescoes at the villa of Lorenzo the Magnificent in Spedaleto near Volterra. Paints "Venus and Mars" and "Portrait young man".

1484 - writes for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco Medici his very famous painting"Birth of Venus" Paints the picture "Pallas and the Centaur".

1485 - writes "Madonna and Child, John the Baptist and John the Evangelist" for the altar of the Bardi Chapel in the Church of Santo Spirito. Commissioned by Lorenzo de' Medici, he is working on the tondo "Madonna Magnificat" (Glorification of Mary). The painting "Madonna with a Book" was painted.

1486 - writes the tondo “Madonna with Pomegranate” for the audience hall of the Palazzo Vecchio.

1487 - paints pictures for the altar of the Church of St. Barnabas.

1488 - writes "Annunciation" for the church of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi. Andrea Verrocchio and Antonio Pollaiuolo died.

1489 - writes "The Wedding of Mary" for the Chapel of Sant'Eligio in the Church of San Marco.

1490 - commissioned by Marco Vespucci, he painted the boards “Scene from the life of the Roman Virginia” and “Scene from the life of the Roman Lucrezia”.

1491 - participates in the commission for the consideration of projects for the facade of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Receives an order to decorate two vaults of the chapel of St. Zenobius in the cathedral with mosaics. The work remained unfinished and was given to the Ghirlandaio brothers.

1493 - brother Giovanni dies, brother Simone arrives from Naples. Sandro and Simone live with Giovanni's widow and his two sons in the house left by Mariano Filipepi. Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici commissions Botticelli's illustrations for " Divine Comedy"Dante. In total, about a hundred drawings were made with a silver pencil (with contours outlined with a pen).

1494, April- Botticelli and his brother Simone buy a country villa for 156 florins.

Botticelli, Sandro (Filipepi, Alessandro di Mariano). Genus. 1445, Florence - d. 1510, ibid.

Sandro Botticelli is one of the most famous Florentine painters of the late 15th century. His art, intended for educated connoisseurs, imbued with motifs of Neoplatonic philosophy, was not appreciated for a long time. Near three centuries Botticelli was almost forgotten until mid-19th century, interest in his work has not revived, which does not fade to this day. Writers turn of XIX-XX centuries (R. Sizeran, P. Muratov) created a romantic-tragic image of the artist, which has since firmly established itself in the minds. But documents from the end of the 15th century - early XVI centuries do not confirm such an interpretation of his personality and do not always confirm the data of the biography of Sandro Botticelli, written Vasari.

Self-portrait of Sandro Botticelli. Detail of the painting "Adoration of the Magi". OK. 1475

Sandro Filipepi (this is the real name of the master) was youngest son tanner Mariano Filipepi, who lived in the parish of the Church of All Saints (Ognisanti). Two Botticelli brothers - Giovanni and Simone - were engaged in trade, the third - Antonio - in jewelry. WITH trading activities The brothers are connected by the origin of Sandro’s nickname – “botticelle” (“barrel”). However, Vasari reports that this was the name given to the godfather of the artist’s father, Mariano, a jeweler to whom Sandro was apprenticed. There is another version, perhaps the closest to the truth, according to which the nickname passed to Sandro Botticelli from his brother Antonio, and it means a distorted Florentine word “ battigello" - "silversmith."

Around 1464 Sandro entered the workshop of the famous artist Fra Filippo Lippi on the recommendation of his neighbor, the head of the Vespucci family. Botticelli remained there until the beginning of 1467. There is information that in the spring of 1467 he began visiting the workshop Andrea Verrocchio, and from 1469 he worked independently, initially at home, and then in a rented workshop. The first work undoubtedly belonging to Botticelli, “Allegory of Power” (Florence, Uffizi), dates back to 1470. It was part of the “Seven Virtues” series (the rest are filled Piero Pollaiolo) for the hall of the Commercial Court. Botticelli soon became a student of the later famous Filippino Lippi, son of Fra Filippo, who died in 1469. January 20, 1474 on the occasion of the feast of St. Sebastian's painting "Saint Sebastian" by Sandro Botticelli was exhibited in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Florence.

In the same year, Sandro Botticelli was invited to Pisa to work on the Camposanto frescoes. For an unknown reason, he did not complete them, but in the Pisa Cathedral he painted the fresco “The Assumption of Our Lady,” which died in 1583. In the 1470s, Botticelli became close to the Medici family and the “Medice circle” - poets and Neoplatonist philosophers (Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola , Angelo Poliziano). January 28, 1475 brother Lorenzo the Magnificent Giuliano took part in a tournament in one of the Florentine squares with a standard painted by Botticelli (not preserved). After the failed Pazzi plot to overthrow the Medici (April 26, 1478), Botticelli, commissioned by Lorenzo the Magnificent, painted a fresco over the Porta della Dogana, which led to the Palazzo Vecchio. It depicted the hanged conspirators (this painting was destroyed on November 14, 1494 after Piero de' Medici fled from Florence).

To the number best works Sandro Botticelli of the 1470s refers to “The Adoration of the Magi,” where members of the Medici family and people close to them are shown in the images of eastern sages and their retinue. At the right edge of the picture, the artist depicted himself.

Sandro Botticelli. Adoration of the Magi. OK. 1475. In the lower right corner of the picture the artist depicted himself standing

Between 1475 and 1480 Sandro Botticelli created one of the most beautiful and mysterious works- painting “Spring”. It was intended for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco Medici, with whom Botticelli had friendly relations. The plot of this painting, which combines motifs of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, has not yet been fully explained and is obviously inspired by both Neoplatonic cosmogony and events in the Medici family.

Sandro Botticelli. Spring. OK. 1482

The early period of Botticelli’s work ends with the fresco “St. Augustine" (1480, Florence, Church of Ognisanti), commissioned by the Vespucci family. She is a pair of Domenico's compositions Ghirlandaio"St. Jerome" in the same temple. The spiritual passion of Augustine's image contrasts with the prosaism of Jerome, clearly demonstrating the differences between the deep, emotional creativity of Botticelli and the solid craft of Ghirlandaio.

In 1481, together with other painters from Florence and Umbria (Perugino, Piero di Cosimo, Domenico Ghirlandaio), Sandro Botticelli was invited to Rome by Pope Sixtus IV to work in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. He returned to Florence in the spring of 1482, having managed to write three large compositions in the chapel: “The Healing of the Leper and the Temptation of Christ”, “The Youth of Moses” and “The Punishment of Korah, Dathan and Abiron”.

Sandro Botticelli. Scenes from the life of Moses. 1481-1482

Sandro Botticelli. Punishment of Korah, Dathan and Abiron. Fresco of the Sistine Chapel. 1481-1482

In the 1480s, Botticelli continued to work for the Medici and other noble Florentine families, producing paintings of both secular and religious subjects. Around 1483 with Filippino Lippi, Perugino and Ghirlandaio he worked in Volterra at the Villa Spedaletto, which belonged to Lorenzo the Magnificent. The famous painting by Sandro Botticelli “The Birth of Venus” (Florence, Uffizi), made for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, dates back to before 1487. Together with the previously created “Spring”, it became a kind of iconic image, the personification of both the art of Botticelli and the refined culture of the Medicean court.

Sandro Botticelli. Birth of Venus. OK. 1485

The two best tondos (round paintings) by Botticelli date back to the 1480s - “Madonna Magnificat” and “Madonna with a Pomegranate” (both in Florence, Uffizi). The latter may have been intended for the audience hall in the Palazzo Vecchio.

It is believed that from the late 1480s, Sandro Botticelli was strongly influenced by the sermons of the Dominican Girolamo Savonarola, who denounced the practices of the contemporary Church and called for repentance. Vasari writes that Botticelli was a follower of Savonarola’s “sect” and even gave up painting and “fell into the greatest ruin.” Indeed, the tragic mood and elements of mysticism in many of the master’s later works testify in favor of such an opinion. At the same time, the wife of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, in a letter dated November 25, 1495, reports that Botticelli was painting the Villa Medici in Trebbio with frescoes, and on July 2, 1497, from the same Lorenzo, the artist received a loan for the execution decorative paintings at Villa Castello (not preserved). In the same 1497, more than three hundred Savonarola supporters signed a petition to Pope Alexander VI asking him to lift the excommunication from the Dominican. The name Sandro Botticelli was not found among these signatures. In March 1498, Guidantonio Vespucci invited Botticelli and Piero di Cosimo to decorate his new house on Via Servi. Among the paintings that adorned him were “The History of the Roman Virginia” (Bergamo, Accademia Carrara) and “The History of the Roman Lucretia” (Boston, Gardner Museum). Savonarola was burned that same year on May 29, and there is only one direct evidence of Botticelli's serious interest in his person. Almost two years later, on November 2, 1499, Sandro Botticelli's brother Simone wrote in his diary: “Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, my brother, one of best artists, which were in these times in our city, in my presence, sitting at home by the fire, about three o’clock in the morning, I told how on that day, in his bottega in the house, Sandro talked with Doffo Spini about the case of Frate Girolamo.” Spini was the chief judge in the trial against Savonarola.

Sandro Botticelli. Lamentation of Christ (Entombment). OK. 1490

The most significant late works of Botticelli include two “Entombments” (both after 1500; Munich, Alte Pinakothek; Milan, Poldi Pezzoli Museum) and the famous “Mystical Nativity” (1501, London, National Gallery) - the only one signed and dated work of the artist. In them, especially in “Nativity,” they see Botticelli’s appeal to the techniques of medieval Gothic art, primarily in the violation of perspective and scale relationships.

Sandro Botticelli. Mystical Christmas. OK. 1490

However late works masters are not pastiche. The use of forms and techniques alien to the Renaissance artistic method, is explained by the desire to enhance emotional and spiritual expressiveness, to convey which the artist did not have enough specifics real world. One of the most sensitive painters of the Quattrocento, Botticelli sensed the impending crisis of the humanistic culture of the Renaissance extremely early. In the 1520s, its onset will be marked by the emergence of the irrational and subjective art of mannerism.

One of the most interesting aspects of Sandro Botticelli’s work is portrait painting. In this area, he established himself as a brilliant master already at the end of the 1460s (“Portrait of a man with a medal”, 1466-1477, Florence, Uffizi; “Portrait of Giuliano de’ Medici”, ca. 1475, Berlin, State Assemblies). In the master's best portraits, the spirituality and sophistication of the characters' appearances are combined with a kind of hermeticism, sometimes locking them in arrogant suffering (Portrait of a Young Man, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art).

Sandro Botticelli. Portrait of a young woman. After 1480

One of the most magnificent draftsmen of the 15th century, Botticelli, according to Vasari, painted a lot and “exceptionally well.” His drawings were extremely highly valued by his contemporaries, and they were kept as samples in many workshops of Florentine artists. Very few of them have survived to this day, but a unique series of illustrations for the “Divine Comedy” allows us to judge the skill of Botticelli as a draftsman. Dante. Executed on parchment, these drawings were intended for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici. Sandro Botticelli turned to illustrating Dante twice. The first small group of drawings (not preserved) was made by him, apparently, in the late 1470s, and from it Baccio Baldini made nineteen engravings for the publication of the Divine Comedy in 1481. Botticelli’s most famous illustration to Dante is the drawing “Map of Hell” ( La mappa dell inferno).

Sandro Botticelli. Map of Hell (Circles of Hell - La mappa dell inferno). Illustration for Dante's "Divine Comedy". 1480s

Botticelli began completing the pages of the Medici Codex after returning from Rome, using partly his first compositions. 92 sheets have survived (85 in the Cabinet of Engravings in Berlin, 7 in the Vatican Library). The drawings were made with silver and lead pins; the artist then outlined their thin gray line with brown or black ink. Four sheets are painted with tempera. On many sheets the inking is not completed or not done at all. It is these illustrations that make it especially clear to feel the beauty of Botticelli’s light, precise, nervous line.

Sandro Botticelli. Hell. Illustration for Dante's "Divine Comedy". 1480s

According to Vasari, Sandro Botticelli was “a very pleasant person and often liked to joke with his students and friends.” “They also say,” he writes further, “that above all he loved those whom he knew were diligent in their art, and that he earned a lot, but everything went to ruin for him, since he managed poorly and was careless. In the end he became decrepit and incapacitated and walked relying on two sticks...” Oh financial situation Botticelli in the 1490s, that is, at a time when, according to Vasari, he had to give up painting and go bankrupt under the influence of Savonarola's sermons, documents from the State Archives of Florence partially allow us to judge. It follows from them that on April 19, 1494, Sandro Botticelli, together with his brother Simone, acquired a house with land and a vineyard outside the gates of San Frediano. The income from this property in 1498 was determined at 156 florins. True, since 1503 the master has been in debt for contributions to the Guild of St. Luke, but an entry dated October 18, 1505 reports that it was completely repaid. The fact that the elderly Botticelli continued to enjoy fame is also evidenced by a letter from Francesco dei Malatesti, agent of the ruler of Mantua, Isabella d'Este, who was looking for craftsmen to decorate her studiolo. On September 23, 1502, he informs her from Florence that Perugino is in Siena, Filippino Lippi too burdened with orders, but there is also Botticelli, who “we praise a lot.” The trip to Mantua did not take place for an unknown reason. In 1503, Ugolino Verino, in the poem “De ilrustratione urbis Florentiae,” named Sandro Botticelli among the best painters, comparing him with the famous artists of antiquity. - Zeuxis and Apelles. On January 25, 1504, the master was part of the commission discussing the choice of location for the installation of Michelangelo’s David. The last four and a half years of Sandro Botticelli’s life were not documented. They were the sad time of decrepitude and incapacity that Vasari wrote about. died in May 1510 and was buried in the cemetery of the Ognisanti Church on May 17, as records say " Books of the Dead» Florence and the same book from the workshop of doctors and pharmacists.

Other works by Botticelli:“Madonna and Child” (c. 1466, Paris, Louvre), “Madonna and Child in Glory”, “Madonna del Roseto” (both 1469-1470, Florence, Uffizi), “Madonna and Child and St. John the Baptist" (c. 1468, Paris, Louvre), "Madonna and Child and Two Angels" (1468-1469, Naples, Capodimonte), "St. interview" (c. 1470, Florence, Uffizi), "Adoration of the Magi" (c. 1472, London, National Gallery), "Madonna of the Eucharist" (c. 1471, Boston, Gardner Museum), "Adoration of the Magi", tondo (c. . 1473, London, National Gallery), “Discovery of the Body of Holofernes”, “The Return of Judith to Bethulia” (both c. 1473, Florence, Uffizi), “Portrait of Giuliano de’ Medici” (Washington, National Gallery), “Portrait of a Young Man” (c. 1477, Paris, Louvre), "Madonna and Child and Angels", tondo (c. 1477, Berlin, State Collections), "Lorenzo Tornabuoni and the Seven liberal arts", "Giovanna degli Albizzi and the Virtues" - frescoes of the Villa Lemmi (1480, Paris, Louvre), " Female portrait"(1481-1482, London, private collection), "Adoration of the Magi" (1481-1482, Washington, National Gallery), "Pallas and the Centaur" (1480-1488, Florence, Uffizi), a series of four paintings based on the story of Boccaccio about Nastagio degli Onesti (1483, three – Madrid, Prado, one – London, private collection), “Venus and Mars” (1483, London, National Gallery), “Portrait of a Boy” (1483, London, National Gallery), “Madonna” with the Child" (1483, Milan, Poldi Pezzoli Museum), "Madonna and Child and Two Saints" (1485, Berlin, State Collections), "Madonna and Child and Saints" ("Pala San Barnaba"), "Coronation of Our Lady" ", "Annunciation" (all - c. 1490, Florence, Uffizi), "Portrait of Lorenzo Lorenziano" (c. 1490, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy), "Madonna and Child and St. John the Baptist" (c. 1490, Dresden, Art Gallery old masters), “Adoration of the Child” (c. 1490-1495, Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland), “St. Augustine" (1490-1500, Florence, Uffizi), "Slander" (1495, ibid.), "Madonna and Child and Angels", tondo (Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana), "Annunciation" (Moscow, Pushkin Museum), "St. Jerome", "St. Dominic" (St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum), “Transfiguration” (c. 1495, Rome, Pallavicini collection), “Abandoned” (c. 1495, Rome, Rospigliosi collection), “Judith with the head of Holofernes” (c. 1495, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), four compositions on the theme stories of St. Zenobia (1495-1500; two – London, National Gallery, one – New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, one – Dresden, Old Masters Art Gallery), “Prayer of the Cup” (c. 1499, Granada, Royal Chapel), “Symbolic Crucifixion" (1500-1505, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Art Museum Fogg).

Literature about Botticelli: Vasari 2001. T. 2; Dakhnovich A. S. Botticelli's creativity and eternal questions. Kyiv, 1915; Bernson B. Florentine Renaissance painters. M., 1923; Grashchenkov V. N. Botticelli. M., 1960; Botticelli: Sat. materials about creativity. M., 1962; Paslo D. Botticelli. Budapest, 1962; Smirnova I. Sandro Botticelli. M., 1967; Kustodieva T.K. Sandro Botticelli. L., 1971; Dunaev G. S. Sandro Botticelli. M., 1977; Kozlova S. Dante and the artists of the Renaissance // Dante readings. M., 1982; Sonina T.V.“Spring” by Botticelli // Italian collection. St. Petersburg, 1996. Issue. 1; Sonina T.V. Botticelli’s drawings for Dante’s “Divine Comedy”: Traditional and original // Book in Renaissance culture. M., 2002; Ulmann H. Sandro Botticelli. Munich, 1893; Warburg A. Botticellis "Geburt der Venus" und Frühling": Eine Untersuchung über die Vorschtellungen von der Antike in der italienischen Frührenaissance. Hamburg; Leipzig, 1893; SupinoL I disegni per la "Divina Commedia" di Dante. Bologna, 1921; Venturi A. II Botticelli interprete di Dante. Firenze, 1921; Mesnil J. Sandro Botticelli. Paris, 1938; Lippmann F. Zeichnungen von Sandro Botticelli zu Dantes Göttlicher Komödie. Berlin, 1954; Salvini R. Tutta la pittura del Botticelli. Milano, 1958; ArgonG.C. Sandro Botticelli. Geneva, 1967; In C, Mandel G. L "opera completa del Botticelli. Milano, 1967; Ettlinger L. D., Ettlinger H. S. Botticelli. London, 1976; Lightbown R. Sandro Botticelli: Compi, cat. London, 1978; Baldini U. Botticelli. Firenze, 1988; Pons N. Botticelli: Cat. compi. Milano, 1989; Botticelli e Dante. Milano, 1990; Gemeva C. Botticelli: Cat. compi. Firenze, 1990; Botticelli. From Lorenzo the Magnificent to Savonarola. Milano, 2003.

Based on materials from an article by T. Sonina

1445 - Sandro (Alessandro) Botticelli was born into the family of tanner Mariano di Giovanni Filipepi and his wife Smeralda in the Santa Maria Novella quarter of Florence.

1452 - Leonardo da Vinci was born.

1458 - Mariano Filipepi writes in the cadastre: "Sandro, my thirteen-year-old son, is learning to read and is in poor health." His eldest son Giovanni, nicknamed “Botticelli” (barrel), is also mentioned there, which then passed to the artist.

1462 - after two years spent as an apprentice to the goldsmith Antonio, Sandro goes to study in the workshop of Fra Filippo Lippi.

1464, August - after the death of Cosimo de' Medici, his son Piero, nicknamed Gout, becomes the ruler of Florence.

1467 - in connection with Lippi's departure to Spoleto, Botticelli moves into the workshop of Andrea Verrocchio and paints the first surviving paintings.

December - the death of Piero de' Medici, the rise to power in Florence of his son Lorenzo the Magnificent.

1470 - Botticelli opens his own workshop and writes the allegory “Force” for the Commercial Court. 1471 - writes the diptych “The Story of Judith”.

1472 - the name Botticelli is first mentioned in the “Red Book” of the Company of St. Luke. It also states that his student is Filippino Lippi.

1473 - Botticelli’s painting “Saint Sebastian” is installed on the pillar of the central nave of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Florence.

1474 - Botticelli travels to Pisa to examine the frescoes of the Camposanto cemetery and paints the fresco “Assumption of Our Lady” in the Pisa Cathedral (died in 1583).

1475 - on the occasion of a tournament in Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, Botticelli painted a banner for Giuliano de' Medici, depicting Pallas Athena on it. Portraits of Giuliano Medici and his beloved Simonetta Vespucci were painted.

1476 - commissioned by a wealthy townsman Giovanni Lamy, he paints the painting “The Adoration of the Magi”, where he places his own image next to portraits of members of the Medici family.

1477 - paints the painting “Spring” (“Primavera”).

1478, April - the failure of the Pazzi conspiracy, during which Giuliano de' Medici was killed and Lorenzo was wounded.

July - Botticelli paints frescoes for the Bargello Palace with figures of conspirators hanged on the customs gates. The frescoes were destroyed in 1494 after Piero de' Medici fled Florence.

1480 - in competition with Ghirlandaio, who painted “St. Jerome” in the church of Ognisanti (All Saints), he paints the fresco “St. Augustine” there.

1481, January - Father Botticelli made an entry in the cadastre: “Sandro di Mariano, 33 years old, is an artist and works at home whenever he pleases.”

April - paints the fresco “The Annunciation” for the porch of the monastery of San Martino delle Scale.

1481-1482 - works in Rome on three frescoes of the Sistine Chapel: “The Temptation of Christ”, “The Life of Moses” and “The Punishment of the Disobedient”. The last one features his self-portrait.

1483 - paints frescoes at Villa Lemmi for Lorenzo Tornabuoni and his bride Giovanna Albizzi. Together with his students he is working on painting chests on the theme of Boccaccio’s short stories on the occasion of the marriage of Gianozzo Pucci and Lucrezia Bini. Together with Perugino, Ghirlandaio and Filippino, Lippi painted frescoes at the villa of Lorenzo the Magnificent in Spedaleto near Volterra. He paints the paintings “Venus and Mars” and “Portrait of a Young Man”.

1484 - paints his most famous painting “The Birth of Venus” for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco Medici. Paints the painting “Pallas and the Centaur.”

1485 - paints “Madonna and Child, John the Baptist and John the Evangelist” for the altar of the Bardi Chapel in the Church of Santo Spirito. Commissioned by Lorenzo de' Medici, he is working on the tondo "Madonna Magnificat" (Glorification of Mary). The painting “Madonna with a Book” was painted.

1486 - paints the Madonna of the Pomegranate tondo for the audience hall of the Palazzo Vecchio.

1487 - paints pictures for the altar of the Church of St. Barnabas.

1488 - writes the “Annunciation” for the church of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi. Andrea Verrocchio and Antonio Pollaiuolo died.

1489 - writes “The Marriage of Mary” for the Chapel of Sant’Eligio in the Church of San Marco.

1490 - commissioned by Marco Vespucci, he painted the boards “Scene from the life of the Roman Virginia” and “Scene from the life of the Roman Lucrezia”.

1491 - participates in the commission to review designs for the facade of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Receives an order to decorate two vaults of the chapel of St. Zenobius in the cathedral with mosaics. The work remained unfinished and was given to the Ghirlandaio brothers.

1493 - brother Giovanni dies, brother Simone arrives from Naples. Sandro and Simone live with Giovanni's widow and his two sons in the house left by Mariano Filipepi. Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici commissions Botticelli to illustrate Dante's Divine Comedy. In total, about one hundred drawings were made with a silver pencil (with contours outlined with a pen).

Autumn - completes the painting “The Slander of Apelles” (“The Trial”); according to another version, its creation dates back to 1500-1501. Botticelli's friends died - the poet Angelo Poliziano and the humanist philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.

November - the expulsion of the Medici, the rise to power in Florence of the Dominican monk Girolamo Savonarola. The French king Charles VIII enters the city with his army.

1495 - publication in Venice of Luca Pacioli's book, where he writes about Botticelli as a outstanding master prospects.

1496, July - paints the fresco “St. Francis” in the monastery of Santa Maria di Monticelli near Florence.

1497, February - participates in the burning of “objects of vanity” in Piazza della Signoria, among which were several of his paintings.

Summer - works with students to decorate the countryside Villa Castello, owned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco Medici.

Autumn - from a statement to the tax office it follows that Botticelli and his brother Simone live in the house of their nephews Benincasa and Lorenzo.

1499 - paints the paintings “The Lamentation of Christ” and “The Crucifixion”, apparently inspired by the massacre of Savonarola.

1500 - The Mystical Nativity is completed, the only work dated and signed by Botticelli himself.

1501 - experienced by the artist spiritual crisis is reflected in the paintings “Abandoned” and “Entombment”.

1502 - Francesco di Malatesta, agent of the Duchess of Ferrara Isabella d'Este, invites her to transfer the work upon completion of the painting of the cabinet of Botticelli, whom he was “highly praised as wonderful artist" Despite Botticelli's consent, the Marchioness refused his services.

1503 - Ugolino Verino in the poem “Glorification of the City of Florence” calls Botticelli one of the great Florentine artists, comparing him with Zeuxis and Apelles.

1504, January - joined the commission of artists, which was tasked with choosing a place to install Michelangelo’s “David”. The painting “Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane” was commissioned by the Spanish Queen Isabella.

April - death of Filippino Lippi, Botticelli's favorite student.

1505 - the last completed work, “The Miracles of St. Zenobius.”

Late paintings by Sandro Botticelli

In Florence at that time fiery, revolutionary
sermons of Fra Girolamo Savonarola. And while in city squares
they burned “vanity” (precious utensils, luxurious garments and works
art on subjects of pagan mythology), hearts were inflamed
Florentines and a revolution flared up, more spiritual than social,
striking first of all those very sensitive, sophisticated minds,
that they were the creators of the elitist intellectualism of Lorenzo's time.
Revaluation of values, decline in interest in speculative illusory
constructions, a sincere need for renewal, a desire again
to acquire strong, true moral and spiritual foundations were signs
deep internal discord experienced by many Florentines (in
including Botticelli) already in last years life of the Magnificent and
reaching its climax on November 9, 1494 - on the feast of the Savior and the day
expulsion of the Medici.

Lamentation of Christ. 1495 Milan. Poldi Museum
Pezzoli

Botticelli, who lived under the same roof with his brother Simone,
convinced "pianoni" (lit. "crybaby" - that's what the followers were called
Savonarola), tested strong influence Fra Girolamo, what could not help but
leave a deep mark on his painting. This is eloquent
evidenced by two altar images "Lamentation of Christ" from Munich
The Old Pinacoteca and the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan. The paintings are dated
around 1495 and were respectively in the church of San Paolino and
Santa Maria Maggiore.

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Position in the coffin. Sandro Botticell. 1495-1500
Munich. Old Pinikothek.

The accusatory speeches of Fra Girolamo Savonarola did not leave
Botticelli indifferent; religious themes became predominant in his
art. In 1489-1490 he wrote "The Annunciation" for
Cistercian monks (now in the Uffizi Gallery).

Annunciation. Sandro Botticelli.

In 1495, the artist completed the last of his works for
The Medici, having written several works for the side at the Villa in Trebbio
branches of this family, later called "dei Popolani". In 1501
the artist created "Mystical Christmas". For the first time he signed his
painting and put a date on it.

"Mystical Christmas" Sandro Botticelli.

At the heart of Botticell's drama, deeply personal,
which left a stamp on all his art - the polarity of two worlds. WITH
on the one hand, this is the humanistic culture that has developed around the Medici
culture with its knightly and pagan motifs; with another -
the reformist and ascetic spirit of Savonarola, for whom Christianity
determined not only his personal ethics, but also the principles of civil and
political life, so that the activity of this "Christ, the king
Florentine" (the inscription that the followers of Savonarola wanted to make
above the entrance to the Palazzo della Signoria) was in full
the opposite of the magnificent and tyrannical rule of the Medici.

IN later paintings Botticelli is no longer timid sadness, but
a cry of despair, as, for example, in his two Lamentations of Christ (in
Milan and Munich), filled with deep sorrow. Here the lines of the figures are similar
mercilessly rising waves.

In the picture "Abandoned"(Rome) we see
a female figure sitting alone on the stone steps, with whose grief
Botticelli may be identifying with his own grief.

Caravaggio. Position in the coffin. 1602-1604 Pinacoteca Vatican

Before us is the body of Christ and 5 figures. His body is held from the side of the head by Saint John. The youngest disciple of Christ. Nicodemus holds him from the side of his legs. Resident of Judea, secret disciple of Christ.

In a dark blue robe - Saint Mary. She raised her hand to her son's face. Saying goodbye to him forever. Mary Magdalene wipes her face from tears. And the farthest figure is Maria Kleopova. Most likely, she is a relative of Christ.

The figures stand very closely. They are like one monolith. Protruding from the darkness.

Of course it's a masterpiece. But what makes this painting so outstanding?

As we can see, the composition is interesting. But not original. The master used an already existing formula. Christ was depicted in approximately the same position at the beginning of the 16th century. And the Mannerists* half a century before Caravaggio (1571-1610)

3. Realistic people

Caravaggio depicted Saint Mary at about 55 years old. It seems that she looks older than her years due to the grief that befell her. Take a closer look at her face. This is not an old woman, as she is often described in this picture. This is a woman over 50, heartbroken.

Her age is realistic. This is exactly what a woman whose son is 33 years old could look like.

The fact is that before Caravaggio, Saint Mary was depicted as young. Thereby idealizing her image as much as possible.

For example, Carracci, the founder of the first art academy, followed the same trend. His Saint Mary and Christ in the Pietà painting are approximately the same age.

4. Feeling of dynamics

Caravaggio depicts a moment when the men are under great stress. St. John has a hard time holding his body. It's not easy for him. He awkwardly touched the wound on Christ's chest with his fingers.

Nicodemus is also at the limit of his strength. The veins in his legs were bulging. It is clear that he is holding his burden with all his strength.

It is as if we see them slowly lowering the body of Christ. Such unusual dynamics make the picture even more realistic.

5. The famous tenebroso Caravaggio

Caravaggio uses the tenebroso technique. On background- pitch darkness. And the figures seem to be outlined by a dim light directed at them.

Many contemporaries criticized Caravaggio for this manner. They called it “basement”. But it is precisely this technique that is one of the most characteristic features of Caravaggio’s work. He was able to maximize all its advantages.

The figures acquire extraordinary relief. The emotions of the characters become extremely expressed. The composition is even more complete.

This style became very popular thanks to Caravaggio. Among his followers are Spanish artist Zurbaran.

Look at his famous painting “Lamb of God”. It is the shadowbroso that creates the illusion of reality. The lamb lies in front of us as if alive. Lit by dim light.

Caravaggio was a reformer of painting. He is the founder of realism. And “Entombment” is one of his greatest creations.

It was copied by the greatest masters. Which also confirms its value for world art. One of the most famous copies belongs to Rubens.

“Entombment” is a very sad plot. But it was precisely these subjects that Caravaggio took on most often.

I think this is due to childhood psychological trauma. At age 6, he watched his father and grandfather die in agony from the bubonic plague. After which his mother went crazy with grief. From childhood he learned that life is full of suffering.

But that didn't stop him from becoming the greatest artist. True, he lived only 39 years. He died. His body disappeared without a trace. Presumably his remains were found only 400 years later! In 2010 year. Read about this in the article

* mannerists - artists working in the style of mannerism (100-year era between the Renaissance and Baroque, 16th century). Character traits: oversaturation of the composition with details, elongated, often twisted bodies, allegorical plots, increased eroticism. Prominent representatives: