Renaissance sculptor and painter teacher Botticelli. Two of Botticelli's most famous paintings. Need help studying a topic?

Botticelli Sandro(Botticelli, Sandro)

Botticelli Sandro(Botticelli, Sandro) (1445–1510), one of the most prominent artists of the Renaissance. Born in Florence in 1444 into the family of leather tanner Mariano di Vanni Filipepi (Botticelli's nickname, meaning "barrel", actually belonged to his older brother). After initial training with a jeweler, approx. 1462 Botticelli entered the workshop of one of the leading painters of Florence, Fra Filippo Lippi. The style of Filippo Lippi had a huge influence on Botticelli, manifested mainly in certain types of faces, ornamental details and color. In his works of the late 1460s, the fragile, flat linearity and grace adopted from Filippo Lippi are replaced by a more powerful interpretation of figures and a new understanding of the plasticity of volumes. Around the same time, Botticelli began to use energetic ocher shadows to convey flesh color - a technique that became characteristic feature his painting style. These changes appear fully in Botticelli's earliest documented painting Allegory of Power (c. 1470, Florence, Uffizi Gallery) and in less pronounced form in two early Madonnas (Naples, Capodimonte Gallery; Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum). Two famous paired compositions The Story of Judith (Florence, Uffizi), also among the master’s early works (c. 1470), illustrate another important aspect of Botticelli’s painting: a lively and capacious narrative, in which expression and action are combined, revealing the dramatic essence with complete clarity plot. They also reveal an already begun change in color, which becomes brighter and more saturated, in contrast to the pale palette of Filippo Lippi, which predominates in the early painting

Botticelli - Adoration of the Magi (London, National Gallery).

Botticelli's paintings: Among Botticelli's works, only a few have reliable dating; many of his paintings have been dated based on stylistic analysis . Some of the most dated back to the 1470s: the painting of St. Sebastian (1473), the earliest depiction of the nude body in the master’s work; Adoration of the Magi (c. 1475, Uffizi). Two portraits - a young man (Florence, Pitti Gallery) and a Florentine lady (London, Victoria and Albert Museum) - date back to the early 1470s. Somewhat later, perhaps in 1476, a portrait of Giuliano de' Medici, Lorenzo's brother, was made (Washington, National Gallery). The works of this decade demonstrate the gradual growth of Botticelli's artistic skill. He used the techniques and principles outlined in the first outstanding theoretical treatise on Renaissance painting, by Leon Battista Alberti (On Painting, 1435–1436), and experimented with perspective. By the end of the 1470s, Botticelli's works had lost the stylistic fluctuations and direct borrowings from other artists that characterized his earlier works. By this time, he already confidently mastered a completely individual style: the figures of the characters acquired a strong structure, and their contours amazingly

combine clarity and elegance with energy; dramatic expressiveness is achieved by combining active action and deep inner experience. All these qualities are present in the fresco of St. Augustine (Florence, Church of Ognisanti), painted in 1480 as a pair composition to Ghirlandaio’s fresco of St. Jerome.

In 1481, Botticelli was invited by Pope Sixtus IV to Rome, along with Cosimo Rosselli and Ghirlandaio, to paint frescoes on the side walls of the newly built Sistine Chapel. He executed three of these frescoes: Scenes from life of Moses, Healing of the leper and the temptation of Christ and the Punishment of Korah, Dathan and Abiron. In all three frescoes the problem of presenting a complex theological program in clear, light and lively dramatic scenes is masterfully solved; this makes full use of compositional effects.

After returning to Florence, perhaps at the end of 1481 or beginning of 1482, Botticelli painted his famous paintings on mythological themes: Spring, Pallas and the Centaur, the Birth of Venus (all in the Uffizi) and Venus and Mars (London, National Gallery), among the most famous works Renaissance and representing genuine masterpieces of Western European art. The characters and plots of these paintings are inspired by the works of ancient poets, primarily Lucretius and Ovid, as well as mythology. They feel the influence ancient art, good knowledge of classical sculpture or sketches from it, which were widespread during the Renaissance.

Thus, the graces from Spring go back to the classical group of the three graces, and the pose of Venus from the Birth of Venus - to the type Venus Pudica (Bashful Venus).

Some scholars see in these paintings a visual embodiment of the main ideas of the Florentine Neoplatonists, especially Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499). However, adherents of this hypothesis ignore the sensual element in the three paintings of Venus and the glorification of purity and purity, which is undoubtedly the theme of Pallas and the Centaur. The most plausible hypothesis is that all four paintings were painted on the occasion of a wedding. They are the most remarkable surviving works of this genre of painting, which glorifies marriage and the virtues associated with the birth of love in the soul of an immaculate and beautiful bride. The same ideas are central to four compositions illustrating the story of Boccaccio Nastagio degli Onesti (located in different collections), and two frescoes (Louvre), painted around 1486 on the occasion of the marriage of the son of one of the closest associates of the Medici., are also present in several of Botticelli's famous altarpieces painted during the 1480s. Among the best are the Bardi Altar with the image of the Virgin and Child and St. John the Baptist (1484) and the Annunciation by Cestello (1484–1490, Uffizi). But in Cestello’s Annunciation the first signs of mannerism already appear, which gradually grew in later works Botticelli, leading him away from the fullness and richness of nature of the mature period of creativity to a style in which the artist admires the features of his own manner. The proportions of the figures are violated to enhance psychological expressiveness. This style, in one form or another, is characteristic of Botticelli's works of the 1490s and early 1500s, even of the allegorical painting Calumny (Uffizi), in which the master exalts his own work, associating it with the work of Apelles, the greatest of the ancient Greek painters. Two paintings painted after the fall of the Medici in 1494 and influenced by the sermons of Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498) - The Crucifixion (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Art Museum Fogg) and Mystical Christmas

(1500, London, National Gallery) - represent the embodiment of Botticelli's unshakable faith in the revival of the Church. These two paintings reflect the artist's rejection of the secular Florence of the Medici era. Other works by the master, such as Scenes from the Life of the Roman Virginia (Bergamo, Accademia Carrara) and Scenes from the Life of the Roman Lucretia (Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum), express his hatred of the tyranny of the Medici. Few drawings by Botticelli himself have survived, although it is known that he was often commissioned to design designs for textiles and engravings. Of exceptional interest is his series of illustrations for Divine Comedy Dante. In-depth graphic commentary on great poem

largely remained unfinished. About 50 paintings are entirely or largely by Botticelli. He was the head of a thriving workshop, working in the same genres as the master himself, in which products were created different quality

Botticelli Sandro(1445–1510), Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Belonged to the Florentine school, around 1465–1466 he studied with Filippo Lippi; in 1481–1482 he worked in Rome. Botticelli's early works are characterized by a clear construction of space, clear cut-and-shadow modeling, and interest in everyday details (“Adoration of the Magi”, circa 1476–1471). From the end of the 1470s, after Botticelli’s rapprochement with the court of the Medici rulers of Florence and the circle of Florentine humanists, the features of aristocracy and sophistication intensified in his work, paintings on ancient and allegorical themes appeared, in which sensual pagan images are imbued with the sublime and at the same time poetic, lyrical spirituality (“Spring”, circa 1477–1478, “Birth of Venus”, circa 1483–1485, both in the Uffizi). The animation of the landscape, the fragile beauty of the figures, the musicality of light, trembling lines, the transparency of exquisite colors, as if woven from reflexes, create in them an atmosphere of dreaminess and slight sadness. In the frescoes executed by Botticelli in 1481–1482 Sistine Chapel in the Vatican (“Scenes from the Life of Moses”, “The Punishment of Korah, Dathan and Abiron”, etc.) the majestic harmony of landscape and ancient architecture is combined with internal plot tension, the sharpness of portrait characteristics, characteristic, along with the search for subtle nuances internal state the human soul, and easel portraits of the master (portrait of Giuliano Medici, 1470s, Bergamo; portrait of a young man with a medal, 1474). In the 1490s, during the era of social unrest and mystical-ascetic sermons of the monk Savonarola that shook Florence, notes of drama and religious exaltation appeared in Botticelli’s art (“Slander,” after 1495, Uffizi), but his drawings for Dante’s “Divine Comedy” ( 1492–1497) with acute emotional expressiveness, they retain lightness of line and Renaissance clarity of images.

The works of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Italian painter, sculptor, architect, scientist and engineer. The founder of the artistic culture of the High Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci developed as a master while studying in Florence with Verrocchio. Working methods in Verrocchio's workshop, where artistic practice was combined with technical experiments, as well as friendship with the astronomer P. Toscanelli contributed to the emergence scientific interests young da Vinci. IN early works(the head of an angel in Verrocchio’s “Baptism”, after 1470, “Annunciation”, around 1474, both in the Uffizi; the so-called “Benois Madonna”, around 1478, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg) the artist, developing the traditions of Early Renaissance art, emphasized smooth volumetricity of forms with soft chiaroscuro, sometimes enlivening faces with a subtle smile, using it to achieve the transmission of subtle emotional states. Recording the results of countless observations in sketches, sketches and full-scale studies performed in various techniques(Italian and silver pencils, sanguine, pen, etc.), Leonardo da Vinci, sometimes resorting to almost caricatured grotesque, achieved acuteness in conveying facial expressions, and brought the physical features and movement of the human body into perfect harmony with the spiritual atmosphere of the composition.

In 1481 or 1482 Leonardo da Vinci entered the service of the ruler of Milan, Lodovico Moro, and served as a military engineer, hydraulic engineer, and organizer of court holidays. For over 10 years he worked on the equestrian monument of Francesco Sforza, the father of Lodovico Moro (the life-size clay model of the monument was destroyed when the French captured Milan in 1500). In the Milanese period, Leonardo da Vinci created 2 versions of “Madonna in the Grotto”, where the characters are presented surrounded by a bizarre rocky landscape, and the finest chiaroscuro plays the role of a spiritual principle, emphasizing the warmth human relations. In the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, he completed the wall painting “The Last Supper” (1495-1497; due to the peculiarities of the technique used by Leonardo da Vinci - oil with tempera - it was preserved in a badly damaged form; it was restored in the 20th century), marking one from the peaks of European painting; its high ethical and spiritual content is expressed in the mathematical regularity of the composition, which logically continues the real architectural space, in a clear, strictly developed system of gestures and facial expressions of the characters, in the harmonious balance of forms.

While studying architecture, Leonardo da Vinci developed various versions of the “ideal” city and projects for a central-domed temple, which had a great influence on the contemporary architecture of Italy. After the fall of Milan, Leonardo da Vinci's life was spent in constant travel. In Florence, he worked on the painting of the Great Council Hall in the Palazzo Vecchio “The Battle of Anghiari” (1503-1506, unfinished, known from copies from cardboard), standing at the origins of the European battle genre new time. In the portrait of "Monna Lisa" (c. 1503) he embodied the sublime ideal of eternal femininity and human charm; An important element of the composition was the cosmically vast landscape, melting into a cold blue haze. The late works of Leonardo da Vinci include the altarpiece “St. Anne with Mary and the Child Christ” (circa 1500-1507), which completes the master’s search for light-air perspective, and “John the Baptist” (circa 1513-1517), where there is a somewhat sweet ambiguity image indicates an increase in crisis moments in the artist’s work. In a series of drawings depicting a universal catastrophe (the “Flood” cycle, ca. 1514-1516), thoughts about the insignificance of man before the power of the elements are combined with rationalistic ideas about the cyclical nature of natural processes. The most important source for studying the views of Leonardo da Vinci is his notebooks and manuscripts (about 7 thousand sheets), excerpts from which were included in the “Treatise on Painting,” compiled after the master’s death by his student F. Melzi and which had a huge influence on European theoretical thought and artistic practice. In the debate between the arts, Leonardo da Vinci gave the first place to painting, understanding it as a universal language capable of embodying all the diverse manifestations of intelligence in nature. As a scientist and engineer, he enriched almost all areas of science of his time. A prominent representative of the new, experimentally based natural science, Leonardo da Vinci paid special attention to mechanics, seeing in it the main key to the secrets of the universe; his brilliant constructive guesses were far ahead of his contemporary era (projects of rolling mills, cars, submarines, aircraft).

The observations he collected on the influence of transparent and translucent media on the coloring of objects led to the establishment of scientifically based principles of aerial perspective in the art of the High Renaissance. While studying the structure of the eye, Leonardo da Vinci made correct guesses about the nature of binocular vision. IN anatomical drawings he laid the foundations of modern scientific illustration and also studied botany and biology.

Most likely, not everyone knows the name of Sandro Botticelli - the great Italian artist, representative of the era early Renaissance, but almost everyone knows his work “The Birth of Venus”. It is marked by spiritual poetry, admiration of beauty female face and bodies that reign over time and space.

For quite a long time, his work was unjustly forgotten, but already in the 19th century, French artists largely imitated the mystical-minded Italian and created new image, for which we still feel admiration and admiration for the artist’s wonderful gift.

Biography of the painter

Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi was born in the mid-15th century in Florence, the birthplace of the southern Renaissance, into the family of an artisan tanner. Soon after his father's death, his business passed to his older brother, little Alessandra, nicknamed "The Barrel" (Botticelli) because of his beer belly or strong penchant for drinking wine.

From big brother funny nickname All four younger ones also received. Thanks to the efforts of his older brothers, the future famous artist was educated in a Dominican monastery.

One of the first professions Sandro received was the respected and highly sought after profession of a jeweler at that time. She taught the artist correct application golden and silvery shades into the landscapes of his paintings. By the way, some researchers of Renaissance art believe that the name “Botticelli” means silversmith.

The middle brother Antonio became a famous jeweler, and Alessandro decided to devote his life to painting. In 1470, the young artist received his first order from the monastery of St. Dominic: he was instructed to depict an allegory of Power for the gallery of Christian virtues. The painting was placed in the Chamber of Commerce courtroom. A year later, the young painter was talked about all over Italy.

His Saint Sebastian, written for the church of Saint Mary Margiore, is truly virtuous, through the beautiful features of the young Christian Sandro showed his soul, pure and innocent. All the artist’s works are permeated with ardent faith and unostentatious love for God. They combine unsurpassed skill and spiritual fulfillment and ease.

In the same year, he shows himself to be a skilled restorer, restoring a completely lost fresco in the Chapel of the Coronation of the Mother of God.

In 1470, the painter became close to the noble Medici family, who surrounded themselves with famous poets, musicians, philosophers and painters. The so-called “medical circle” preached the philosophy of Plato, i.e. subjective idealism.

They believed in an immortal soul, endowed with talents and abilities that the soul could retain after death and transfer to a new owner. This explains the appearance brilliant works art, as well as intuitive knowledge.

The best works of the artist

One of best works Sandro Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi is considered to have been created after 1470. It is dedicated to the most important holiday of Christians - the Birth of Jesus Christ.

In the images of the eastern wise men who came to worship the Messiah, the painter depicted members of the Medici family, as well as himself, standing in the lower right corner of the work. The bright and light colors of the painting seem to be filled with air and inspire awe and divine joy.

One of the most mysterious works The artist’s painting “Spring”, dating from 1475-1480, is considered. The painting was created for Lorenzo de' Medici, Sandro Botticelli's close friend and patron of the arts.

The painting was painted in a completely new style for that time, successfully combining antiquity, Christianity, and new features of the Renaissance.

Antique style shown by representatives of myths and legends Ancient Greece: God Zephyr, a light wind, kidnaps the nymph - the mistress of the fields and meadows, Chloris. Three graceful graces in the form of nymphs or naiads recall the three Christian virtues: chastity, submission and pleasure, as well as eternal love.

Mercury, the god of trade, roads and fraud, picks an apple from a tree and involuntarily reminds us of Paris, who gave the apple to the goddess of beauty and love Aphrodite. And the goddess herself seems to be flying without her feet touching the ground, her image is light and airy, and at the same time seductive and captivating, reminiscent of passionate love and carnal passion.

In the center of the canvas is the Madonna - the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of God, elevated to the rank of Gods, and shining with her virtue and beauty throughout the Universe. For everyone, the Virgin Mary is considered the model of all women, the ideal of all knights, " Beautiful Lady”, which inspires all people of art to create her image.

With this mixture of myths and eras, the painter shows us that people equally in all eras love and dream, suffer and strive for happiness. Both the standards of art and the norms of beauty do not change, for Eternal beauty always attracts all hearts to itself.

A wonderful work filled with light, joy and peace. Looking at him, you feel that little cupids in reality are sending their love arrows into all hearts. For a long time you cannot take your eyes off the figures on the canvas, frozen at the will of the artist, so alive and as if frozen for a moment in graceful poses.

Jewel of creation

Worldwide famous picture The Birth of Venus was painted in 1484 and is currently in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Among the boundless expanse of the azure sky and the turquoise sea, beautiful Venus appeared from the foam of the sea, standing on a mother-of-pearl shell. The god of the western wind Zephyr, with his breath, helps the eternally young goddess to land on the shore, and the goddess Ora gives her a priceless cloak embroidered with flowers and herbs.

All earthly nature awaits the appearance of the goddess of Love and Beauty, white roses fly to her feet, and the picture is illuminated by the rays of the rising sun. The association of early morning and the birth of the goddess indicates that love and tenderness are always young and in demand by people.

It is not known who the artist’s model was, but the face of the goddess is amazingly beautiful features meekly, a little sad and humble. Long golden locks blown by the wind. And the woman’s pose resembles the pose famous sculpture Venus the Bashful, created in the 5th century BC.

last years of life

At the end of the 1490s, Luigi de' Medici died, and the reign of this dynasty came to an end. The sworn enemy of this family, the Dominican monk Girolamo Sovanarola, who had previously angrily reproached ruling dynasty in luxury and debauchery.

Some Renaissance scholars believe that Sandro Botticelli became a “convert” because the style of his work changed dramatically.

But the power of the monk Sovanarola was fleeting; in 1498 he was accused of heresy and executed by burning at the stake. But by this time the glory of the great painter was fading. Contemporaries write that he “became impoverished and withered,” could not walk or stand upright, so he worked very little. Works created in the last years of his life are “The Mystical Nativity”, “Abandoned”, frescoes dedicated to the Roman saints, the first Christians Lucretia and Virginia.

After 1504, the artist completely stopped touching his brush, and if it were not for the help of his friends and relatives, he would simply have died of hunger.

Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) - a famous Italian painter who worked during the Renaissance, is one of the main representatives of Florentine art. art school.

Birth and family

Sandro was born on March 1, 1445 in Italian city Florence. His full real name is Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi.

His father, Mariano di Giovanni Filipepi, was a leather worker. Mariano kept his workshop near the Santa Trinita in Oltrarno bridge. He had very little money from her, so the man dreamed of one thing - so that his children would grow up faster and get settled in life. The head of the family really wanted to take a break from his labor-intensive craft.

Mom, Zmeralda, was raising sons, of whom there were four born in the family, Sandro was the youngest among them.

The family lived in the parish of the Church of All Saints (Onyisanti). The parish was located in the Florentine quarter of Santa Maria Novella on Via Nuova. Here the family rented a small apartment in a building owned by Mr. Rucellai.

The first mention of Sandro Botticelli can be found in the cadastre of the Italian Republic. Back in 1427, the Republic issued a decree that the head of each Florentine family must enter into the cadastre a statement showing their income (this was necessary for taxation). In 1458, in his cadastral application, Mariano Filipepi wrote that he had four sons - Giovanni, Antonio, Simone and Sandro, who was thirteen years old. This historical record added that the boy grew up very sickly, so at such a late age he only began to learn to read.

Origin of the surname "Botticelli"

There is no reliable information about where the future artist’s nickname, Botticelli, came from. There are only a few versions. His older brother Giovanni was fat and received the nickname “Botticelli”, which meant “barrel”. Due to his seniority, Giovanni tried to help his father in everything, especially the upbringing of his younger brother Sandro fell on his shoulders. Perhaps the nickname was simply passed on from the older brother to the little one.

According to the second version, the father of the family had a godfather - a certain “Botticello”, he was engaged in jewelry making. By that time, the eldest sons had already settled well in life and helped their parents (Giovanni and Simone went into trade, Antonio was a jeweler). The head of the family, Mariano Filipepi, wanted the younger Sandro to follow in Antonio’s footsteps. He dreamed that two brothers would open (albeit a small, but reliable) family enterprise for the production of jewelry. Seeing that younger son very gifted and capable, but who had not yet found a true calling in life, his father decided to direct him into jewelry, sending him to study with his godfather Botticello.

So, at the age of twelve, Sandro began to study jewelry art, which later played a significant role in his painting.

The third version is associated with brother Antonio, who was engaged in jewelry. Sandro helped his older brother in the workshop, and he gave him the nickname Botticelli, which is translated from Florentine as “silversmith” (though in a slightly distorted version).

Painting training

In those days, there was such a close connection between jewelers and artists that young men who were fond of drawing made excellent goldsmiths. And, on the contrary, talented painters came out of jewelry workshops.

This is what happened with Sandro. Having studied with a jeweler, in 1462 Botticelli began to study painting with a Florentine artist, whose work belongs to early period Renaissance, Fra Filippo Lippi. This painter was a Carmelite monk from the Carmine monastery; his works were distinguished by their naturalness and cheerfulness. Lippi's workshop was located in the city of Prato, where the artist worked on painting the cathedral with frescoes.

Botticelli spent five years in Lippi's workshop until the teacher left for the Italian province of Perugia, to the city of Spoleto, where he soon died. In Prato, Filippo Lippi had romantic relationship with a nun from the monastery. This woman, Lucrezia Buti, later gave birth to a son, Filippino Lippi, who later became a student of Botticelli.

After Lippi's death, Sandro began to study with another famous Italian sculptor and the painter Andrea del Verrocchio, who was the teacher of Leonardo da Vinci himself. Verrocchio owned a workshop, the most powerful at that time in Florence. From him, Sandro learned to anatomically accurately convey the human figure in strong movement.

Sandro learned painting from the Early Renaissance from both of his teachers. Botticelli's first works are a bit similar to Lippi's; in them one can notice the same richness of detail and abundance of portraits. Nevertheless, contemporaries recognized Sandro as a strong master and noted the originality of his paintings.

On his first independent canvases, Botticelli depicted Madonnas:

• "Madonna and Child, two angels and young John the Baptist";
• "Madonna and Child and Two Angels";
• "Madonna in the Rose Garden";
• "Madonna of the Eucharist".

Already these early works The artist’s works were distinguished by poetically inspired images and a subtle atmosphere of spirituality.

Creation

Since 1469, Botticelli began to work independently. At first he painted pictures at home, later he rented a workshop, which was located not far from the Church of All Saints.

Already in Sandro’s next paintings there was not even a shadow of imitation of his teachers; his own style:

• "Allegory of Power";
• "The Return of Judith";
• "The discovery of the body of Holofernes";
• "Saint Sebastian"

In 1472, Botticelli became a member of the Guild of St. Luke. Here artists united; thanks to membership in the guild, they received the right to conduct independent painting activities, open their own workshops and have assistants.

In the 1470s, Gaspare del Lama, a wealthy citizen, Medici courtier and member of the Florence Guild of Arts and Crafts, commissioned Botticelli to paint The Adoration of the Magi. The artist finished it in 1475; on the canvas he depicted the Medici family in the images of eastern sages and their retinue, and in the lower right corner he painted himself.

In “Adoration of the Magi,” Sandro brought the drawing, as well as compositional and color combinations, to such a level of perfection that the canvas is called a great miracle, which still amazes every artist.

This painting brought Botticelli fame; he received a lot of orders, especially often he was asked to paint portraits. The most popular are:

• “Portrait of an unknown person with a medal of Cosimo de’ Medici”;
• "Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici";
• "Portrait of a Young Woman";
• "Portrait of Dante";
• portraits of Florentine ladies.

The artist's fame went beyond Florence, and in 1481 Botticelli was summoned to Rome to paint a chapel at the palace of Pope Sixtus IV. Sandro worked in the Vatican on painting the chapel with frescoes along with other leading Italian artists of that time - Rosselli, Ghirlandaio, Perugino. This was the birth of the famous Sistine Chapel, the painting of which was completed by Michelangelo at the beginning of the 16th century (he designed the altar wall and ceiling), after which the chapel acquired world fame.

In the Sistine Chapel, Botticelli painted eleven papal portraits and three frescoes:

• "The Temptation of Christ";
• “The Punishment of Korah, Daphne and Abiron”;
• "The Calling of Moses."

In 1482, Sandro returned from Rome to Florence, where he continued to paint pictures commissioned by the Medici family and other noble Florentine persons. These were mainly paintings with secular and religious subjects:

• "Pallas and the Centaur";
• "Venus and Mars";
• "Madonna della Melagrana";
• "Annunciation";
• "Lamentation of Christ."

The most famous and mysterious picture The artist Sandro Botticelli is considered "Spring". Until now, art historians have not been able to fully reveal the artist’s plot plan. It is only known that he was inspired to create this masterpiece by Lucretius’ poem “On the Nature of Things.”

At the end of the 15th century, round-shaped paintings or bas-reliefs, called tondo, came into fashion. The most famous works Botticelli in this style:

• "Madonna Magnificat";
• "Madonna and Child, Six Angels and John the Baptist";
• "Madonna with a Book";
• "Madonna and Child with Five Angels";
• "Madonna with Pomegranate".

last years of life

At the end of the 15th century, the monk and reformer Girolamo Savonarola came to Florence. In his sermons, he called on people to renounce their sinful lives and repent. Botticelli was literally mesmerized by Savonarola's speeches. In February 1497, a bonfire of the vanities was organized in the city square of Florence. According to the monk’s sermons, secular books, rich and magnificent mirrors and outfits, musical instruments, perfumes, etc. were confiscated and burned from citizens. dice and cards. Impressed by the sermons, Sandro Botticelli personally sent several of his paintings on mythological themes to the fire.

Has changed dramatically since then art style Sandro. His paintings became more ascetic, dominated by a restrained range of colors in dark tones. It was no longer possible to see elegance and festive elegance in his canvases. He even stopped painting portraits against some kind of interior or landscape background; instead, deaf people were depicted in the background stone walls. These changes became especially noticeable in the painting “Judith Leaving the Tent of Holofernes.”

In 1498, Savonarola was captured, charged with heresy and sentenced to death. This event made an even greater impression on Botticelli than the heretic’s sermons. The artist began to paint much less and less frequently; of his latest works, the most famous were:

• "Mystical Christmas";
• "Abandoned";
• a series of works on the life of St. Zenobius;
• scenes from the history of the Romans Lucretia and Virginia.

The last time he showed himself as famous artist in 1504, when he participated in the work of the commission to select a site for the installation of Michelangelo's marble statue of David.

After that, he stopped working altogether, became very old and became so poor that if his friends and admirers of his talent had not remembered him, he could have died of hunger. His soul, which so subtly felt the beauty of the world, but was afraid of sinfulness, could not withstand torment and doubt.

Sandro passed away on May 17, 1510. He was buried in Florence in the cemetery of the Church of Ognisanti. Over the five centuries that have passed since his death, no one has been able to even compare with the wealth of poetic imagination that is present in Botticelli’s paintings.

Personal life

Botticelli is considered both a happy and unhappy man. He seemed out of this world, timid and at the same time dreamy, distinguished by fantastic reasoning and illogical actions. He was absolutely not concerned about material well-being and wealth. Sandro did not build his own house, he did not have a wife or children.

But he was incredibly happy that he had the opportunity to stop and capture beauty in his works. He transformed the life around him into art. And art, in turn, became his true life.

Each Renaissance creator had his own source of inspiration. For Botticelli, it was Simonetta Vispucci (for her indescribable beauty in Florence she was called Incomparable, Incomparable, Beautiful Simonetta). From platonic love masterpieces of world painting were born to this woman. Moreover, Simonetta herself did not pay attention to the modest painter and did not even realize that she had become for him a deity and an ideal of beauty.

She died at 23, never knowing that Botticelli preserved her image forever. Many art historians claim that after the death of Simonetta Vispucci, Botticelli depicted only her in all his paintings - in the image of Venus, Madonnas, in his most famous canvases “The Birth of Venus” and “Spring”. After the death of the first beauty of the Florentine Renaissance, Sandro painted her image over the course of 15 years.

Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi was born in 1445 in Florence, the son of tanner Mariano di Vanni Filipepi and his wife Smeralda. Soon the father died and the family was headed by his elder brother, a wealthy merchant, who was given the nickname Botticelli (The Barrel), perhaps because of his round figure, perhaps because of his affinity for wine. It was passed on to all the brothers in the family. After the Dominican monastery, together with his middle brother, Alessandro went to study jewelry making. At that time it was a very enviable profession, but after graduation, the guy became interested in painting.

The Filipepi family was very wealthy and respected in the city. One of the neighbors was Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512), after whom America was named. It was on his advice that Allesanro was sent to a workshop in Prato, 20 km from Florence, and after the death of his teacher, the artist returned to Florence. Exactly Amerigo Vespucci introduced the artist to influential people so that Alessandro could realize his talent as a painter.

Sandro first gained fame as an artist in 1475, when he painted for Monastery of Santa Maria Novella painting "Adoration of the Magi", where he depicted members Medici family, worshiping the Virgin Mary.

Celebrations often took place in Florence. And so, the main hero of the holiday should be Giuliano Medici, younger brother Lorenzo the Magnificent. Botticelli created a standard for Giuliano, which depicted his beloved, a beauty in a white dress in the form Athens Pallas. It was after this celebration that great artist officially established himself in the Medici family circle and official life cities.

He took part in painting for 11 months, after which he returned to Florence, wrote several paintings on mythological themes, and also completed painting "Spring".

The artist was secretly in love with Simonetta Vespucci, but the girl suddenly died of consumption. And after her, 2 years after her funeral, in the Florence Cathedral, during the Pazzi conspiracy, Giuliano was stabbed to death by a hired killer. It was at this time that the artist wrote his

A special place is given to his masterpieces, which, together with "Birth of Venus" pleases art lovers Uffizi gallery in Florence.

In 1493, after death Lorenzo the Magnificent, who died at 44 from gout. The preacher Savonarola, who did not forgive him his sins, declared himself a servant of Jesus, raised the masses against the Medici, in the central Piazza della Signoria he burned all valuable works of art and relics taken from rich houses. There were also those who, succumbing to mass psychosis, burned their paintings with naked figures. According to some chroniclers, among them was. But with the help Pope Alexander IV, Savonarola was accused of heresy and publicly executed.

Botticelli was not married and he did not have children either. According to Giorgio Vasari, he was tormented by old age and illness and at the end of his days he moved with the help of two sticks. He died at the age of 65 and, according to his will, was buried in Ognissanti churches, built by the Vespucci family, in Florence, next to their muse, Simonetta Vespucci, 34 years after her death.

Svetlana Conobella from Italy with love.

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