Sandro Botticelli as a guiding star in the world of finest arts

Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510)

Sandro Botticelli was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance-era. He contributed to the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel and painted the immortal The Birth of Venus.

Sandro Botticelli was born in the mid-1440s in Florence, Italy. As a boy, he apprenticed as a goldsmith and then with master painter Filippo Lippi. By his forties, Botticelli was himself a master and contributed to the decoration the Sistine Chapel. His best-known work is The Birth of Venus.

Sandro Botticelli was one of the greatest of the Renaissance-era. Although being criticized by the young Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli remained the leading painter resident in Florence in the 1480s and 1490s.

Before him the old masters had drawn the inspiration for their works from the Bible. Botticelli explored myths, fables, and poetry, his nature was imaginative. The artist was the first to make his painting means for the delight of the secular as well as the religious world.

The defining point of Botticelli's career was the contacts, money and increased fame that grew from the Medici family. The Medici's were a prominent and wealthy family in Florence. And as Botticelli's fame rose, the family sought him to portray its key members.

The Medici influence propelled Botticelli's fame to meteoric proportions and as a direct result he was asked by the Papacy to travel to Rome to paint parts of the Sistine Chapel. Such an honor was shared by some of the Renaissance's greatest artists, such as Michelangelo.

Botticelli's work in Rome included three large pieces (one of them is The Birth of Venus) and several portraits in the Sistine Chapel itself.

           

Botticelli's Venus differs from the splendid Venuses of classical antiquity. She uses the curving streams of her long hair to cover her nakedness. Botticelli's allegory is related to the Christian tradition with which he tried to reconcile the pagan legend. It may be argued that this is a rather artificial interpretation, but it is an interpretation that made sense to the fifteenth century.

Botticelli's later career was marked by the influence of one charismatic monk in Florence by the name of Savonarola. Under the impact of Savonarola's preaching Botticelli's imagery becomes less esoteric and more Christian. The best possible example is the Mystic Nativity.

In order to emphasize the importance of the Madonna and Child and the relative unimportance of the humans, Botticelli has reverted to the early medieval device of disregarding scale and perspective and grading the actual sizes of the figures according to their importance.

At Savonarola's peak of popularity, Botticelli burned many works of art and books which he considered to be ungodly. Among such works were some of Botticelli's pieces and even after Savonarola's popular decline and eventual death Botticelli's paintings remained deeply religious.

Botticelli died in 1510. The unreality of Botticelli may have influenced

          the pictorial style of Michelangelo.