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Sandro Botticelli
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Sandro Botticelli, (1 March 1445 – 17 May 1510) was an Italian painter of the Florentine school during the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's signature motifs-highly detailed ornamentation, a rich color palette, and attenuated forms-make his paintings both immediately recognizable and wholly original.
Born in Florence, Botticelli was exposed to the rich art tradition offered by that city. Originally trained as a goldsmith, Botticelli also apprenticed under the painter Fra Fillipo Lippi, who instilled an interest in Gothic forms, new perspectival devices, and a greater sense of corporality. As a result, the artist developed a unique style that acknowledged the Florentine art tradition and that also strove to be innovative.
After a series of religious and devotional commissions, Botticelli was asked to paint a series of mythologically themed pictures. His famous Birth of Venus was a product of this commission. The Birth of Venus employs a light color scheme and references to Springtime, invoked by Venus herself and the goddess Hora (both symbols of spring), to create a beautiful, enigmatic scene that was intended for an Italian pastoral retreat.
Botticelli's combination of a goldsmith's eye for detail and a mathematician's sense of geometry created an oeuvre that was both highly decorative and compositionally innovative. Unfortunately, when Fra Girolamo Savonarola began to preach hellfire and damnation, the susceptible Botticelli became one of his adherents, left painting as a worldly vanity, burned much of his own early work, fell into poverty as a result and would have starved, but for the tender support of his former patrons.
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