Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) is one of the most prominent Florentine painters of the Early Renaissance. The nickname Botticelli, which means a barrel in Russian, originally belonged to the artist's elder brother Giovanni, who had a large physique. The real name of the painter is Alessandro Filipepi.

Childhood, adolescence and learning skills

Botticelli was born in the family of a tanner. The first mention of him was discovered 13 years after the birth of the boy, in 1458. Young Botticelli was an extremely sickly child, but he made every effort to learn to read. Around the same period, Sandro began working part-time in the workshop of his other brother, Antonio.

Botticelli's craft was not destined to be engaged, and he realized this after some time as an apprentice. In the early 60s of the 15th century, Sandro began training with one of the greatest artists of that era, Fra Filippo Lippi. The style of the master influenced the young Botticelli, which later manifested itself in the early works of the artist.

Already in 1467, the young Florentine artist opened a workshop, and among his first works are "Madonna and Children with Two Angels", "Madonna of the Eucharist" and some other paintings.

The beginning of an independent creative path

Sandro completed his first project in 1470, and his work was intended for the courtroom. Things went very well for Botticelli, and soon he became a sought-after master, whose fame gradually began to reach the royal palace.

Botticelli created his first masterpiece in 1475. It was a painting called "The Adoration of the Magi". The customer was a fairly wealthy and influential banker who had connections with the then rulers of the city, with whom he introduced the talented guy. Since then, the creator was close to the ruling Medici family and carried out orders especially for them. The main works of this period can be called the paintings "Spring" and "The Birth of Venus".

An invitation to Rome and the peak of glory

Rumors of a young, but very talented artist quickly spread to Rome itself, where Pope Sixtus IV called him in the early 80s. Botticelli was commissioned, in collaboration with other famous personalities of his time, to carry out the design of the recently erected building, known to this day - the Sistine Chapel. Sandro took part in the creation of several famous frescoes, including The Youth of Moses and The Temptation of Christ.

The very next year, Botticelli returned to his native Florence, the likely cause of which was the death of his father. Although at the same time he was literally overloaded with orders in his hometown.

In the mid-80s of the 15th century, Botticelli was at the peak of his fame: there were so many orders that the artist himself simply did not have time to paint all the paintings. Most of the work was carried out by the students of the outstanding creator, and Botticelli himself was engaged only in the creation of the most complex elements of the compositions. Among the most famous works of the artist, which were created by him in the 80s, are "Annunciation", "Venus and Mars" and "Madonna Magnificat".

Later creativity

Serious trials in life befell the creator in the 90s, when he lost his beloved brother, from whom he got such a funny nickname. A little later, the artist began to doubt whether all his activities were justified.

All this coincided with extremely important events that led to the overthrow of the Medici dynasty. Savonarola came to power, fiercely criticizing the profligacy and venality of the previous rulers. He was also dissatisfied with the papacy. Power to this ruler was ensured by popular support, and Botticelli switched over to his side, but Savonarola did not rule for long: after only a few years he was dethroned and burned alive at the stake.

Sad events deeply wounded the painter. Many at that time said that Botticelli was one of the "converts", which could be judged by the last works of the creator. It was this decade that became decisive in the artist's life.

The last years of life and death

In the last 10-12 years of his life, the glory of the great painter began to fade away and Botticelli could only remember his former popularity. Contemporaries, who found him in the last years of his life, wrote about him that he was completely poor, walked on crutches and no one cared about him in the slightest. Botticelli's last works, including "Mystical Christmas" in 1500, were not popular, and no one approached him about ordering new paintings. Indicative was the case when the then queen, when choosing artists to fulfill her order, in every possible way rejected Botticelli's proposals.

The once famous painter died in 1510, all alone and poor. He was buried in a cemetery near one of the Florentine churches. Together with the creator himself, the glory of him completely died, which was revived only in the final decades of the 19th century.

There are several paintings that people associate with the Renaissance. These paintings are world famous and have become real symbols of that time. To paint most of the paintings, the artists invited people whose names have not come down to us as models. They just looked like the characters the artist needed and that was all. And therefore, no matter how we are interested in their fate, now practically nothing is known about them.

Sandro Botticelli and his "Venus", Simonetta Vespucci

An example of this is the famous painting by Michelangelo decorating the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, "The Creation of Adam", or the creation of the same author - the statue of David. Now it is no longer known who served as a model for the creation of these works.

The same is with the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci "Mona Lisa". There are now many rumors that Lisa Gerardini was in kind to write, but in this version there is more doubt than certainty. And the very mystery of the picture is more likely associated with the very personality of Leonard da Vinci, rather than with his model.

However, against the background of all this uncertainty, the history of the creation of the famous painting by Sandro Botticelli "The Birth of Venus" and the model that served as the prototype of Venus is quite clear. She was Simonetta Vespucci, the recognized beauty of that era. Unfortunately, the picture was not painted from nature, because by this time Botticelli's muse was already dead.

Botticelli was born in Florence and all his life he was patronized by the most influential family in the city of that time - the Medici. Simonetta lived in the same city, her maiden name was Cattaneo, she was the daughter of a Genoese nobleman. Simonetta at the age of sixteen married Marco Vespucci, who had a crush on her and was well received by her parents.

All the men of the city went crazy with the beauty and kind character of Simonetta, even the brothers Giuliano and Lorenzo Medici fell under her charm. As a model for the artist Sandro Botticelli, Simonetta was proposed by the Vespucci family themselves. For Botticelli, this was a fatal meeting, he fell in love with his model at first sight, she became his muse. At the same time, at the knightly tournament held in 1475, Giuliano de Medici performed with a flag on which the portrait of Simonetta was also depicted by Botticelli's hand with an inscription in French meaning "Incomparable". After his victory in this tournament, Simonetta was declared the "Queen of Beauty", and her fame as the most beautiful woman in Florence spread throughout Europe.

And as mentioned above, unfortunately Simonetta died soon after, in 1476 at the age of only 23, presumably from tuberculosis. Botticelli could never forget her and lived all his life alone, he died in 1510.

Without a doubt, the artist respected Simonetta's marriage and did not show his love in any way, except for writing many paintings with her image. So on the famous canvas "Venus and Mars", he depicted heroes, whose resemblance to Simonetta and the author himself in the role of Mars is not questioned by anyone.

And in 1485, Botticelli painted the famous painting "The Birth of Venus", which he dedicated to the memory of his beloved, nine years after her death. Botticelli's love was so great that he asked to be buried in the tomb where Simonetta Vespucci was buried, “at the feet” of her burial.

It is known that Botticelli wrote more than 150 works, but most of them were destroyed by representatives of the Catholic Church, who accused the work of paganism and secularism. "The Birth of Venus" was miraculously saved, according to rumors, it was defended by Lorenzo de Medici in memory of his brother and love for Simonetta.

There is no painting more poetic than the painting of Sandro Botticelli (Botticelli, Sandro). The artist was recognized for the subtlety and expressiveness of his style. The artist's brightly individual manner is characterized by the musicality of light, quivering lines, the transparency of cold, refined colors, the animality of the landscape, the whimsical play of linear rhythms. He always strove to pour his soul into new pictorial forms.

Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi was born on March 1, 1445 in the family of Mariano and Smeralda Filipepi. Like many in the area, his father was a tanner. The first mentions of Alessandro, as well as of other Florentine artists, we find in the so-called "portate al Catasto", that is, the cadastre where statements of income for taxation were made which, in accordance with the decree of the Republic of 1427, the head of each Florentine families. In 1458, Mariano Filipepi indicated that he had four sons: Giovanni, Antonio, Simone and 13-year-old Sandro and added that Sandro "learns to read, he is a sick boy." Alessandro received his nickname Botticelli ("barrel") from his older brother. The father wanted his youngest son to follow in the footsteps of Antonio, who had worked as a jeweler since at least 1457, which would start a small but reliable family business.

According to Vasari, there was such a close connection between jewelers and painters at that time that entering the workshop of some meant gaining direct access to the craft of others, and Sandro, who had become quite adept at drawing - the art necessary for accurate and confident "blackening", soon became interested in painting and decided to devote himself to her, not forgetting at the same time the most valuable lessons of jewelry art, in particular, clarity in the outline of the outline. About 1464 Sandro entered the workshop of Fra Filippo Lippi from the monastery of Carmine, the most excellent painter of the time, which he left in 1467 at the age of twenty-two.

Early period of creativity

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, fragile, planar linearity and grace, borrowed 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 has become a characteristic feature of his style. These changes manifest themselves in their entirety in the earliest documented picture for the Merchant Court, Allegory of Strength. (circa 1470, Florence, Uffizi Gallery) and in a less pronounced form in two early Madonnas (Naples, Capodimonte Gallery; Boston, Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum). Two famous paired compositions The History of Judith (Florence, Uffizi), also belonging to the early works of the master (c. 1470), illustrate another important aspect of Botticelli's painting: a vivid and capacious narrative, in which expression and action are combined, revealing the dramatic essence with full 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, prevailing in the earliest painting by Botticelli - The Adoration of the Magi (London, National Gallery).

Probably, already in 1469, Botticelli can be considered an independent artist, since in the cadastre of the same year, Mariano declared that his son was working at home. By the time of his father's death, Philippei owned significant property. He died in October 1469, and the very next year Sandro opened his own workshop.

In 1472 Sandro entered the Guild of Saint Luke. Botticelli receives orders mainly in Florence.

Rise of the master

In 1469, power in Florence passed to the grandson of Cosimo the Old - Lorenzo Medici, nicknamed the Magnificent. His courtyard becomes the center of Florentine culture. Lorenzo, a friend of artists and poets, a refined poet and thinker himself, becomes Botticelli's patron and customer.

Among the works of Botticelli, only a few have reliable dates; many of his paintings have been dated based on stylistic analysis. Some of the most famous works date back to the 1470s: the painting of St. Sebastian (1473), the earliest depiction of a naked body in the work of the master; Adoration of the Magi (c. 1475, Uffizi). Two portraits - of a young man (Florence, Pitti Gallery) and a Florentine lady (London, Victoria and Albert Museum) - date from the early 1470s. Somewhat later, possibly in 1476, a portrait of Giuliano Medici, brother of Lorenzo 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, penned by Leon Battista Alberti (On Painting, 1435-1436), and experimented with perspective. By the end of the 1470s, stylistic fluctuations and direct borrowings from other artists inherent in his early works had disappeared in Botticelli's works. By this time, he already confidently mastered a completely individual style: the figures of the characters acquire a strong structure, and their contours surprisingly 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 Onisanti), painted in 1480 as a paired composition to the fresco of Ghirlandaio St. Jerome. Objects surrounding St. Augustine's music stand, books, scientific instruments, demonstrate Botticelli's skill in the genre of still life: they are depicted with precision and clarity, revealing the artist's ability to grasp the essence of form, but at the same time they do not catch the eye and do not distract from the main thing. Perhaps this interest in still life is associated with the influence of Dutch painting, which aroused the admiration of the Florentines of the 15th century. Of course, Dutch art influenced Botticelli's interpretation of the landscape. Leonardo da Vinci wrote that “our Botticelli” showed little interest in the landscape: “... he says it’s a waste of time, because it’s enough to just throw a paint-soaked sponge on the wall, and it will leave a stain where you can distinguish a beautiful landscape” ... Botticelli usually contented himself with using conventional motives for the backgrounds of his paintings, diversifying them with the inclusion of motifs from Dutch painting, such as Gothic churches, castles and walls, to achieve a romantic-pictorial effect.

The artist writes a lot on orders from Lorenzo Medici and his relatives. In 1475 he painted a banner for Giuliano Medici on the occasion of the tournament. And once he even captured his customers in the form of the Magi in the painting "Adoration of the Magi" (1475-1478) Here you can also find the artist's first self-portrait. The most fruitful period in the work of Botticelli begins. Judging by the number of his students and assistants registered in the cadastre, in 1480 Botticelli's workshop was widely recognized.

In 1481, Pope Sixtus IV invited Botticelli to Rome along with Cosimo Rosselli and Ghirlandaio to paint frescoes on the side walls of the newly built Sistine Chapel. He performed three of these murals: Scenes from the Life of Moses, The Healing of a Leper and the Temptation of Christ, and The Punishment of Korah, Dathan, and Abiron. All three frescoes masterfully solve the problem of presenting a complex theological program in clear, light and lively dramatic scenes; the compositional effects are used to the full.

After returning to Florence, perhaps in late 1481 or early 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), which belong to the most famous works of the Renaissance and representing the true 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 of ancient art, a good knowledge of classical sculpture or sketches from it, which were widespread in the Renaissance. So, the graces from Spring go back to the classical group of three graces, and the pose of Venus from the Birth of Venus - to the type Venus Pudica (Venus is bashful).

Some scholars see in these paintings a visual embodiment of the main ideas of the Florentine Neoplatonists, especially Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499). However, the adherents of this hypothesis ignore the sensual principle in the three paintings depicting 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 the wedding. They are the most remarkable surviving works of this genre of painting, which celebrates 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 Nastaggio degli Onesti (found in different collections), and two frescoes (Louvre), painted around 1486 on the occasion of the marriage of the son of one of the Medici's closest associates.

Crisis of the Soul Crisis of Creativity

In the 1490s, Florence experienced political and social upheavals - the expulsion of the Medici, the short-term reign of Savonarola with his denunciatory religious and mystical sermons directed against the papal prestige and the wealthy Florentine patriciate.

Torn apart by contradictions, Botticelli's soul, who felt the beauty of the world opened by the Renaissance, but was afraid of its sinfulness, could not stand it. In his art, mystical notes begin to sound, nervousness and drama appear. In the Annunciation of Cestello (1484-1490, Uffizi), the first signs of mannerism already appear, which gradually increased in Botticelli's later works, 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 peculiarities 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 the works of Botticelli in the 1490s and early 1500s, even for the allegorical painting Slander (Uffizi), in which the master exalts his own work, associating it with the work of Apelles, the greatest of ancient Greek painters.

In the painting "The Wedding of the Mother of God" (1490) in the faces of the angels one can see a stern, intense obsession, and in the swiftness of their postures and gestures - almost Bacchic selflessness. "

After the death of the patron saint of the master Lorenzo Medici (1492) and the execution of Savonarola (1498), his character finally changed. The artist refused not only from the interpretation of humanistic themes, but also from his previously characteristic plastic language. His last paintings are distinguished by asceticism and laconic color scheme. His works are imbued with pessimism and hopelessness. One of the famous paintings of this time, "Abandoned" (1495-1500), depicts a crying woman sitting on the steps of a stone wall with a tightly closed gate.

“The growing religious exaltation reaches tragic heights in his two monumental Lamentation of Christ,” writes N. Belousova, “where the images of Christ's loved ones surrounding his lifeless body are full of heartbreaking sorrow. Instead of fragile incorporealness - clear, generalized volumes, instead of exquisite combinations of faded shades - powerful colorful accords, where bright spots of cinnabar and carmine-red sound especially pathetic in contrast to dark harsh tones. "

In 1495, the artist completed the last of the works for the Medici, painting several works for a side branch of this family in a villa in Trebbio.

In 1498, the Botticelli family, as the record in the cadastre shows, owned considerable property: they had a house in the Santa Maria Novella quarter and, in addition, received income from the Villa Belsguardo, located outside the city, outside the gates of San Frediano.

After 1500, the artist rarely picked up a brush. His only signature work of the early sixteenth century is Mystical Christmas (1500, London, National Gallery). The master's attention is now focused on the image of a wonderful vision, while the space performs an auxiliary function. This new tendency in the relationship of figures and space is also characteristic of the illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy, performed in pen in a magnificent manuscript.

In 1502, the artist received an invitation to go to the service of Isabella d'Este, Duchess of Mantua, but for unknown reasons this trip did not take place.

Although he was already an elderly man and left painting, his opinion continued to be reckoned with. In 1504, together with Giuliano da Sangallo, Cosimo Rosselli, Leonardo da Vinci and Filippino Lippi Botticelli, he participated in the commission, which was to choose a place for the installation of David, just sculpted by the young Michelangelo. Filippino Lippi's decision was considered the most successful, and the marble giant was placed on the plinth in front of the Palazzo della Signoria. In the memoirs of contemporaries, Botticelli appears as a cheerful and kind person. He kept the doors of his house open and willingly received his friends there. The artist did not hide the secrets of his skill from anyone, and he had no end to his students. Even his teacher Lippi brought his son Filippino to him.

Analysis of some works

"Judith", about 1470

It is a work clearly associated with Lipley's later work. It's kind of thinking about what a feeling is. The heroine is depicted in the tremulous light of the dawn after the accomplishment of her feat. The breeze tugs at her dress, the excitement of the folds hides the movement of her body, it is not clear how she keeps her balance and maintains an even posture. The artist conveys the sadness that gripped the girl, that feeling of emptiness, which replaced active action. Before us is not a certain feeling, but a state of mind, a striving for something vague, either in anticipation of the future, or out of regret for what we have done, the consciousness of the uselessness, sterility of history and the melancholic dissolution of feelings in nature, which has no history, where everything is happens without the help of the will.

"Saint Sebastian" 1473 g.

The figure of the saint is devoid of stability, the artist lightens and lengthens its proportion, so that the beautiful shape of the saint's body can be compared only with the blueness of the empty sky, which seems even more inaccessible due to the remoteness of the landscape. The clear shape of the body is not filled with light, light surrounds matter, as if dissolving it, and the line makes certain shadows and light against the background of the sky. The artist does not extol the hero, but only grieves about the desecrated or defeated beauty, which the world does not understand, because its source is beyond the bounds of worldly ideas, outside of natural space, as well as of historical time.

"Spring" about 1478

Its symbolic meaning is varied and complex, its idea can be understood in different keys. Its conceptual meaning is fully accessible only to specialist philosophers, moreover, dedicated ones, but it is clear to everyone who is able to feel the beauty of the grove and flowering meadow, the rhythm of the figures, the attractiveness of bodies and faces, the smoothness of the lines, the finest. chromatic combinations. If the meaning of conventional signs is no longer reduced to fixing and explaining reality, it is used in order to overcome and encode it, then what is then all the wealth of positive knowledge that was accumulated by Florentine painting in the first half of the century and which led to grandiose theoretical constructions of Pierrot? And therefore, perspective loses its meaning as a way of depicting space, light as a physical reality does not make sense, one should not engage in the transfer of density and volume as specific manifestations of materiality and space. The alternation of parallel trunks or the pattern of leaves in the background of "Spring" have nothing to do with perspective, but it is precisely in comparison with this background, devoid of depth, that the smooth development of linear rhythms of figures, contrasting with the parallelism of the trunks, takes on special significance, just like subtle color transitions get a special sound in combination with dark tree trunks that stand out sharply in the sky foyer.

Painting in the Sistine Chapel 1481- 1482 g

Botticelli's frescoes are written on biblical and gospel stories, but they are not interpreted in the "historical" plan. For example, scenes from the life of Moses are intended to be a type of the life of Christ. The themes of other paintings also have a figurative meaning: "The Cleansing of a Leper" and "The Temptation of Christ" contain a hint of Christ's faithfulness to the law of Moses and, consequently, the continuity of the Old and New Testaments. "Punishment of Korea, Dathan and Aviron" also hints at the continuity of the law of God (which is symbolically expressed by the arch of Constantine in the background) and the inevitability of punishment for those who transgress it, which is clearly linked in the minds of the viewer with heretical teachings. In some ways, one can see a hint at the contemporary artist's faces and circumstances. But by linking together historically different events, Botticelli destroys the spatio-temporal unity and even the meaning of the story itself. Separate episodes, despite the time and space separating them, are welded to each other by stormy ups of a linear rhythm that occur after long pauses, and this rhythm, which has lost its melodic, smooth character, full of sudden impulses and dissonances, is now entrusted with the role of a bearer of drama that cannot be more expressed through the actions or gestures of individual characters.

"The Birth of Venus" about 1485

This is by no means a pagan glorification of female beauty: among the meanings inherent in it, the Christian idea of ​​the birth of a soul from water during baptism appears. The beauty that the artist seeks to glorify is, in any case, spiritual beauty, not physical: the naked body of the goddess means naturalness and purity, the uselessness of jewelry. Nature is represented by its elements (air, water, earth). The sea, stirred by the breeze blown by Aeolus and Boreus, appears as a bluish-green surface, on which the waves are depicted with the same schematic signs. The shell is also symbolic. Against the background of a wide sea horizon, three rhythmic episodes develop with varying intensity - the winds, Venus emerging from the shell, the servant receiving her with a veil decorated with flowers (a hint of the green cover of nature). Three times the rhythm arises, reaches its maximum tension and fades out.

"Annunciation"1489-1490g

the artist introduces into the scene, usually such an idyllic, unusual confusion, the Angel bursts into the room and rapidly falls to his knees, and behind him, like jets of air dissected during flight, his transparent, barely visible clothes rise up like glass. His right hand with a large hand and long nervous fingers is stretched out towards Mary, and Maria, as if blind, as if in oblivion, stretches out her hand to meet him. It seems as if internal currents, invisible but clearly perceptible, flow from his hand to Mary's hand and make her whole body tremble and bend.

"Mystical Christmas" 1500 g,

Perhaps the most ascetic, but at the same time the most acutely polemical of all the works of his last period. And it accompanies it with an apocalyptic inscription, which predicts enormous troubles for the coming century. It depicts an unthinkable space in which the figures in the foreground are smaller than the more distant ones, because the "primitives" did this, the lines do not converge at one point, but diverge in a zigzag manner across the landscape, as if in a Gothic miniature inhabited by angels.

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This often happens in the life of an amateur: I just discovered America, I just started to be happy and proud, and then bam - it turns out that it was discovered long before you! Well, first things first.

Every city has a must-see place. In Paris it is - of course the Louvre, in Rome - the Coliseum, in St. Petersburg - the Hermitage, and in Florence - the Uffizi gallery.

Of course, there are many things in Florence and besides the gallery to see, David alone is worth something!

This, you guessed it, is not the real David, but the real one.

The fact that the Uffizi Gallery is a must on any tourist itinerary in Florence makes it difficult to get there. Our recommendation: order tickets in advance via the Internet herehttp://www.florence-museum.com/booking-tickets.php ... The printed reservation must be exchanged for tickets at the gallery office opposite the main entrance. Well, and then you have to defend a tiny queue of the same advanced tourists as you (in comparison with the huge neighboring queue of non-advanced ones).

Finally, you are inside. Not every normal person will be able to try to go around the entire gallery at a time, so you must first of all look at the very things! For us, such "the most" were the canvases of the great painter of the Florentine eraRenaissanceSandro Botticelli.

His real name is Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi. Botticelli or in a rough translation "from the kind of barrels" is rather a nickname that the thin Sandro "inherited" after his older brother - a fat man and really a real "barrel" (such is the special Florentine logic).

In the Uffizi Gallery, several rooms are dedicated to his works. "The Birth of Venus", "Spring", portraits of Dante and Giuliano Medici - these works by Botticelli are known almost from school.

But reproduction in a textbook is one thing, but here are the originals, here they are, at arm's length. An unforgettable experience! Looking at the pictures, I come to a completely unexpected conclusion for myself that all the "main female roles" in the majority of Botticelli's canvases presented in the Uffizi Gallery are given to the same "actress"! It looks like most of his paintings do show the same woman! The wife standing next to him comes to the same conclusion. Can not be? Judge for yourself

As we found out later, the secret of a stranger in Botticelli's paintings was discovered back in the 16th century by the Italian painter Giorgio Vasari.

Vasari lived in Florence almost thirty years after the death of Botticelli. As an artist, Vasari did not succeed, although at one time he was a student of Michelangelo himself. But he actually became the founder of modern art history, having written the main work of his life - collection 178biographies of Italian Renaissance artists " Biographies of the most famous painters, sculptors and architects». It was in this work, published in 1568, that Giorgio Vasari put forward a hypothesis regarding the name of a woman whom Sandro Botticelli sang in almost all of his works. According to Vasari, this woman is Simonetta Vespucci, the first beauty of Florence in the second half of the 15th century.

Contemporaries considered her beauty a divine gift, the embodiment of a perfect plan, and for her beauty the girl received the nickname Incomparable and Beautiful Simonetta.

In April 1469 year16-year-old Simonetta married her peer Marco Vespucci, a distant relative of the future famous Florentine navigatorAmerigo Vespucci and,after which the new continent discovered by Columbus will be named (another example of a kind of logic). I didn't find a portrait of Marco Vespucci, but Amerigo - here he is

Of course, Simonetta Vespucci was not available to Botticelli:

- But as for me - she was in Paris,

- Marcel Marceau himself told her something!

After all, he is a simple, albeit fashionable painter, but she is the wife of one of the bankers of the Medici family ruling in Florence, the one whose location was sought by all Florentine noble men, including the ruler of the city, Lorenzo the Magnificent (here is his bust from the collection of the Uffizi Gallery)

as well as his younger brother Giuliano (here is his portrait by Botticelli):

With all this, Sandro, if desired, could admire Simonetta Vespucci every day - their house was adjacent to the Vespucci palazzo. Did Simonetta know about Sandro's existence? If she knew, then most likely it was unlikely that she attached any importance to this knowledge. But for Botticelli, she was the perfect woman. This is confirmed by the fact that the "Birth of Venus", and "Spring", and "Venus and Mars", as well as "Portrait of a Young Woman" were painted by the artist after the death of Simonetta, who suddenly died on April 26, 1476 at the age of 23. at the height of the tuberculosis epidemic in Florence. Thus, Botticelli again and again returns to the image of Simonetta even 9 years after her death. Although to her image? After all, lifetime photographs of Simonetta are absent for obvious reasons, and clearly attributed portraits have not survived. Most likely, Sandro painted a certain, in the words of the poet Mikhail Kuzmin, "for eternal centuries a symbol of passing youth", embodied for him in Simonetta.

Sandro Botticelli never married, having lived a long life, died at the age of 65 and in accordance with his will was buried in Florence in the Church of All Saints (Chiesa di Ognissanti), in which Simonetta Vespuchi was also buried earlier. We found this church, though just before its closure.

A mini-tour of the church was conducted for us by a black (!) Franciscan monk.

Here is such a STORY of love.

But lastly, I would like to tell another no less romantic, but also instructive story about love.

In Botticelli's painting "The Birth of Venus" in the upper left corner, we can see such a strange couple: a soaring young man with puffy cheeks and a girl who wrapped her boyfriend not only with her arms, but also with her legs!

This young man is Zephyr, the god of the western spring wind, in the picture he drives a shell with a newly born Venus to the shore. And the girl is the lawful wife of Zephyr, the Greek goddess of flowers Chloris, who was called Flora by the Romans.

Chlorida at first avoided Zephyr's persistent courtship and ignored him in every possible way. Here she is running away from the loving Zephyr in the right corner in Botticelli's painting "Spring".

In the end, Zephyr was possessed by such a wild passion that he, having broken the Olympic record for catching up with girls, overtook Chlorida and took her by force. Oh how! The result was that in the girl there arose not less, but a stronger, such a wild, wild, responsive passion for Zephyr that she clung to him with her whole body and never parted with him again, tightly wrapping her already husband with all her limbs. ...

And since then, Zephyr has always been with his wife Chlorida-Flora. And day and night, and on vacation, and at work, and at a concert, and at a banquet, and at football, and in a bathhouse at a meeting with classmates!

As they say, what we fought for, we ran into it! So study HISTORY!

Most likely, not everyone knows the name of Sandro Botticelli, the great Italian artist, a representative of the early Renaissance, but almost everyone knows his work "The Birth of Venus". It is marked by inspired poetry, admiration for the beauty of a woman's face and body, which reign over time and space.

For quite a long time, his work was unfairly forgotten, but already in the 19th century, French artists largely imitated the mystical Italian and created a new image, to which we still admire and adore the wonderful gift of the artist.

Biography of the painter

Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi was born in the middle of the 15th century in Florence, the birthplace of the southern Renaissance, in the family of a craftsman - tanner. Soon after the death of his father, his business passed to the elder brother of little Alessandra, nicknamed "Keg" (Botticelli) because of his beer belly or strong penchant for wine drinking.

All four younger ones got a funny nickname from the elder brother. Thanks to the efforts of his older brothers, the future famous artist was educated in a Dominican monastery.

One of the first professions that Sandro received was the respected and highly demanded profession of a jeweler at that time. She taught the artist the correct application of golden and silver shades in the landscapes of her paintings. By the way, some researchers of Renaissance art believe that the name "Botticelli" means a master of silver.

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 commission from the monastery of St. Dominic: he was commissioned to depict an allegory of Power for the gallery of Christian virtues. The painting was displayed in the courtroom of the Chamber of Commerce. A year later, they started talking about the young painter all over Italy.

His Saint Sebastian, written for the Church of Saint Mary Marjorie, is truly virtuous, through the beautiful features of the young Christian's face, Sandro showed his soul, pure and innocent. All the artist's works are permeated with fervent faith and unseen love for God. They combine unsurpassed craftsmanship and spiritual fulfillment and ease.

In the same year, he showed 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 can preserve after death and transfer to a new owner. This explains the appearance of brilliant works of art, as well as intuitive knowledge.

The best works of the artist

One of the best works by Sandro Botticelli is considered "The Adoration of the Magi", created after 1470. It is dedicated to the most important holiday of Christians - the Birth of Jesus Christ.

In the images of the Eastern Magi 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 tones of the picture seem to be filled with air and inspire awe and divine joy.

One of the most mysterious works of the artist is the painting "Spring", dated 1475-1480. The painting was created for Lorenzo Medici, a close friend and patron of the arts Sandro Botticelli.

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

The antique style is shown by representatives of the myths and legends of Ancient Greece: the God Zephyr, a light wind, kidnaps the nymph - the mistress of the fields and meadows Chlorida. Three graceful graces in the form of nymphs or naiads are reminiscent of the three Christian virtues: chastity, humility and pleasure, as well as eternal love.

Mercury, the god of trade, roads and fraud, picks an apple from the 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 touching the ground with her feet, her image is light and airy, and at the same time seductive and captivating, reminds of passionate love and carnal passion.

In the center of the canvas is depicted 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, the "Beautiful Lady" who 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.

This wonderful piece is filled with light, joy and peacefulness. Looking at him, you feel that little cupids in reality are sending their love arrows to 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.

The pearl of creation

The world famous painting "The Birth of Venus" was painted in 1484 and is currently in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Among the vast expanse of azure sky and turquoise sea, beautiful Venus appeared from the foam of the sea, standing on a mother-of-pearl shell. The god of the west wind Zephyr, with his breath, helps the eternally young goddess to land on the shore, and the goddess Ora will give 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 a 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 with amazingly beautiful features is meek, a little sad and humble. Long golden curls blowing in the wind. And the woman's pose resembles the pose of the famous sculpture of Venus the Bashful, created in the 5th century BC.

last years of life

In the late 1490s, Luigi Medici died and the rule of this dynasty came to an end. The sworn enemy of this family, the Dominican monk Girolamo Sovanarola, who earlier angrily reproached the ruling dynasty for luxury and debauchery, came to power.

Some researchers of the Renaissance art believe that Sandro Botticelli became a "convert", because the style of his work is changing 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 fades. Contemporaries write that he “became impoverished and withered”, could not walk and stand upright, therefore he worked very little. The works created in the last years of his life are "Mystical Christmas", "Abandoned", frescoes dedicated to the holy Romans, the first Christians of Lucretia and Virginia.

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

Abstract on the topic

The life and work of Sandro Botticelli

Saint Petersburg 2008

The beginning of the creative path. 3

Studying at the workshop of Fra Filippo Lippi, the influence of the work of Andrea Verrocchio and the first works .. 4

Florence. The flowering of creativity. 6

Madonna .. 12

Late paintings. Sermons of Savanarola. Sunset of the artist 13

References .. 17

Among the most significant early Renaissance painters in Florence is Sandro Botticelli (1444 or 1445-1510).

There is no painting more poetic than the painting of Sandro Botticelli. "How beautiful youth is, but it passes" - these are the words of Lorenzo Medici himself, whose favorite artist was Botticelli, words in which the final sad slip of the tongue is most important.

The work of this artist stands apart in the art of the Italian Renaissance. Botticelli was the same age as Leonardo da Vinci, who affectionately called him "our Botticelli." But it is difficult to rank him among the typical masters of both the Early and High Renaissance. In the world of art, he was neither a proud conqueror, like the former, nor the sovereign Master of life, like the latter.

The beginning of the creative path

Sandro Botticelli (the artist's real name is Alessandro Filipepi) was born in Florence in 1445. Mariano Filipepi's father was a tanner by profession and lived with his family (of which Alessandro was the youngest son) in the Santa Maria Novella quarter of Via Nuova, where he rented an apartment in a house owned by Rucellai. He had his own workshop near the Santa Trinita in Oltrarno bridge, the business brought a very modest income, and old Filipepi dreamed of finding a place for his sons as soon as possible and finally having the opportunity to leave the laborious craft.

Filipepi's four brothers brought the family significant income and position in society. Sandro studied with his second brother, Antonio, who was a jeweler and helped him in his business. The art of jewelry played an important role in the formation of the young Botticelli. Alessandro's father sent Alessandro to the jeweler ("a certain Botticello," as Vasari writes, a person whose identity has not been established to this day), tired of his "extravagant mind", gifted and capable of learning, but restless and still not finding the true vocations; perhaps Mariano wanted his youngest son to follow in the footsteps of Antonio, who had worked as a goldsmith since at least 1457, to start a small but reliable family business.

According to Vasari, there was such a close relationship between jewelers and painters at that time that entering the workshop of some meant gaining direct access to the craft of others, and Sandro, who had become quite adept at drawing - the art necessary for accurate and confident "blackening", soon became interested in painting and decided to devote himself to it, while not forgetting the most valuable lessons of jewelry art, in particular clarity in the outline of contour lines and the skillful use of gold, which was later often used by the artist as an admixture to paints or in its pure form for the background.

Studying at the workshop of Fra Filippo Lippi, the influence of the work of Andrea Verrocchio and the first works

About 1464 Sandro entered the workshop of the Carmelite monk Fra Filippo Lippi of the Carmine monastery, the most excellent painter of the time. Fra Filippo Lippi created cheerful images, marked by naturalness, while not deviating from the main conquests of the Renaissance.

Having devoted himself entirely to painting, he became a follower of his teacher and imitated him so that Fra Filippo fell in love with him and with his training soon raised him to such a degree that no one could even think of.

Already the early works of Sandro are distinguished by a special, almost elusive atmosphere of spirituality, a kind of poetic fanning of images.

His first work may have been frescoes made by his teacher with his students in the cathedral in Prato. But already in 1469 Botticelli was an independent artist, because in the cadastre of the same year, Marano, his father, declared that "Sandro works at home."

After the death of Fra Filippo in 1467, Botticelli, still wanting to quench his thirst for knowledge, began to look for another source among the highest artistic achievements of the era. For some time he visited the studio of Andrea Verrocchio, a multifaceted craftsman, sculptor, painter and jeweler, who headed a team of diversified aspiring artists; here at that time an atmosphere of "advanced" creative search reigned, it is no coincidence that young Leonardo studied with Verrocchio.

Andrea Verrocchio approached painting analytically, was fond of anatomically accurate reproduction of the human figure in strong movement; in Florence, he directed the famous workshop.

Sandro Botticelli has well mastered the main achievements of early Renaissance painting. And contemporaries saw in his art the qualities most valued at that time: "a courageous manner of writing, strict adherence to the rules and perfection of proportions." This was facilitated by his stay after training with Philippe Lippi in the workshop of Verrocchio in 1467-1468. The introduction to the skill of the painter and sculptor was carried out here on a scientific basis, great importance was attached to the experiment.

From these two great masters, Sandro Botticelli learned and formed as an independent artist, inheriting some qualities from his teachers, but at the same time becoming a completely original and strong master. In his early works, he somewhat resembles Fra Philippe Lippi with an abundance of portraits and a wealth of details.

Such, for example, is his painting The Adoration of the Magi (c. 1475, London, National Gallery), in which members of the Medici family and their entourage are represented in the form of Magi. However, already in this picture, attention is drawn to the extraordinary expressiveness and spirituality of the images, which significantly surpass everything that was created by his teacher. In the picture, the desire for realism is obvious: it affects not only the abundance of portraits of Botticelli's contemporaries (for all their splendor, they participate in the depicted scene very relatively, only as side motives), but also in the fact that the composition is built more in depth than on plane (the arrangement of the figures feels artificial, especially in the scene on the right). The execution of each image is a miracle of grace and nobility, but everything as a whole is too limited and compressed in space; there is no physical movement, and with it a spiritual impulse.

Florence. The flowering of creativity

In the last third of the 15th century, the process of gradual transformation of the republic into a tyranny comes to the end in Florence.

If Cosimo Medici still tried to disguise his power with the appearance of republican freedoms, then under his grandson Lorenzo (1449-1492), who ruled in Florence from 1469, the monarchist tendencies of the Medici house are already very clearly manifested.

Lorenzo Medici, nicknamed "Magnificent", was a bright and very typical figure for his time. In the 15th century, many small Italian states were ruled by tyrants, often terrifying with their unbridled cruelty and, at the same time, striving to play the role of enlightened rulers, patrons and connoisseurs of the arts and sciences. Lorenzo was one such "enlightened tyrant". A brilliantly educated person, an outstanding politician and diplomat, poet, connoisseur and lover of literature and art, he managed to attract many prominent poets, humanists, artists and scientists. Constant festivities, carnivals, tournaments, competitions of poets created the appearance of a brilliant government, behind the magnificent facade of which, however, not everything was all right. In Florence and the dominions that were part of it, there were more than once protests against tyranny, which found support from numerous enemies of the Medici outside Florence, led by Pope Sixtus IV. All these conspiracies and uprisings were suppressed by Lorenzo with extreme brutality, especially the so-called Pazzi conspiracy of 1478, during which Lorenzo's younger brother Giuliano Medici was killed. But, although Lorenzo managed to retain power, the situation in the city remained tense. She was tense throughout the country. The approach of the crisis was felt everywhere. The fall of Constantinople (1453) and the collapse of Levantine trade, Italy's loss of its advanced positions and a gradual return to feudal systems, political fragmentation and ever-increasing strife between individual cities and states weakened Italy and made it a tempting and easy prey for the strengthened neighboring states. All this gave rise to that mood of anxiety and uncertainty about the future, which left an imprint on the entire culture of the late 15th century, including the culture of Florence. Florence lived during these years a kind of hectic life, but even in the most exuberant gaiety, it seemed, there was anxiety and forebodings of impending disasters. Lorenzo Medici himself perfectly expressed the general mood in his "Carnival Song", each stanza of which ends with the words: "Who wants to be cheerful - have fun, no one knows what will happen tomorrow!"

All the complexity and contradictions of the life of this time found expression in the works of Sandro Botticelli. Pictures of this time leave an ambiguous impression. Colorful and elegant, created in order to please the eye, they, at the same time, are always full of some kind of inner painful burning. And his Madonnas, and Venus, and Spring are fanned with sadness, their gaze betrays hidden pain. It is on this inner state and mood that Botticelli focuses his attention. He does not show much interest in the development of the plot, in the depiction of everyday details, so dear to the heart of his teacher. He is also far from conveying dramatic collisions or heroic deeds. Even in such a plot as the story of the biblical heroine Judith, for the sake of saving her hometown, who penetrated the enemy camp and beheaded the leader of the enemy troops, Tsar Holofernes, Botticelli avoids depicting the very scene of the murder, as Donatello once did in the sculptural group "Judith and Holofernes" ... In his early painting "The Death of Holofernes" (1470, Florence, Uffizi) Botticelli depicts the moment when everything had already happened and Judith left the tent, taking with her the severed head of the king. In the cold twilight of dawn, Holofernes's associates freeze in a daze in front of the decapitated corpse of their leader.