Abhishek Kumar
Knowledge can be gained at any age. After having a detailed study on topics there are things unknown to us. So, we at Abirpothi present before you the lesser-known facts about artists around the world.
Sandro Botticelli
\”By throwing a sponge soaked with different colors at a wall one can make a spot in which a beautiful landscape can be seen.\” —– Sandro Botticelli
Botticelli\’s self-portrait
One of the most prominent artists in Florence throughout the Renaissance was the Italian painter Botticelli. He belonged to the \’Florentine School\’ of painters during the Renaissance, which began in the fourteenth century and saw the revival of Roman and Greek civilization in Italy. Although his brother had initially trained him as a goldsmith, it was under the guidance of the great Florentine painter Fra Filippo Lippi in the fifteenth century that he could discover his true potential. One of the Renaissance\’s most ardent supporters, Lorenzo de\’ Medici, assisted him. His best works are \”The Birth of Venus,\” \”The Mystical Nativity,\” \”Venus and Mars,\” and \”Primavera.\” He also painted some of the wall frescoes of the \”Sistine Chapel,\” which adorned it. Although he was successful during the Renaissance, his fame declined during the High Renaissance. Only in the late nineteenth century, when various groups like the \”Pre-Raphaelites\” saw his work as among the finest examples of Early Renaissance painting, did his work acquire genuine acclaim.
Adoration of the Magi
In contrast to his contemporaries Caravaggio, Botticelli rarely imparted weight and dimension to his figures and hardly ever employed a deep perspectival space, indicating that his art was never totally committed to naturalism. Venus\’ body in The Birth of Venus is physically strange, having an extended neck and torso. She adopts a traditional contrapposto posture, but the pose cannot be maintained because her weight is placed too much over her left leg. She was also in a position on the scallop shell\’s edge that would undoubtedly lead it to topple over. Even more challenging to understand are the bodies and stances of the winds to the left. The characters don\’t cast any shadows, and the background is simple. This picture is obviously a fantasy.
11 lesser-known facts about Sandro Botticelli
- Botticelli along with other Florentine and Umbrian artists was called by Pope Sixtus IV in 1481 to fresco the wall of Sistine Chapel.
- His work is a testament to the theory that ‘imitation is the greatest form of flattery’.
- Botticelli\’s depictions of female subjects in his paintings are considered by some to be one of the first examples of \’Photoshop’.
Venus and Mars - Duncan’s wasn’t the only dedication to Botticelli’s work to be made immortal through film. Terry Gilliam included a great tribute to the artist in his 1988 fantasy drama The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, in which Uma Thurman enters in the image of Venus, cherubs flying down from the lighting fixtures on the wall to swathe her in white muslin. It’s a visually sumptuous affair, beaten only in its artistic licence by Terence Young’s.
Painting by Sandro Botticelli - As Botticelli’s themes and visual references permeated pop culture, so too did they enter fashion’s vernacular – first in Elsa Schiaparelli’s 1938 collection, in the form of ivy wreath necklaces and floral motifs on dresses throughout, inspired by works such as Pallas and the Centaur and the famous Primavera, and later in Dolce & Gabbana’s S/S93 collection, which directly repurposed panels of his greatest works.
Youth of Moses - In spite of his enduring connection to Venus, Botticelli’s name has also been attributed to a crater on the surface of the planet Mercury.
- In 1502, Botticelli had been accused of conducting illicit relationships with a young boy.
- Botticelli’s work subsequently became more reflective, dark and brooding. The paintings he produced during the period of Savonarola’s influence and its aftermath are characterized by a feeling of angst, echoing the fanatical friar’s prophesies.
The Rockefeller Madonna Madonna and Child with Young Saint John the Baptist - Botticelli, the iconic painter of heavenly Renaissance beauties, also took on the job of depicting Hell, as written by Dante Alighieri.
- Despite Botticelli’s close relationship with Lorenzo, he was also a follower of the Medici patriarch’s archenemy, the Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola, who advocated for Christian renewal and the destruction of secular art and cultural artifacts.
- According to Vasari, he “wrote a commentary on a portion of Dante’s poetry”, which is also referred to dismissively in another story in the Life, but no such text has survived.
Mythological Painting by Sandro Botticelli
