Sandro Botticelli

Life and legacy

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, known to the world as Sandro Botticelli, was born in Florence around 1445. The nickname "Botticelli," meaning "little barrel," was originally his older brother's and was later adopted by the whole family. He was apprenticed to the painter Fra Filippo Lippi, from whom he absorbed a love of line, decorative detail, and luminous color that would define his mature style.

By the early 1470s, Botticelli had established his own workshop and attracted the attention of the Medici family, the de facto rulers of Florence. Under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici and his circle of Neoplatonic philosophers, Botticelli produced his most celebrated works. "Primavera" (c. 1482) and "The Birth of Venus" (c. 1485) are unprecedented in Renaissance art for their monumental treatment of mythological subjects, their sinuous linear rhythms, and their idealized vision of beauty drawn from both classical antiquity and contemporary Neoplatonic philosophy.

Botticelli's talents extended well beyond mythology. In 1481, Pope Sixtus IV summoned him to Rome to help decorate the walls of the newly built Sistine Chapel alongside Perugino, Ghirlandaio, and Cosimo Rosselli. Botticelli contributed three large frescoes - "The Temptations of Christ," "The Punishment of the Rebels," and "Scenes from the Life of Moses" - demonstrating his mastery of complex narrative composition on a monumental scale.

The 1490s brought upheaval to Florence. The death of Lorenzo de' Medici in 1492 and the rise of the fiery Dominican preacher Girolamo Savonarola, who condemned secular art and luxury, deeply affected Botticelli. According to Giorgio Vasari, Botticelli became a follower of Savonarola and may have destroyed some of his own works in the "Bonfire of the Vanities" in 1497. His late paintings took on a more intensely devotional, emotionally charged quality.

Botticelli spent his final years in relative obscurity, overshadowed by the rising generation of Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael. He died in 1510 and was buried in the Church of Ognissanti in Florence. His reputation languished for centuries until the Pre-Raphaelites and Walter Pater rediscovered him in the nineteenth century, and today "The Birth of Venus" stands as one of the most iconic images in all of Western art.

Key accomplishments

• Painted "The Birth of Venus" (c. 1485), one of the most iconic works in Western art
• Created "Primavera" (c. 1482), a landmark of Renaissance mythological painting
• Contributed frescoes to the Sistine Chapel in Rome (1481-1482)
• Pioneered large-scale mythological painting in the Renaissance
• Produced a celebrated series of illustrations for Dante's "Divine Comedy"

Timeline

The dated lines from the record above, in order, with Sandro Botticelli's age worked out from the birth year (c. 1445).

1. c. 1445Born c. 1445, Florence, Republic of Florence
2. 1481Contributed frescoes to the Sistine Chapel in Rome (1481-1482) (around age 36)
3. 1482Created "Primavera" (c. 1482), a landmark of Renaissance mythological painting (around age 37)
4. 1485Painted "The Birth of Venus" (c. 1485), one of the most iconic works in Western art (around age 40)
5. 1510Died May 17, 1510, Florence, Republic of Florence

Quotes

Botticelli told him that such a study was vain, for after having thrown a sponge full of diverse colors at a wall, it left a stain on the wall where one could see a fine landscape.

Leonardo da Vinci, recounting a conversation with Botticelli, from Leonardo's notebooks

Related figures

Where Sandro Botticelli sits in the atlas

• Era: The Renaissance (~1350-1600), one of 16 figures filed there
• Born c. 1445, the 47th of 125 figures in the full list by birth year.
• Cities: Florence, Rome
• Collections: Renaissance Minds, Artists & Composers

Contemporaries

12 other figures in the atlas were alive at some point during Sandro Botticelli's lifetime (1445-1510). These are the longest overlaps.

• Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519): both alive for 58 years, 1452 to 1510
• Christopher Columbus (1451-1506): both alive for 55 years, 1451 to 1506
• Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536): both alive for 44 years, 1466 to 1510
• Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492): both alive for 43 years, 1449 to 1492
• Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527): both alive for 41 years, 1469 to 1510
• Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543): both alive for 37 years, 1473 to 1510
• Michelangelo (1475-1564): both alive for 35 years, 1475 to 1510
• Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521): both alive for 30 years, 1480 to 1510

Others connected with the same cities

Figures not already listed on this page, nearest in time first.

More from The Renaissance

Figures from the same era born closest in time to Sandro Botticelli.

• Martin Luther (1483-1546), Father of the Protestant Reformation
• Johannes Gutenberg (1400-1468), Father of the Printing Revolution
• Henry VIII (1491-1547), Founder of the Church of England
• Elizabeth I (1533-1603), The Virgin Queen
• Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), Father of the Modern Novel
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Bard of Avon