Life
Sandro Botticelli, whose real name was Alessandro Filipepi, was born on
1445 in Florence, Italy. He was the youngest of five children and
was an apprentice under a goldsmith who gave him the name "Botticelli"
meaning "little barrel". He soon became tired working under a
goldsmith, and convinced his father that he wanted to study painting.
He took apprenticeship under Fra Filippo Lippi, a well known artist at
the time. By the time he was 15 years old he noticed the potential and
talent he had in himself and opened up a painting workshop where he
showed all of his own pieces. In thie workshop, he had many
apprentices working under him to complete hs own work. With all the
apprentices, he was able to make a large amount of paintings at once.
hen Sandro became more experienced, his work was in demand frequently.
His biggest patriots were the Medici family. They were powerful and
high class figures in the Florence society. The Medici family allowed
Botticelli to travel with him, and he was introduced to very
influential people. When he grew older, he became a follower of the
monk Savonarola.
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Art
Sandro's style was very similar to Lippi's when he first started
painting. His figures had soft and subtle expressions and gestures. He
also had elaborate and intricate details that were picked up during his
training. As he grew as a painter, his style began to slowly change.
His characters depicted a solemn and sad characteristic. Botticelli
made line and detail significant in his portraits to make them look
real and bring them to life. He interpreted Neo-Platonism with
his work which combined pagan and Christianity beliefs which was
involved in multiple paintings troughout his career. Another theme that
was also brought up was the role of women and men in everday society.
Few times he would show the classic roles played by each but most of
the time he would depict females as the leading and more important
person. When Sandro grew older, his style of painting wen
tthrough a phenomenal change. After Savonarola died, Botticelli's
paintings had a very religious tone to them. He became a tremendously
gifted altarpiece painter and earned vast amounts of money from them.
The last years of his career were aggravating for him. As time went by
in Florence, and new styles of art emerged, he struggled to keep up..
His paintings depicted that he was cycling through different
types of painting and that he was struggling. His pieces had emotion
ranging from violence to elegance and love.
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Art Pieces:
- Return of Judith to Bethulia
- Primavera, Allegory of Spring
- Virgin Adoring Sleeping Child
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