Painter of the Bible
Botticelli
Sandro Botticelli — born Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi in Florence in 1445, called Botticelli (little barrel) probably from the nickname of an older brother — was one of the most accomplished and most identifiable painters of the Florentine Quattrocento.
Their faith
Why Botticelli painted Christ
Sandro Botticelli, born in Florence in 1445, was deeply influenced by the Christian faith that permeated the culture of Renaissance Italy. His training under Fra Filippo Lippi, a devout painter himself, likely instilled in Botticelli a reverence for sacred subjects. Throughout his life, Botticelli produced a significant body of Christian art, reflecting his devotion to scripture and the teachings of Christ. His later works were notably shaped by the apocalyptic sermons of Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, which prompted Botticelli to explore themes of redemption and moral introspection in his art. This spiritual awakening led him to create pieces that resonate with the struggles and hopes of humanity, demonstrating his commitment to his faith and the transformative power of divine love.
Botticelli's faith is vividly expressed in masterpieces such as the "Madonna del Magnificat" and the "Mystic Nativity." In the former, the tender depiction of the Virgin Mary and the Christ child captures the essence of maternal love and divine grace, inviting viewers into a moment of profound reverence. The "Mystic Nativity," on the other hand, reflects Botticelli's response to the tumultuous times he lived in, with its haunting imagery and Greek inscription that speaks to the troubles of Italy at the turn of the century. These works not only showcase his artistic genius but also serve as a testament to his enduring faith. Botticelli's devotion continues to inspire viewers today, reminding us of the beauty and depth of a life dedicated to Christ.
Life & work
Sandro Botticelli — born Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi in Florence in 1445, called Botticelli (little barrel) probably from the nickname of an older brother — was one of the most accomplished and most identifiable painters of the Florentine Quattrocento. Trained in the goldsmith trade in his youth and then in painting under Fra Filippo Lippi (whose son Filippino Lippi later became Botticelli's own pupil), he ran one of the leading Florentine workshops through the 1470s and 1480s and worked under the patronage of the Medici and their circle until the political upheavals of the 1490s. He died in Florence in 1510.
His mythological masterpieces — the Primavera (c. 1482), the Birth of Venus (c. 1486), the Pallas and the Centaur, the Venus and Mars — have made him a popular emblem of the Italian Renaissance, but the bulk of his output was Christian religious painting. The Madonna del Magnificat (Uffizi, c. 1483), the Madonna of the Pomegranate (Uffizi, c. 1487), the Madonna of the Book (Milan, c. 1480), the Bardi Altarpiece (Berlin), the San Marco altarpiece, the great Coronation of the Virgin (Uffizi, 1490), the Adoration of the Magi panels in the Uffizi and Washington, the late Mystic Nativity (London, 1500), and the smaller predella panels of the Lives of Saint Zenobius and the Stories of the Virgin fill museums in Florence, Berlin, Madrid, London, and New York.
In 1481–1482 he worked in Rome on the wall frescoes of the Sistine Chapel — Old Testament scenes from the lives of Moses and Christ, painted before Michelangelo's ceiling and Last Judgment redirected attention to the higher walls. Botticelli's Sistine contributions include the Trials of Moses and the Temptations of Christ, both still on the chapel walls.
In the 1490s, deeply influenced by the apocalyptic preaching of the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola — who briefly held political power in Florence between 1494 and his execution in 1498 — Botticelli's late religious work turned harsher and more austere. The Mystic Nativity in London bears a hand-written Greek inscription identifying the painting as a vision of "the troubles of Italy in the year 1500." His drawings for an illustrated Dante's Divine Comedy (Berlin and the Vatican Library), commissioned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici and left unfinished, are among the supreme drawn cycles of the Italian Renaissance.
Notable works in detail
Madonna and Child with Two Angels
Madonna and Child with Two Angels, painted around 1464 in tempera on wood and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, is one of the small early Madonnas from the years immediately after Botticelli left Fra Filippo Lippi's workshop and set up on his own in Florence. The Virgin sits in a window niche with the Christ Child standing on her lap, her right hand cradling his shoulder; two child angels — closer in age and expression to ordinary Florentine children than to celestial messengers — flank the niche, one looking out at the viewer, the other at the Christ Child. The chromatic palette of soft rose, sky blue, and pale gold; the elongated proportions of the Virgin's face; and the sweet melancholy that would become Botticelli's lifelong signature are all already present in this small early panel. The painting entered the Metropolitan's collection in the 1880s and remains one of the principal Botticelli devotional paintings in any American collection.
The Coronation of the Virgin, painted around 1475 and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, shows the moment from the apocryphal Marian narrative in which Christ crowns his mother Queen of Heaven in the celestial court. The Virgin kneels in the lower foreground, her hands folded; Christ floats above her in a circle of seraphim, lowering the crown onto her bowed head; an angel choir surrounds the central pair on every side. The composition follows the Florentine Quattrocento conventions for the subject worked out by Filippo Lippi and Verrocchio in the previous generation, but the soft chromatic palette, the elongated proportions of both figures, and the unmistakable melancholy of the Virgin's face are distinctively Botticelli. The painting was once part of the Cook Collection at Richmond and entered the Metropolitan in the early twentieth century; it remains one of the principal Botticelli religious paintings in any American collection.
Bible scenes Botticelli painted
Luke
Matthew
Galatians
Romans
Isaiah
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