Botticelli

Birth of Venus
Annunciation

	Birth of Venus

Madonna col Bambino Madonna del Libro Madonna del Magnificat



Primavera



Young Man, Simonetta Vespucci, Simonetta's posthumous portrait

Venus and Mars

St. Sebastian

Sandro Botticelli's name is but a nickname of a plump boy, called a 'little barrel.' In his early teens he was apprenticed to Filippo Lippi

Madonna col Bambino by Filippo Lippi

In 1481, Pope Sixtus IV commissioned Botticelli (to fresco the walls) and Michelangelo (to fresco the ceiling) of the Cappella Sistina in the Vatican City. After return to Florence, intrigued by the new art of printing, Botticelli illustrated the Inferno
canticle of Dante Alighieri's (1321) La Divina Comedia.


Lasciate (leave) ogne (every) speranza (hope), voi (you) ch' (that) intrate (enter) (Abandon all hope, you who enter here)	One of the nine levels (Cocytus, Greek κωκυτός, lamentation) of Hell, a lake frozen by the flapping wings of Lucifer	Sample results of Dante's Inferno Test (2003) based on content analysis of Dante's Inferno.

and worked for the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo the Magnificent to fresco his villa.

Lorenzo de Medici ruled Florence from 1469 until his death in 1492. His mistress was Simonetta Vespucci , a wife of Marco Vespucci whom she married at the age of 15. Marco Vespucci was a cousin of Amerigo Vespucci (after whom, in 1507, Waldseemüller named the new continent "America"). Simonetta's portrait on the left (where she modeled Cleopatra) and the image below (detail from the Death of Procris) are by Piero di Cosimo . Simonetta (who died at the age of 22 from pulmonary tuberculosis) inspired several Botticelli's paintings, among them the Birth of Venus.

Lorenzo il Magnifico (1449 - 1492)

Simonetta Vespucci (1454 - 1476)

Girolamo Savonarola (1452 - 1498)

In 1494 France invaded Florence, the ruling Medici were overthrown, and Savonarola (r. 1494 -1498) emerged as the ruling sacerdot of the Christian Republic of Florence. Savonarola, a Dominican friar, was preaching about the impending Apocalypse (the millennium of 1500) presaging the Last Days of the world and maintained that the ongoing epidemic of syphilis was God's punishments for homosexuality. Aside of the the death penalty for homosexuality, Savonarola also sponsored many other draconic laws.

In 1497, Savonarola sponsored the Bonfire of the Vanities. Many books of the authors from the time of the Roman Empire, together with the objects considered to be connected with moral laxity, including paintings by Sandro Botticelli and Michelangelo Buonarroti have been thrown to the flames. Citizens of Florence became outraged by ongoing executions instigated by religious fanatics endowed with secular power and on April 8, 1498 attacked the Convent of San Marco, the seat of Savonarola government. Savonarola surrendered, was sentenced to death, hanged in chains from a cross and a fire was lit beneath him. He was executed in the same manner as many others during his reign. Niccolo Machiavelli witnessed and later wrote about Savonarola execution.

Subsequently, Medici regained control of Florence.

In 1504 Botticelli was accused of homosexuality

Enhanced detail from the 1495 Botticelli's painting The Calumny of Apelles

a charge which only a few years ago was life-threatening, however the charges were dropped. Botticelli continued to paint for the rest of his life which ended on May 17, 1510. The great, unfulfilled love of Botticelli was Simonetta Vespucci and he asked to be buried next to her. They both rest in the church of Ognissanti, Florence.