Sandro Botticelli: The Renaissance Artist Essay -- essays research pa

Sandro Botticelli, natural Alessandro Mariano Filipepi, was the son of a tanner. He was born in Florence around 1445 and showed a talent for painting at a very early age. Botticelli was first apprenticed under a gold-worker named Sandro, from whom it is believed he derived his nickname. At the age of sixteen, he served an apprenticeship with the painter Fra Filippo Lippi (Durant, 1953). From Lippi he knowledgeable to create the effect of transparency, to draw outlines, and to give his pictures fluidity and harmony. He as well as worked with painter and engraver Antonio del Pollaiuolo, from whom he gained his sense of line.By 1470, Botticelli had his own workshop and had highly-developed a highly personal style characterized by elegant execution, a sense of melancholy, and a strong emphasis on line. Botticelli spent some of his life working for the great families of Florence, including the Medici family. Botticellis name appears regularly in the account books of members of the Me dici family, for whom he painted banners, portraits, and altarpieces along with paintings of allegorical or mythologic subject matter. Likenesses of the Medici family are found in various paintings including Judith, Madonna of the Magnificat, and dread of the Magi.Apart from his works for members of the Medici family, Botticelli received many commissions from other prominent members of the Florentine society, including the Vespucci family. Botticelli first made a name for himself by his paintings of the Virgin and Child, and was given(p) a public commission to paint Fortitude which was to be hung in the Trade law court. In about 1481, Botticelli, along with Ghirlandaio, Perugino, and Cosimo Rosselli, was called to Rome by Pope Sixtus IV to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel with scenes from the Old and rising Testaments. Botticelli controlled the intention and executed three of the frescoes. The large scale of these works and the attempt to accommodate several stages of n arrative in one composition were not richly mastered and remain confused and disorganized (Gowing, 1983).In his paintings, Botticelli retained luxuriant objects and paid enough attention to the human body to create a sense of realism, but it is evident that he was more concerned with the ghostlike presence of his subjects (Magill, 1989). Because of this, his subjects were less individualized in terms of their clothing or bodily st... ...rty. Sandro Botticelli died in 1510 after painting Scenes from the Life of the Virgin, The Last Actions of St. Zanobi, and esoteric Nativity a few years earlier. . ReferencesBeckett, W. (2000, borderland). A meaningful life. U.S. Catholic, Vol. 65 Issue 3, 51.Bull, G. (1968). The Renaissance. newfound York The John Day Company.Durant, W. (1953). The Renaissance A taradiddle of civilization in Italy from 1304-1576 A.D. New York Simon and Schuster.Gowing, L. (1983). A biographical dictionary of artists. New York Facts on File, Inc.Magill, F. N. (1989). Great lives from history Renaissance to 1900 series. (Vol. 1). Pasadena, California Salem Press.Milani, J. (1996, March 7). Botticelli to Tiepolo. The Tampa Tribune, pp. 1.Moffat, A. (1999, December 6). A picture doesnt tell the whole story. New Statesman, Vol. 128 Issue 4464, 53.Stapleford, R. (1994, March). Intellect and intuition in Botticellis Saint Augustine. invention Bulletin, Vol. 76 Issue 1, 69.Harden, M. and Gerten-Jackson, C. Botticelli, Sandro 12 paragraphs. Retrieved March 08, 2001 from World Wide Web <a href="http//www.ibiblio.org/wm/pain/auth/bottice">http//www.ibiblio.org/wm/pain/auth/bottice