 Allesandro (Sandro Botticelli) Filipepi is primarily known as Sandro Botticelli
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Ad Code: 4
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from Auction House Records.
The Madonna and Child, with a pomegranate, in an alcove with roses behind
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
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compared to the extensive information about American artists.
 Sandro Botticelli was the youngest son of Mariano Filipepi; he was born in Florence, Italy in 1445. His name was really Allessandro de Mariano Filipepi. Botticelli was really just a nickname, meaning "little barrel" and was originally bestowed on his older brother. For some reason the name was passed on and adopted by the younger painter brother.
He was apprenticed to a goldsmith in his youth but left that art and studied painting, choosing Fra Filippo Lippi as his first master. The galleries of the Uffizi in Florence and the Louvre in Paris both possess circular Madonnas with Angels painted by him soon after the death of Lippi in 1469. Botticelli also practiced engraving to a limited extent.
Between the years 1481 and 1484 Botticelli was called to Rome by Sixtus IV to compete in the decorations of the Sistine Chapel with Perugino, Rossellli, Signorelli and Ghirlandajo. In succeeding years many commissioned frescoes, allegorical paintings and church walls and other works, sponsored mostly by the Medici family.
As heir to Pollaiolo's functional style, Botticelli turned Antonio's throbbing tension into almost musical rhythm, attaining the height of expression in the mythological
paintings of his mature period. His early paintings in fact reveal his constant striving to attain pure beauty, until becoming a follower of the monk Savonarola brought him to more sombre reflections and soul searching. This is reflected in the harsher, more austere style of his later years, permeated with a tremor of tragic desperation.
During his last decade his style must have appeared out of date and he seems to have done very little work. Without doubt the High Renaissance style obscured his achievment and, despite his earlier success, he had no follower of any merit. His most important pupil was the son of his own master, Filippino Lippi.
Botticelli died in Florence in 1810, having been reduced in circumstances in his old age and a pensioner of the Medici family.
Compiled and submitted August 2004 by Jean Ershler Schatz, artist and researcher from Laguna Woods, California.
Sources include:
"Phaidon Encyclopedia of Art and Artists"
From the internet, Artchive.com |
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