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BOTTICELLI The Little Barrel
Apart from one year working for the Pope in 1441-1442, he spent all his life in Florence, which was ruled for the most part by the powerful Medeci family. Botticelli's inclination was to a pure linear style which he learned from Lippi and which stemmed from the Sienese school of painting.
Botticelli supported the fanatical monk Savonarola who ruled Florence from 1492-1498 and who advocated an end to the Florentine's sinful life and love of luxury, including the arts. After the Pope had Savonarola hanged and burned, Botticelli continued to paint but lost popularity and further details of his life are unclear.
Most of Botticelli's work was done on poplar panels, primed with gesso on which the drawing was incised with a sharp instrument. A monochrome underlay was added and the tempera color, thinned with egg yolk and oil. Well known for his sterling if a bit lopsided Venus, born from a sea shell, he was a popular portraitist. Clearly his style influenced the world of art extensively. His portraits reveal much of the depth of the subject's personality, at a time when the individual meant less than the whole body of social classes. This must be the Renaissance! That's what we sorely need now! A rebirth in Art! Mary Johnson
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Botticelli lived in Italy at a time when Medeival society was
giving way to an individualistism particularly fostered in the frag- mented political era in Italy of rival secular and religious city-
states. Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi was born in Florence in 1444 or 1445 where he was nicknamed "Botticelli" (little barrel), probably
after his brother.
