LECTURE 2 "Medici, Magi and Madonnas"
Botticelli: Defining Grace
•
1h 22m
Botticelli’s graceful treatment of the Virgin Mary in painting resulted in some of the most beautiful figures in the history of art. Often accompanied by equally beautiful angels or saints, Botticelli’s Madonnas are usually idealized and often painted in the tondo format. It may have been Botticelli’s beautiful early Madonnas that caught the eye of the Medici family. Although Lorenzo “il Magnifico” de’ Medici most likely did not commission Botticelli directly, his direct involvement and sponsorship of humanism and Neoplatonism created the cultural environment that inspired Botticelli’s later mythologies. Botticelli was also responsible for one of the most celebrated portraits of Giuliano de’ Medici, who was assassinated during the Pazzi Conspiracy, as well as two “Adoration of the Magi” paintings that include portraits of several Medici family members.
Up Next in Botticelli: Defining Grace
-
LECTURE 3 "The Roman Sojourn and the ...
In 1481, Botticelli was sent to Rome by Lorenzo “il Magnifico” de’ Medici to decorate the walls of Pope Sixtus IV’s new chapel, better known as the Sistine Chapel. Along with Perugino, Ghirlandaio, Rosselli, and Signorelli, Botticelli would produce one of the most important fresco cycles of the e...
-
LECTURE 4 "The Mythologies"
When Botticelli painted the “Primavera” and “Birth of Venus” around 1480, he opened a veritable Pandora’s Box. No longer were Renaissance artists limited to simply dressing Christian saints in togas and sandals, they could now gradually introduce the very literature, philosophy, and religion of t...
-
LECTURE 5 "Savonarola and the late Bo...
According to Vasari, “Botticelli was a follower of Savonarola, and this was why he gave up painting and then fell into considerable distress as he had no other source of income…so finally, as an old man, he found himself so poor that if Lorenzo de’Medici…had not come to his assistance, he would h...
