LECTURE 3 "The Roman Sojourn and the Sistine Chapel"
Botticelli: Defining Grace
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1h 17m
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 early Renaissance. Botticelli’s three paintings – “The Trials of Moses,” “The Temptations of Christ,” and “The Punishment of the Sons of Korah – introduced the innovations of early Renaissance Florentine painting to Rome, but also reflect the influence of the classical world on the art of Botticelli. This classical influence was also present in the works that Botticelli produced after his Roman sojourn, such as “The Story of Lucretia” in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
Up Next in Botticelli: Defining Grace
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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...
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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...
