Sandro Botticelli 1445 - 1510

Sandro Bottecelli, born as Allessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi was born in 1445 in Florence. He assumed the nickname Sandro sometime before 1470.

Few facts were known about Botticelli’s early years, but it seems probably that at 13 he was apprenticed to a Goldsmith. He soon decided he wanted to paint, and about 1461 his father sent him to the workshop of Filippo Lippi, a renowned Florentine master who was then working in the Cathedral of Prato just outside the city.
Lippi was specialised in religious paintings and was notorious as the seducer of the Nun Lucrezia Buti. The product of their relationship was a son. He died in 1469.

After several works based on commissions, in 1472 Botticelli had become a member of the Compagnia di San Luca, a charitable confraternity for painters. And by the end of 1473, his reputation had reached Pisa, where he was summoned to paint a Fresco in the cathedral.

Mariano Filipepi (Sandro Botticelli) became one of the most popular artists of the Renaissance; He spent most of his native life in Florence. He was one of the most sought after painters in the city at that time and the head of a thriving art workshop.

Later in Botticelli’s life, his works gained a new emotional intensity, but he later fell out of favour and after his death his paintings were little regarded for centuries. It was only in the mid-19th Century that he was gradually rediscovered and soon afterwards recognised as one of the greatest artist of the age.

These are few of his works

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