DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61542#0239
1446-1510] HIS POPULARITY 197
sympathy. This rare union of gifts made Botticelli,
during his life-time, not only the favourite painter of
the Magnifico, but the most popular master in Florence.
The extraordinary demand which sprung up for his
works towards the close of the century is shown by
the immense number of Madonnas, bearing the stamp
of his invention, but executed by imitators and assist-
ants, which may be seen in every gallery. And al-
though his fame died away in the blaze of Michel-
angelo’s renown, and his works were not held worthy
of preservation by the art-loving Grand-dukes of the
seventeenth century, the present generation has
witnessed a curious revival of Botticelli’s popularity.
Perhaps no painter of the Renaissance has so peculiar
a fascination for modern minds. Some of us are
charmed by his wonderful sense of life and movement,
by his mastery of line and decorative design. Others
are moved by the poetry of his imagination, by his
strong human emotion and mystic feeling. Alessandro
Filipepi was the youngest child of a prosperous tanner
named Mariano, who lived in the parish of Ognissanti,
and had four sons. The eldest of these, Giovanni, was a
broker by trade, and the surname of Botticello—which
he acquired from the barrel that was the sign of his
shop—clung to the younger members of his family.
Born in 1444, Sandro was first apprenticed to a gold-
smith, but soon began to paint, and worked under Fra
Filippo Lippi both at Florence and Prato. When, in
1467, the Carmelite went to Spoleto, Botticelli was
already an independent master, and Vasari tells us
that after Lippi’s death, two years later, his scholar
was held to be the best painter in Florence.
The earliest works we have from his hand are two
sympathy. This rare union of gifts made Botticelli,
during his life-time, not only the favourite painter of
the Magnifico, but the most popular master in Florence.
The extraordinary demand which sprung up for his
works towards the close of the century is shown by
the immense number of Madonnas, bearing the stamp
of his invention, but executed by imitators and assist-
ants, which may be seen in every gallery. And al-
though his fame died away in the blaze of Michel-
angelo’s renown, and his works were not held worthy
of preservation by the art-loving Grand-dukes of the
seventeenth century, the present generation has
witnessed a curious revival of Botticelli’s popularity.
Perhaps no painter of the Renaissance has so peculiar
a fascination for modern minds. Some of us are
charmed by his wonderful sense of life and movement,
by his mastery of line and decorative design. Others
are moved by the poetry of his imagination, by his
strong human emotion and mystic feeling. Alessandro
Filipepi was the youngest child of a prosperous tanner
named Mariano, who lived in the parish of Ognissanti,
and had four sons. The eldest of these, Giovanni, was a
broker by trade, and the surname of Botticello—which
he acquired from the barrel that was the sign of his
shop—clung to the younger members of his family.
Born in 1444, Sandro was first apprenticed to a gold-
smith, but soon began to paint, and worked under Fra
Filippo Lippi both at Florence and Prato. When, in
1467, the Carmelite went to Spoleto, Botticelli was
already an independent master, and Vasari tells us
that after Lippi’s death, two years later, his scholar
was held to be the best painter in Florence.
The earliest works we have from his hand are two