Zöllner, Frank: Botticelli: Images of Love and Spring (1998)

Medici, the most important fam-
ilies in the city at that time, who
over the vears commissioned the
majority of Botticelli’s mytholog-
ical paintings.

1470-1473

From 1470 onwards Botticelli
runs his own studio in his father’s
house, where Filippino Lippi, the
son of his teacher, was also later
to work. In June 1470 he receives
his earliest known major commis-
sion: two panel paintings repre-
senting the Virtues for the meet-
ing hall of the governing guild
authority in Florence. Only one
of these panels was completed,
namely Fortezza (Fortitude), which

can be seen today in the Uffizi
Gallery. In 1472 he becomes a
member of the Compagnia di
San Luca, a lay brotherhood of
painters. In circa 1473 he com-
pletes his St. Sebastian panel for the
Florentine church Santa Maria
Maggiore, which is now located
in the Gemäldegalerie Berlin.

1474

Botticelli’s first commission out-
side of Florence takes him to the
nearby town of Pisa, where he is
to paint a number of frescoes for
the Camposanto, one of the
oldest and most important cem-
eteries in central Italy. Instead of
carrying out the frescoes.

Adoration of the Magi,
c-1475-76

Portrait oj Ciuliano ie’Meiici,
1476-78

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