Topical Tens: 17 May: Sandro Botticelli

Wednesday 17 May 2017

17 May: Sandro Botticelli

On this date in 1510, Sandro Botticelli died. I usually celebrate people on their birthdates, but his isn't known. Here are a few facts we do know about him, though.

Sandro Botticelli was born in 1445 - we don't know the date, in Florence. He was given the name Alessandro Mariana Vanni Filipepi.
His father was a tanner who had a shop in Santo Spirito. He had a brother, Antonio, who was a goldsmith. We know his brother taught him the goldsmith's art before he turned to painting.
He was about 14 when apprenticed to Fra Filippo Lippi. It's thought that as an apprentice, he may have gone to Hungary with his master to help produce a fresco in Esztergom ordered by the archbishop of Hungary.
By 1470, when he would have been about 25, Botticelli had his own workshop.
Botticelli never married. He claimed that the idea of marriage gave him nightmares. Some believe he was in love with a married woman, Simonetta Vespucci, who may have been the model for The Birth of Venus. He asked to be buried at her feet when he died. It might also have been because he was gay - a charge was made on him once that he "kept a boy". The charge was dropped, and may have been no more than slander.
He was popular in his time, particularly with the Medici family, and was commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel.
He got religion in later life, becoming a follower of Savonarola, a friar who preached in Florence. Savonarola was executed in 1498, after which Botticelli went downhill - he stopped painting and had no income.
Botticelli was called upon more than once in his life to serve on committees making artistic decisions. In In 1491, he served on a committee to decide upon a façade for the Cathedral of Florence. Later, In 1504 he was a member of the committee appointed to decide where to put Michaelangelo's David.
For Botticelli, beauty was more important than realistic portrayals, so his female subjects weren't always anatomically correct. They'd have longer limbs, narrower shoulders and be in impossible positions. “If Botticelli were alive now he’d be working for Vogue,” actor Peter Ustinov once remarked.
Botticelli has a crater on Mercury named after him and also an Asteroid discovered in 1996.