Botticelli, Sandro - Life

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filippi, better known as Sandro Botticelli is one of the masters of the Florentine School during the early Renaissance (15th century). For a long period after his death his fame was eclipsed and only in the 19th century was finally recognized as a major exponent of the linear elegance typical of his age. Nowadays his works rank among the greatest masterpieces of Italian art.
Not much is known about Botticelli’s life, but it is generally acknowledged that he received a better education than many contemporary artists. Born in 1445, he started his career around 1462 as an apprentice of Fra Filippo Lippi, whose acute sensibility to colour and great technical ability in decipting the human figure he quickly absorbed.
In 1481 was summoned by Pope Sixtus IV to provide frescoes for the walls of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

Back in Florence, he decorated Lorenzo the Magnificient’a villa near Volterra and in the mid 1480s he produced some much admired frescoes now visible in many Florentine churches. His later work is generally judged less effective and his fame declined rapidly. He died in 1510.