Biography of Botticelli

Sandro Botticelli was born in 1445 in Florence in Italy, the city of arts. He was the youngest of town brothers, His real name was Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi but was better known as Sandro Botticelli (little barrel). His eldest brother trained him as a goldsmith but Botticelli wanted to become a painter.

That is why he left his studies and apprenticed as an artist with filippo lippi at the age of 14. And by the age of 15 he had his own workshop.

But...how was his personality? well he was hyperactive and restless but with a natural talent, he was in love with a woman named simonetta Vespucio, he painted the face of his love on all the women in his paintings but he never got married. He painted religious and mythological scenes of Roman or Greek culture.

He was patronized by Cosimo and after Lorenzo Di Medici he painted pictures like “The birth of Venus, primavera some Medicis” portraits, Venus and Mars and Mystical Nativity among others. Later he was commissioned by the pope for the walls of the sistine chapel and was also responsible for the trials of Moses and the temptation of Christ. He used soft lines for drawing, perspective, proportion and 3-D.

Also he made the drawing of “the map of hell”(He used the silver point technique on a parchment) from a chapter of “the Divine Comedy” by Dante Alligeri.

When the Medicis were expelled from Florence, Bottichelli lost his reputation until the 19th century, when he was rediscovered, and today his paintings are in the UFFIZI gallery in Florence.