“The Birth of Venus” by Botticelli. The Mystery of Divine Beauty

A short excursion into the Renaissance, where great people worked Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo Buonarotti, Titian. Let me give you short autobiographies of these great masters.

Sandro Botticelli was born in 1444 (or in 1445) year in Florence in the family of a tanner, Florentine citizen Mariano Filippepi. Botticelli was the youngest, fourth son of Filippepi.
Botticelli was inferior to many artists of the 15th century, some in courageous energy, others in the truthful accuracy of details. His images (with very rare exceptions) are devoid of monumentality and drama; their exaggeratedly fragile forms are always a little conventional. But like no other painter of the 15th century, Botticelli was endowed with the ability for the most subtle poetic understanding of life. Sandro Botticelli was the first to be able to convey the subtle nuances of human experiences. Joyful

In his paintings, excitement is replaced by melancholic dreaminess, gusts of fun - by aching melancholy, calm contemplation - by uncontrollable passion.
Unusually for his time, Botticelli felt the irreconcilable contradictions of life - social contradictions and the contradictions of his own creative personality, - and this left a bright imprint on his work.
Restless, emotionally sophisticated and subjective, but at the same time infinitely human, Botticelli's art was one of the most original manifestations of Renaissance humanism. Rationalistic spiritual world Botticelli updated and enriched the people of the Renaissance with his poetic images. Botticelli died in 1510, paresiv and the Medici expelled from Florence, and Savonarola, burned at the stake, and his own glory, impoverished and forgotten.

Here are some works of the great master: (c.1485), (ca. 1448), (ca. 1458) in the bottom right row you can see Botticelli himself, " " OK. 1485-90.

Interesting and educational link on the picture "Spring".Symbols and allegories of the painting "Spring" Sandro Botticelli.

Leonardo (Lionardo) da Vinci (1452-1519)- painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, scientist. Born April 15, 1452 in the city of Vinci, near Florence, the illegitimate son of a local notary, Ser Pierre Vinci, and a young peasant woman, Katarina. He was brought up in his father's house and moved with him in 1469. (or maybe as early as 1466) to Florence. For the first time his name appears there in the book of the corporation of Florentine artists dated 1472. 1469-1476. (and maybe until 1478) worked in Verrocchio's bottega, in 1480 he was mentioned as having his own workshop. The first evidence of independent work: order for an altar image for the chapel of St. Bernard in the Palace of the Signoria (1478). Leonardo da Vinci, perhaps more than all other figures of the Renaissance, applies the concept of homo universale. This extraordinary person he knew everything and could do everything - everything that his time knew and could do; in addition, he foresaw many things that had not yet been thought of in his time. So, he thought about the design aircraft and, as one can judge from his drawings, he came up with the idea of ​​a helicopter. Leonardo was a painter, sculptor, architect, writer, musician, art theorist, military engineer, inventor, mathematician, anatomist and physiologist, botanist... It is easier to list who he was not. Moreover, in his scientific pursuits he remained an artist, just as in art he remained a thinker and scientist.

The most famous works the great Da Vinci:
Portrait. 1478, « , « « , «

Raphael (Raffaello) Santi (Sanzio) of Urbino (1483-1520)- painter and architect, son of the Urbino painter Giovanni Santi. First artistic impressions- Urbino with a palace built by Luciano Laurana and decorated with the works of Piero della Francesca and other painters and sculptors. Since 1499 - in Perugia in the workshop of Perugino. In 1504 - the first trip, in 1505 (or 1506) - the second trip to Florence. At home in 1507. From 1508 Raphael in Rome, where in the same year work began for the pope in the Vatican and in 1511 at the Villa Farnesina for Agostino Chigi. In 1514, after death Bramante, Raphael was appointed chief architect for the construction of the Cathedral of St. Peter, in 1515, Commissioner of Antiquities (in charge of the protection of ancient monuments), in the same year he accompanied Pope Leo X to Florence (possibly he was also in Bologna). Raphael died in Rome on April 6, 1520. During the last five years of his life, assistants and students increasingly took part in the execution of numerous orders. The famous 1506, " ". 1505-06, « « , « « . 1515-19

***

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564), Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet. Outstanding Master Renaissance era. Born on March 6, 1475 in the Tuscan village of Caprese, where his father was the headman. He lost his mother early and was raised in a Masonic institution. When his father remarried, Michelangelo came to live with him in Florence. In this city where even the walls breathe high art, the boy was friends with students of painting schools and spent a lot of time copying the works of such masters as Donatello, Giotto, Masaccio And Botticelli. Despite his father's strong protests, he apprenticed to a fresco painter Ghirlandaio and soon began studying at the Lorenzo de' Medici school of art under the guidance of the sculptor Bertoldo.

Fleeing civil unrest resulting from the reign of Savanarola, Michelangelo first moved to live in Venice, then to Rome. Over the next five years of his life in Rome, he created the first of his famous works, including sculptures "Bacchus" and known to everyone "Pieta" in St. Peter's Basilica. IN 1500 At the invitation of the Florentine citizens, Michelangelo returned to this city in triumph.

For the next three years, he worked selflessly, almost locked himself in his workshop, which aroused a lot of intriguing expectations, and when in 1504 his monumental nude statue appeared before the public, everyone was indescribably delighted.

Between 1508 and 1512 he was busy completing a colossal project Julia II- paintings Sistine Chapel. After death in 1513 Pope Julius II, his heirs to the throne insisted on completing another project of funerary sculpture for their predecessor. Forty years of Michelangelo’s life were spent on this, including numerous alterations caused by the whims of customers. “All my youth went into this tombstone”, he wrote.

When he was almost sixty, dad Paul III gave him an order to create wall frescoes in the Sistine Chapel depicting Last Judgment. This took the next fifteen years. IN 1547 he received the post of chief architect in the reconstruction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and designed the huge dome - it remains one of the greatest masterpieces architecture.

Michelangelo died in Rome 18 February 1564, three weeks shy of 89 years old.
According to contemporaries, Michelangelo was a closed and self-absorbed person, subject to sudden outbursts of violence. He lived modestly, in privacy was almost an ascetic, went to bed late and got up early. Unlike other artists of his time, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, he was indifferent to fashion, preferring simple work clothes and comfortable shoes. It was said that he often slept without even taking off his shoes.

Although he considered himself primarily a sculptor, his brilliant genius was evident in everything he did, be it sculpture, painting, architecture or poetry. He wrote more than three hundred sonnets, dedicating many of them to young people, in particular Gerardo Perini and Febo di Poggio.
A small part of the works of the great maestro: . Fresco of the ceiling of the Sextine Chapel, . 1520-30g., . 1560

Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)) ( around 1480-1576), Italian painter of the High and Late Renaissance(Renaissance). Head of the Venetian school. He studied in the workshop of Giovanni Bellini, but was more deeply influenced by Giorgione(Titian worked with him and completed some of the paintings left unfinished after Giorgione's premature death). When Bellini died (1516), became official artist Venetian Republic, where he remained generally recognized as the first painter until his death...
The entire evolution of Venetian Cinquecento painting was reflected in creative biography Titian. Titian lived long life, and its latest period is the most significant. One of the early works" Flora» serene in mood... Later work (1538) , Portrait of the chief patron of the Inquisition, painted by Titian in the 1540s, indicates the master's ability to create characteristic images... Later works include “Penitent Magdalena”...(A Brief History of Arts, edited by N.A. Dmitrieva).
« In Titian, Venetian painting experiences its great time. The fame and influence of his works go beyond the borders of Venice; they fill Italy and the entire art-creating and art-loving Europe. Together with Michelangelo and Raphael, he belongs to the great ideals that the Italian High Renaissance bequeathed to future generations. But Titian was an ideal not because of theory and systematics, but more than anyone else because of the power of an individual work.”
Theodore Hetzer.

Several works of the great master:. 1550s, A Tsitiana,

Botticelli, Sandro (Filipepi, Alessandro di Mariano). Genus. 1445, Florence - d. 1510, ibid.

Sandro Botticelli is one of the most famous Florentine painters of the late 15th century. His art, intended for educated connoisseurs, imbued with motifs of Neoplatonic philosophy, was not appreciated for a long time. Near three centuries Botticelli was almost forgotten until midway through XIX century interest in his work did not revive, which does not fade to this day. Writers of the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. (R. Sizeran, P. Muratov) created a romantic-tragic image of the artist, which has since firmly established itself in the minds. But documents from the late 15th – early 16th centuries do not confirm such an interpretation of his personality and do not always confirm the data in the biography of Sandro Botticelli, written Vasari.

Self-portrait of Sandro Botticelli. Detail of the painting "Adoration of the Magi". OK. 1475

Sandro Filipepi (this is the real name of the master) was youngest son tanner Mariano Filipepi, who lived in the parish of the Church of All Saints (Ognisanti). Two Botticelli brothers - Giovanni and Simone - were engaged in trade, the third - Antonio - in jewelry. The origin of Sandro’s nickname, “botticelle” (“barrel”), is associated with the brothers’ trading activities. However, Vasari reports that this was the name given to the godfather of the artist’s father, Mariano, a jeweler to whom Sandro was apprenticed. There is another version, perhaps the closest to the truth, according to which the nickname passed to Sandro Botticelli from his brother Antonio, and it means a distorted Florentine word “ battigello" - "silversmith."

Around 1464 Sandro entered the workshop famous artist fra Filippo Lippi on the recommendation of his neighbor, the head of the Vespucci family. Botticelli remained there until the beginning of 1467. There is information that in the spring of 1467 he began visiting the workshop Andrea Verrocchio, and from 1469 he worked independently, initially at home, and then in a rented workshop. The first work undoubtedly belonging to Botticelli, “Allegory of Power” (Florence, Uffizi), dates back to 1470. It was part of the “Seven Virtues” series (the rest are filled Piero Pollaiolo) for the hall of the Commercial Court. Botticelli soon became a student of the later famous Filippino Lippi, son of Fra Filippo, who died in 1469. January 20, 1474 on the occasion of the feast of St. Sebastian's painting "Saint Sebastian" by Sandro Botticelli was exhibited in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Florence.

In the same year, Sandro Botticelli was invited to Pisa to work on the Camposanto frescoes. For an unknown reason, he did not complete them, but in the Pisa Cathedral he painted the fresco “The Assumption of Our Lady,” which died in 1583. In the 1470s, Botticelli became close to the Medici family and the “Medice circle” - poets and Neoplatonist philosophers (Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola , Angelo Poliziano). January 28, 1475 brother Lorenzo the Magnificent Giuliano took part in a tournament in one of the Florentine squares with a standard painted by Botticelli (not preserved). After the failed Pazzi plot to overthrow the Medici (April 26, 1478), Botticelli, commissioned by Lorenzo the Magnificent, painted a fresco over the Porta della Dogana, which led to the Palazzo Vecchio. It depicted the hanged conspirators (this painting was destroyed on November 14, 1494 after Piero de' Medici fled from Florence).

To the number best works Sandro Botticelli of the 1470s refers to “The Adoration of the Magi,” where members of the Medici family and people close to them are shown in the images of eastern sages and their retinue. At the right edge of the picture, the artist depicted himself.

Sandro Botticelli. Adoration of the Magi. OK. 1475. In the lower right corner of the picture the artist depicted himself standing

Between 1475 and 1480 Sandro Botticelli created one of the most beautiful and mysterious works- painting “Spring”. It was intended for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco Medici, with whom Botticelli had friendly relations. The plot of this painting, which combines motifs of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, has not yet been fully explained and is obviously inspired by both Neoplatonic cosmogony and events in the Medici family.

Sandro Botticelli. Spring. OK. 1482

The early period of Botticelli’s work ends with the fresco “St. Augustine" (1480, Florence, Church of Ognisanti), commissioned by the Vespucci family. She is a pair of Domenico's compositions Ghirlandaio"St. Jerome" in the same temple. The spiritual passion of Augustine's image contrasts with the prosaism of Jerome, clearly demonstrating the differences between the deep, emotional creativity of Botticelli and the solid craft of Ghirlandaio.

In 1481, together with other painters from Florence and Umbria (Perugino, Piero di Cosimo, Domenico Ghirlandaio), Sandro Botticelli was invited to Rome by Pope Sixtus IV to work in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. He returned to Florence in the spring of 1482, having managed to write three large compositions in the chapel: “The Healing of the Leper and the Temptation of Christ”, “The Youth of Moses” and “The Punishment of Korah, Dathan and Abiron”.

Sandro Botticelli. Scenes from the life of Moses. 1481-1482

Sandro Botticelli. Punishment of Korah, Dathan and Abiron. Fresco of the Sistine Chapel. 1481-1482

In the 1480s, Botticelli continued to work for the Medici and other noble Florentine families, producing paintings for both secular and religious subjects. Around 1483 with Filippino Lippi, Perugino and Ghirlandaio he worked in Volterra at the Villa Spedaletto, which belonged to Lorenzo the Magnificent. Dates back to before 1487 famous painting Sandro Botticelli “Birth of Venus” (Florence, Uffizi), made for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco. Together with the previously created “Spring”, it became a kind of iconic image, the personification of both the art of Botticelli and the refined culture of the Medicean court.

Sandro Botticelli. Birth of Venus. OK. 1485

The two best tondos date back to the 1480s ( round paintings) Botticelli - “Madonna Magnificat” and “Madonna of the Pomegranate” (both Florence, Uffizi). The latter may have been intended for the audience hall in the Palazzo Vecchio.

It is believed that from the late 1480s, Sandro Botticelli was strongly influenced by the sermons of the Dominican Girolamo Savonarola, who denounced the practices of the contemporary Church and called for repentance. Vasari writes that Botticelli was a follower of Savonarola’s “sect” and even gave up painting and “fell into the greatest ruin.” Indeed, the tragic mood and elements of mysticism in many of the master’s later works testify in favor of such an opinion. At the same time, the wife of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, in a letter dated November 25, 1495, reports that Botticelli was painting the Villa Medici in Trebbio with frescoes, and on July 2, 1497, from the same Lorenzo, the artist received a loan for the execution decorative paintings at Villa Castello (not preserved). In the same 1497, more than three hundred Savonarola supporters signed a petition to Pope Alexander VI asking him to lift the excommunication from the Dominican. The name Sandro Botticelli was not found among these signatures. In March 1498, Guidantonio Vespucci invited Botticelli and Piero di Cosimo to decorate his new house on Via Servi. Among the paintings that adorned him were “The History of the Roman Virginia” (Bergamo, Accademia Carrara) and “The History of the Roman Lucretia” (Boston, Gardner Museum). Savonarola was burned that same year on May 29, and there is only one direct evidence of Botticelli's serious interest in his person. Almost two years later, on November 2, 1499, Sandro Botticelli's brother Simone wrote in his diary: “Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, my brother, one of the best artists who were in these times in our city, in my presence, sitting at home by the fireside, at about three o’clock in the morning, he told how on that day, in his house, Sandro talked with Doffo Spini about the case of Frate Girolamo.” Spini was the chief judge in the trial against Savonarola.

Sandro Botticelli. Lamentation of Christ (Entombment). OK. 1490

The most significant late works of Botticelli include two “Entombments” (both after 1500; Munich, Old Pinakothek; Milan, Poldi-Pezzoli Museum) and the famous “Mystical Nativity” (1501, London, National Gallery) is the only signed and dated work by the artist. In them, especially in “Nativity,” they see Botticelli’s appeal to the techniques of the medieval gothic art, primarily in violation of perspective and scale relationships.

Sandro Botticelli. Mystical Christmas. OK. 1490

However late works masters are not pastiche. The use of forms and techniques alien to the Renaissance artistic method, is explained by the desire to enhance emotional and spiritual expressiveness, to convey which the artist did not have enough specifics real world. One of the most sensitive painters of the Quattrocento, Botticelli sensed the impending crisis extremely early humanistic culture Renaissance. In the 1520s, its onset will be marked by the emergence of the irrational and subjective art of mannerism.

One of the most interesting aspects of Sandro Botticelli’s work is portrait painting. In this area, he established himself as a brilliant master already at the end of the 1460s (“Portrait of a man with a medal”, 1466-1477, Florence, Uffizi; “Portrait of Giuliano de’ Medici”, ca. 1475, Berlin, State Assemblies). IN best portraits masters, the spirituality and sophistication of the characters’ appearances are combined with a kind of hermeticism, sometimes locking them in arrogant suffering (“Portrait of a Young Man”, New York, Metropolitan Museum).

Sandro Botticelli. Portrait of a young woman. After 1480

One of the most magnificent draftsmen of the 15th century, Botticelli, according to Vasari, painted a lot and “exceptionally well.” His drawings were extremely highly valued by his contemporaries, and they were kept as samples in many workshops of Florentine artists. Very few of them have survived to this day, but the skill of Botticelli as a draftsman can be judged by a unique series of illustrations for “ Divine Comedy» Dante. Executed on parchment, these drawings were intended for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici. Sandro Botticelli turned to illustrating Dante twice. The first small group of drawings (not preserved) was made by him, apparently, in the late 1470s, and from it Baccio Baldini made nineteen engravings for the publication of the Divine Comedy in 1481. Botticelli’s most famous illustration to Dante is the drawing “Map of Hell” ( La mappa dell inferno).

Sandro Botticelli. Map of Hell (Circles of Hell - La mappa dell inferno). Illustration for Dante's "Divine Comedy". 1480s

Botticelli began completing the pages of the Medici Codex after returning from Rome, using partly his first compositions. 92 sheets have survived (85 in the Cabinet of Engravings in Berlin, 7 in the Vatican Library). The drawings were made with silver and lead pins; the artist then outlined their thin gray line with brown or black ink. Four sheets are painted with tempera. On many sheets the inking is not completed or not done at all. It is these illustrations that make it especially clear to feel the beauty of Botticelli’s light, precise, nervous line.

Sandro Botticelli. Hell. Illustration for Dante's "Divine Comedy". 1480s

According to Vasari, Sandro Botticelli was “a very pleasant person and often liked to joke with his students and friends.” “They also say,” he writes further, “that above all he loved those whom he knew were diligent in their art, and that he earned a lot, but everything went to ruin for him, since he managed poorly and was careless. In the end he became decrepit and incapacitated and walked relying on two sticks...” Oh financial situation Botticelli in the 1490s, that is, at a time when, according to Vasari, he had to give up painting and go bankrupt under the influence of Savonarola’s sermons, documents from State Archive Florence. It follows from them that on April 19, 1494, Sandro Botticelli, together with his brother Simone, acquired a house with land and a vineyard outside the gates of San Frediano. The income from this property in 1498 was determined at 156 florins. True, since 1503 the master has been in debt for contributions to the Guild of St. Luke, but an entry dated October 18, 1505 reports that it was completely repaid. The fact that the elderly Botticelli continued to enjoy fame is also evidenced by a letter from Francesco dei Malatesti, agent of the ruler of Mantua, Isabella d'Este, who was looking for craftsmen to decorate her studiolo. On September 23, 1502, he informs her from Florence that Perugino is in Siena, Filippino Lippi too burdened with orders, but there is also Botticelli, who “we praise me a lot." The trip to Mantua did not take place for an unknown reason. In 1503, Ugolino Verino in the poem “De ilrustratione urbis Florentiae” named Sandro Botticelli among the best painters, comparing him with the famous artists of antiquity - Zeuxis and Apelles. On January 25, 1504, the master was part of a commission discussing the choice of location for the installation of Michelangelo's David. The last four and a half years of Sandro Botticelli's life are not documented. They were that sad time of decrepitude and incapacity that Vasari wrote about. The artist died in May 1510 and was buried in the cemetery of the Ognisanti Church on May 17, as records say " Books of the Dead» Florence and the same book from the workshop of doctors and pharmacists.

Other works by Botticelli:“Madonna and Child” (c. 1466, Paris, Louvre), “Madonna and Child in Glory”, “Madonna del Roseto” (both 1469-1470, Florence, Uffizi), “Madonna and Child and St. John the Baptist" (c. 1468, Paris, Louvre), "Madonna and Child and Two Angels" (1468-1469, Naples, Capodimonte), "St. interview" (c. 1470, Florence, Uffizi), "Adoration of the Magi" (c. 1472, London, National Gallery), "Madonna of the Eucharist" (c. 1471, Boston, Gardner Museum), "Adoration of the Magi", tondo (c. 1473, London, National Gallery), “Discovery of the Body of Holofernes”, “The Return of Judith to Bethulia” (both c. 1473, Florence, Uffizi), “Portrait of Giuliano de’ Medici” (Washington, National Gallery), “Portrait of a Young Man” (c. 1477, Paris, Louvre), "Madonna and Child and Angels", tondo (c. 1477, Berlin, State Collections), "Lorenzo Tornabuoni and the Seven liberal arts", "Giovanna degli Albizzi and the Virtues" - frescoes of the Villa Lemmi (1480, Paris, Louvre), " Female portrait"(1481-1482, London, private collection), "Adoration of the Magi" (1481-1482, Washington, National Gallery), "Pallas and the Centaur" (1480-1488, Florence, Uffizi), a series of four paintings based on the story of Boccaccio about Nastagio degli Onesti (1483, three – Madrid, Prado, one – London, private collection), “Venus and Mars” (1483, London, National Gallery), “Portrait of a Boy” (1483, London, National Gallery), “Madonna” with the Child" (1483, Milan, Poldi Pezzoli Museum), "Madonna and Child and Two Saints" (1485, Berlin, State Collections), "Madonna and Child and Saints" ("Pala San Barnaba"), "Coronation of Our Lady" ", "Annunciation" (all - c. 1490, Florence, Uffizi), "Portrait of Lorenzo Lorenziano" (c. 1490, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy), "Madonna and Child and St. John the Baptist" (c. 1490, Dresden, Art Gallery old masters), “Adoration of the Child” (c. 1490-1495, Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland), “St. Augustine" (1490-1500, Florence, Uffizi), "Slander" (1495, ibid.), "Madonna and Child and Angels", tondo (Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana), "Annunciation" (Moscow, Pushkin Museum), "St. Jerome", "St. Dominic" (St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum), “Transfiguration” (c. 1495, Rome, Pallavicini collection), “Abandoned” (c. 1495, Rome, Rospigliosi collection), “Judith with the head of Holofernes” (c. 1495, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), four compositions on the theme stories of St. Zenobia (1495-1500; two – London, National Gallery, one – New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, one – Dresden, Old Masters Art Gallery), “Prayer of the Cup” (c. 1499, Granada, Royal Chapel), “Symbolic Crucifixion" (1500-1505, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Art Museum Fogg).

Literature about Botticelli: Vasari 2001. T. 2; Dakhnovich A. S. Botticelli's work and eternal questions. Kyiv, 1915; Bernson B. Florentine Renaissance painters. M., 1923; Grashchenkov V.N. Botticelli. M., 1960; Botticelli: Sat. materials about creativity. M., 1962; Paslo D. Botticelli. Budapest, 1962; Smirnova I. Sandro Botticelli. M., 1967; Kustodieva T.K. Sandro Botticelli. L., 1971; Dunaev G. S. Sandro Botticelli. M., 1977; Kozlova S. Dante and the artists of the Renaissance // Dante readings. M., 1982; Sonina T.V.“Spring” by Botticelli // Italian collection. St. Petersburg, 1996. Issue. 1; Sonina T.V. Botticelli’s drawings for Dante’s “Divine Comedy”: Traditional and original // Book in Renaissance culture. M., 2002; Ulmann H. Sandro Botticelli. Munich, 1893; Warburg A. Botticellis "Geburt der Venus" und Frühling": Eine Untersuchung über die Vorschtellungen von der Antike in der italienischen Frührenaissance. Hamburg; Leipzig, 1893; SupinoL I disegni per la "Divina Commedia" di Dante. Bologna, 1921; Venturi A. II Botticelli interprete di Dante. Firenze, 1921; Mesnil J. Sandro Botticelli. Paris, 1938; Lippmann F. Zeichnungen von Sandro Botticelli zu Dantes Göttlicher Komödie. Berlin, 1954; Salvini R. Tutta la pittura del Botticelli. Milano, 1958; ArgonG.C. Sandro Botticelli. Geneva, 1967; In C, Mandel G. L "opera completa del Botticelli. Milano, 1967; Ettlinger L. D., Ettlinger H. S. Botticelli. London, 1976; Lightbown R. Sandro Botticelli: Compi, cat. London, 1978; Baldini U. Botticelli. Firenze, 1988; Pons N. Botticelli: Cat. compi. Milano, 1989; Botticelli e Dante. Milano, 1990; Gemeva C. Botticelli: Cat. compi. Firenze, 1990; Botticelli. From Lorenzo the Magnificent to Savonarola. Milano, 2003.

Based on materials from an article by T. Sonina

Sandro Botticelli. Birth of Venus. 172.5×178.5 cm. 1484 Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Before us is the beautiful goddess Venus. The wind gods Zephyr and Aura drive the shell to the shore. Where the nymph Ora of the seasons is waiting for her to cover her with a blanket with a floral pattern.

Venus is incredibly beautiful. This is one of the most captivating images. If the goddess of love really existed, this is what she would be like.

It couldn't be more beautiful. Except that Botticelli always depicts feet in a unique way. As for the rest, you can’t take your eyes off it.

How did he manage to do this? Is this “Venus” so famous only due to its external beauty? And why do we see this same face in many of Botticelli’s paintings?

Botticelli and Medici

The painting was created for one of the representatives of the Medici dynasty. It’s worth saying a few words about them. Because without them this masterpiece would not have happened.

The Medici were bankers and deftly ruled the city-state of Florence. But these people found the most noble use of their wealth.

They spent it on art. Because they understood that this is how they buy their immortality.

The most brilliant philosophers, artists and poets were brought to the court. They all ate from the Medici “trough”. Receiving generous rewards for your creativity.

Among them was Botticelli (1445-1510). He was sincerely delighted with his customers. Their wisdom and generosity. And he willingly created paintings for them. Including “Venus”.

Botticelli - an esthete with a capital A

Botticelli is an unsurpassed esthete. His paintings are not just canvases that are pleasing to the eye. This is a hymn to beauty.

The features of his characters are very pretty. Moreover, they are beautiful regardless of the era.

This is how the Pre-Raphaelite movement arose. That is, those who adopted the techniques of artists who worked before Raphael.

Here we see incredibly beautiful and sensual women. Just like Botticelli, these were muses. For example, Rossetti portrayed Elizabeth Siddal all his life. And Waterhouse is Muriel Foster.

"Titans of the Renaissance" - Pietà. Michelangelo Buonarroti. Premature death. Ceiling painting of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo died at the age of 80 at the zenith of his fame. David. Leonardo's talents. Leonardo da Vinci. Rafael Santi. Michelangelo. Saint Paul's Cathedral. Raphael. Mona Lisa. Titans of the Renaissance.

"Renaissance Theatre" - Shakespeare completes the creation process national culture. Commedia Dell'Arte. Pantalone mask. Feminine parallel Zanni is Servetta, or Fantesca - the servant. Carlo Gozzi (1720–1806), Italian playwright. Lazzi are acts of buffoonery, circus tricks, and magic tricks. Masks of lovers. Servant masks "Zanni".

"Renaissance Theater" - general characteristics era. Commedia dell'arte. Development of theater during the Renaissance. Treatise "Conversations about performing arts». English Renaissance. Spanish Renaissance. William Shakespeare. Gradually, dramatic motifs appeared on the stage of the Spanish Theater. Italian Renaissance. Shakespeare Theater.

“Renaissance lesson” - “The whole world is a theater, and the people in it are actors.” Raphael Santi 1483-1520 Sistine Madonna. Lady with an ermine. Christmas. Albrecht Durer. The look, full of curiosity, shines. Michelangelo. Bridges, valleys, groves, rivers And blue air. Last Supper. “One of you will betray me...” David. Utopia is a non-existent place.

“Proto-Renaissance in Italy” - From the 1290s, the rise of proto-Renaissance painting began, first in the work of Cavallini and then Giotto. The main role in Giotto's work belongs to man. Proto-Renaissance in Italy. In Dante's works, earthly life acquires an independent reality in which an independent person acts.

"Sculpture of Donatello" - Sculptural masterpieces Donatello. Lawrence. 1386-1466 Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi. Donatello - bright representative the early Renaissance in Italy. Bronze. 1430-1433 1447-1453 Relief of the Altar of the Cathedral of San Antonio. Prophet Habakkuk 1427-1435. Target. The artist managed to create a stunning, heartfelt image of human torment and sorrow.

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License Genres Chanson Yuri Kosagovsky worked on the track Description e s s e Museum of Rondism Album SOUNDS OF THE STREETS AND SOUNDS OF THE SOUL Studio * Zen Studio Text. YURI_KOSAGOVSKY from the publication Annunciation through the eyes different artists Manju community "about_art" Annunciation in the New Testament: "In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, from the house of David; and the name of the virgin was Mary. The angel entered to Her, he said, "Hail. O full of grace! The Lord is with You; blessed are You among women." But when she saw him, she was troubled by his words and wondered what kind of greeting this would be. And the Angel said to Her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for You You have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. , and His Kingdom will have no end. Mary said to the Angel: How will this be, since I do not know a husband? The Angel answered Her: The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Most High will overshadow You; therefore the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Behold. and Elizabeth, Thy relative, is called barren, and she conceived a son in her old age, and she is already in her sixth month, for with God no word will fail. Then Mary said: Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word. And the Angel departed from Her." (Luke, 1:26-38) Annunciation in the Koran: “And We sent to her Our Spirit, who appeared before her in the form of a man. She said: “I seek salvation from you from the All-Merciful Lord. If you are God-fearing, then do not come one step closer to me." He replied: "Indeed, I am only a messenger from your Lord to give you a blessed son as a gift." She exclaimed: "How can I have a child when he comes to me? I’ve never been touched by any man and I’ve never been a harlot?!” He answered: “Your Lord so wished and said: “This is not difficult for Me. This is so that your son will become a sign for people and a mercy from Us. And this has already been determined by Me.” (Quran 19:16-21) illustrations by Leonardo and Botticelli for the essay are taken from the same publication - Y.K. =========== ===================================================== ===================== fragment HOW I DIDN’T UNDERSTAND THE RENAISSANCE AGE.. interview ====== ===================================================== ============================ art and craftsmanship on the example of Leonardo and Botticelli excerpt from the “Italian Notebook” (also a fragment from the film “Streets” going to the sea" Well, we walked through the museum. Giotto’s simplicity pleased, attracted, enjoyed and calmed, but then... many halls with heels, elbows, torsos writhing in the most graceful movements (if “grace” in Italian means “thank you”, then “Gracefulness” comes from thanksgiving... but it was unclear who and what these figures were “thanking” for with their graceful curves? ) ...absolutely everyone, and even Botticelli, who has the gift of dreaminess, fantasy and poetry - and he sold his gift and inspiration for money. Impression butcher shops carried endless compositions in capes and without capes, all these torsos, foreheads, noses, elbows and heels in different combinations and turns asked to pay money for them and hang them in their halls to show off in front of guests and neighbors (in count and princely mansions) : you have paintings with 6 heels, three elbows, 6 foreheads - and although we have 5 heels (one less), but 9 elbows and 9 foreheads and three torsos... etc. All these Renaissance artists, having quickly mastered the technology of heels and torsos, filled the walls with them - and poor humanity, the Chinese, the Germans, the Danes, the English... stand in the museums of Florence to look at this triumph of poses. Even in the most intelligible of them, Botticelli, the angel, probably conveying the news of the future birth of the god-son, wriggles in graceful poses and the woman (the future Mother of God) responds to him in the same way, with very complex movements of the torso, the line of the legs and arms, as if this is not a scene informing about the most important event on Earth, and the scene may be of seduction and vague coquetry. The audience experiences an incomprehensible and unconditional delight that has nothing to do with Christianity, life and poetry - and these are just vaguely erotic hints. At the same time, there are so many inflated folds on the clothes of the angels, as if the wind is blowing from behind - and it is clear what kind of wind this is, an insatiable desire to get a lot of money. Botticelli Another thing is the same scene from Leonardo, it’s as if he deliberately decided to show who is who in art, who is the dealer in folds and poses - and who is the sublime artist, whose compositions have no price. Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo has not the slightest fuss to show anything superfluous, everything is subordinated to the high spirit of earthly and unearthly beauty, the angel’s face alone is already breathtaking, and his movements of his hands and figure are full of restraint and purity, admiration and sublimity - that’s truly a triumph of spirit, mind and faith. In short, the eye took a break from false poses only in a few paintings. Rembrandt - admiring the beauty of everyday moments of life, Goya - transfixed by the beauty of the secrets hidden behind any moment, Chardin - looking lovingly at everything in this world, and at a lying book, and at a boy building a falling card fence... (ten names may not be will be able to recruit) ... Leonardo - an enchanted explorer, whose poetry of the soul embraced all forms of human knowledge (art, science, invention and engineering), El Greco - a strange (crazy maybe) sincere and sublime in his faith, mentioned five, five could not to notice in the crowd of paintings with heels, elbows, shoulders and noses... oh yes, I’ll mention the sixth, the great Giotto - a stingy minimalist, the discoverer of realism with its penumbras, an unshakable believer in Christ in the celebration of earthly life and in the celebration of unearthly existence... Wouldn’t it be easier for everyone place sincere and honest artist-geniuses on one floor, and tradesmen in the craft of drawing angles, heels and elbows on another? And this question should be asked to museums around the world. And in Russia and in Paris, and in London, etc. And go to some halls for high spiritual art, and to other halls, like going to a cabinet of curiosities with deviations from human nature, when draped torsos are drawn for money, which signify nothing other than naive fraud, i.e. halls where artists mislead both the viewer and themselves. One can say it in a less offensive way: in some rooms art, sincerity, poetry are offered for viewing, and secondly, only art technologies are presented. Original message by NADYNROM And yet, it is unlikely that the world would have become a better place without the work of Botticelli, Raphael and others... we are only talking about understanding the same plot - the holy conception ============== ========================= but - it would be boring among only the sublime Leonardo of Raphael and Botticelli - the hymn of love between a man and a woman in Leonardo - a deep secret and the sublimity of the holy conception can also be a hymn of love - but on a higher spiritual level, if there were no mistakes, the path to the truth would not be so clearly visible - the world will not become better if there are only atheists or only believers. deep topic set - after all, even Christ says: Lord, carry this cup past me, and it would seem that he should joyfully go to the cross - so that the truth can shine; reflection is always based on weighing the heart and mind on the scales: both pros and cons, and understanding the truth, you admire the beautiful more in the world we understand, for example, that strong furniture requires oak, but it is not worth populating the entire planet with oak trees - you also need bread, as well as Raphael and Botticelli - I personally need them in order to understand that it is not enough to simply admire the charms of a woman, no matter how beautiful she is, but we also need a connection of two worlds (both the female and the male world) in the area of ​​thoughts... dreams... then this is not superficial beauty but deep - like Leonardo, but again you are right - it would be boring among only the sublime Leonardo, so you just need to - without sublimity and without a selfish desire to possess, to love, but like children, again the formula of Christ is universal (“you will not be like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven”) the sublimity itself will come - if love will not come - there will be friendly love, i.e. - friendship, but a person needs both, because he is a social being... but love is a matter of life and death and love is still the final goal, therefore, the weighted is always the invisible and most important core of a person, therefore it is still more precious with all the benefits of Botticelli and Raphael - after all, Leonardo...