Primavera

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi was better known as Sandro Botticelli, courtesy of his elder brother Giovanni’s exceptionally ample girth.

Giovanni was fondly called Botticello ­– Big barrel – and Sandro was quickly referred to as Botticelli – Little barrel.

Barrel minor was born in Florence in 1445, the youngest of four boys to survive into adulthood. He was recorded as being rather intelligent, with a sharp wit, but tended to be easily bored at school. Sandro was restless, impatient and hyperactive, and this saw him withdraw from scholastic education by the time he was 14.

He managed to gain an apprenticeship as a goldsmith, before being fortunate enough to land a position at the studio of a leading Florentine painter, the brilliant Filippo Lippi.

This sound training enabled Botticelli to make paintings that avoided technical short-cuts, and they have survived in good condition over the centuries.

Botticelli quickly developed his own distinctive style of bold outlines, intricate detail and a two-dimensionality which he was soon to be well regarded for.

His apprenticeship with Lippi led to Sandro making excellent contacts, and the very start of his career in art saw him creating frescoes for Florentine churches and cathedrals.

His master was regularly commissioned by some of the leading patrons in Florence, and through him Botticelli met the Medici family, the most powerful in the country. Soon, he too would begin painting for them.

As the culture in Florence became increasingly based on religion in the late 15^th-century, Botticelli adapted his style to follow. He was to spend almost his entire career working on Medici commissions, and created some of his most ambitious works for them, including Primavera.

Botticelli’s reputation went from strength to strength following his connection with the Medicis, growing to the level that he was summoned by the Pope to help work on the Sistine Chapel. 

Although Michelangelo would come to hold the honour having painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Botticelli was entrusted with a key ‘Story of Jesus’ for the chapel wall, Temptation of Christ. It was to be the only time that he worked outside of Florence.

Primavera, or the Allegory of Spring, can be described as one of the most universally admired paintings in western Art, and one that has inspired more analysis than almost any other.

Depicted is the progress of spring, from right to left. The wind blows on the land and flowers bloom, watched over by Venus, the deity of April. Mercury, the protector of the garden, is seen to the left chasing away the last clouds before summer.

The work is clearly rich with allegorical meaning, but interpretation is still debated today. There is an orange grove, a Medici family symbol, and the Three Graces, who traditionally accompany Venus. Cupid aims his arrow at Chastity, who looks towards Mercury.

One common interpretation is that the painting suggests the realm of Venus – on the right blue-faced Zephyrus, the God of wind, chases Flora and fertilises her with a breath.

As a result, Flora then turns into the elegant woman scattering her flowers over the world. Venus, in the centre welcoming us, represents Humanitas, the benevolence which protects man. Botticelli filled the garden with no less than 500 plant species, including a luxuriant display of over 190 different flowers, a daunting task for botanists to identify.

This highlights the humanistic intentions of the work. Venus suggests the inherent goodness that distinguishes material from spiritual values. She promotes the ideal of a positive man, confident in his abilities and sensitive to the needs of others.

It is believed that Primavera was painted as wedding present to Lorenzo Medici (who humbly styled himself Lorenzo the Magnificent).                                                                      

It was then hung in the Medici country estate Villa di Castello, along with Birth of Venus, and the two masterpieces have stayed united ever since.

It was thought that the model for Birth of Venus, as well as several of the female figures in Primavera, was Simonetta Vespucci. Botticelli never married, and although he stated that the idea of doing so gave him nightmares, Simonetta was said to have been the love of Sandro’s life.

In fact she was already married, but nonetheless after her death Botticelli requested to be buried at Simonetta’s feet in Florence’s Church of Ognissanti.

Today, Primavera continues to hang alongside Birth of Venus in Florence’s wonderful Uffizi Gallery, and despite the work having darkened somewhat, it remains one of most enthralling images ever painted.

Poster reproductions of it adorn countless bedrooms, and Botticelli is so widely revered, his early Renaissance masterpieces have been re-worked countless times – by Andy Warhol, David LaChapelle, even Beyonce.

His work has permeated popular culture to the point of making an appearance in Elsa Schiaparelli’s fashion designs. Fitting then, that actor Peter Ustinov declared Botticelli would have worked for Vogue if he were alive today.

But in reality, by the end of his career he went from being one of the most acclaimed talents of the Early Renaissance, into a period of relative obscurity.

The High Renaissance artists were gaining increasing prominence; Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael had grown to become high priests of this era of Italian mastery, whereas Botticelli had slowly been passed over.

He was seen as failing to keep pace with the revolutions taking place in art, and the extraordinary paintings that were now being produced simply pushed Sandro into the shadows.

It wasn’t until the late 19^th-century that his work was reassessed, and the scale of his achievement was to be affirmed again, his reputation growing ever greater with every new generation of artists who studied the masters.

With one million posters of Primavera and Birth of Venus displayed on students’ walls around the world, it certainly suggests that to many, Botticelli made some of the most bewitching paintings in art history.