WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.040 If I asked you to picture the Italian Renaissance, 00:00:02.359 --> 00:00:03.819 what's the first thing that springs to mind? 00:00:03.899 --> 00:00:06.040 Oh, that's a great question. For a lot of you, 00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:08.779 I bet it's a specific kind of image. You're probably 00:00:08.779 --> 00:00:11.419 thinking of figures in these impossible flowing 00:00:11.419 --> 00:00:15.259 fabrics, hair catching a sort of stylized breeze. 00:00:15.779 --> 00:00:18.219 A sense of melancholy beauty, maybe? Exactly. 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:21.559 And almost certainly, a goddess emerging from 00:00:21.559 --> 00:00:24.780 the sea on a giant seashell. There's no escaping 00:00:24.780 --> 00:00:27.140 that one. We are, of course, talking about... 00:00:27.320 --> 00:00:30.199 the man who really defined the look of the Florentine 00:00:30.199 --> 00:00:33.359 Quattrocento, Sandro Botticelli. Indeed we are. 00:00:33.899 --> 00:00:36.640 Though, to be absolutely precise, we're diving 00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:39.740 into the life and work of Alessandro di Mariano 00:00:39.740 --> 00:00:42.659 di Vanni Filipepi. That is a magnificent mouthful 00:00:42.659 --> 00:00:45.079 of a name. It is, isn't it? But history, thankfully, 00:00:45.159 --> 00:00:47.630 shortened it to his nickname. Botticelli. And 00:00:47.630 --> 00:00:50.450 the funny thing is, that nickname literally translates 00:00:50.450 --> 00:00:53.490 to little barrel. A little barrel. And that name 00:00:53.490 --> 00:00:55.049 didn't even come from him, right? It came from 00:00:55.049 --> 00:00:57.109 his older brother, Gianni, who was maybe a bit 00:00:57.109 --> 00:00:59.670 on the rounder side. Exactly. The name just sort 00:00:59.670 --> 00:01:01.609 of stuck to Sandro, which, you know, it just 00:01:01.609 --> 00:01:03.409 goes to show you how randomly history brands 00:01:03.409 --> 00:01:06.549 its geniuses. But Botticelli, the genius behind 00:01:06.549 --> 00:01:09.829 the birth of Venus and Primavera, he's so much 00:01:09.829 --> 00:01:11.969 more than a name. He's an absolute icon. He is, 00:01:12.049 --> 00:01:15.909 undeniably. He's the visual symbol. of that entire 00:01:15.909 --> 00:01:18.829 golden age in Florence. But that brings us to 00:01:18.829 --> 00:01:21.849 this huge, huge historical paradox we're going 00:01:21.849 --> 00:01:24.409 to try and solve today. Which is? How can an 00:01:24.409 --> 00:01:27.250 artist of this monumental stature, I mean, someone 00:01:27.250 --> 00:01:29.829 whose work is instantly recognizable all over 00:01:29.829 --> 00:01:32.090 the world, have been almost completely forgotten? 00:01:32.599 --> 00:01:35.560 for 400 years after he died. That long, deep 00:01:35.560 --> 00:01:38.439 eclipse of his reputation, that's the real mystery 00:01:38.439 --> 00:01:41.060 at the heart of this deep dive. It is. So our 00:01:41.060 --> 00:01:43.340 sources, everything from the earliest, and let's 00:01:43.340 --> 00:01:45.799 be honest, often biased biographies like Fazari's, 00:01:45.879 --> 00:01:48.560 all the way up to modern art historical scholarship, 00:01:48.859 --> 00:01:51.760 they let us trace the full, really surprising, 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:54.260 and often dramatic arc of his career. We're going 00:01:54.260 --> 00:01:56.280 to try and move beyond just the famous mythological 00:01:56.280 --> 00:01:58.540 paintings to understand the whole complex man. 00:01:58.739 --> 00:02:01.439 We're talking his intricate political entanglements, 00:02:01.459 --> 00:02:03.890 his... really dramatic stylistic shifts and that 00:02:03.890 --> 00:02:06.549 long, dark shadow that fell over his legacy right 00:02:06.549 --> 00:02:09.090 up until the Victorian era. Our mission is to 00:02:09.090 --> 00:02:11.430 give you that comprehensive, detailed understanding 00:02:11.430 --> 00:02:15.409 of Botticelli, the artist, the man, the political 00:02:15.409 --> 00:02:18.150 player that, you know, most art history textbooks 00:02:18.150 --> 00:02:21.030 just don't give you in one go. OK, let's get 00:02:21.030 --> 00:02:22.909 into it. And we have to start where his story 00:02:22.909 --> 00:02:26.669 begins. In Florence. Right. And Botticelli was 00:02:26.669 --> 00:02:29.979 fundamentally. A local artist. This wasn't a 00:02:29.979 --> 00:02:32.280 man who traveled all over Italy, which many of 00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:34.479 his contemporaries did. No, his entire universe 00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:37.060 was centered on Florence and specifically on 00:02:37.060 --> 00:02:39.520 the Borgo Ognissanti neighborhood. It's truly 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:41.759 remarkable how localized his whole life was. 00:02:41.979 --> 00:02:45.020 He was born, he lived, he worked, and he died 00:02:45.020 --> 00:02:47.340 almost entirely within the confines of that one 00:02:47.340 --> 00:02:49.479 district. I mean, we know he spent his whole 00:02:49.479 --> 00:02:51.699 life there, and his final resting place just 00:02:51.699 --> 00:02:54.400 underlines that loyalty. He's buried in his parish 00:02:54.400 --> 00:02:57.490 church, Ognissanti, which means All Saints. That's 00:02:57.490 --> 00:02:59.770 about as deep as local roots get. And his family 00:02:59.770 --> 00:03:02.210 context seems pretty modest, which makes his 00:03:02.210 --> 00:03:04.789 eventual success all the more impressive. His 00:03:04.789 --> 00:03:08.389 father, Mariano Divani de Medio Filipepi, he 00:03:08.389 --> 00:03:10.770 started out as a tanner. But later he shifted 00:03:10.770 --> 00:03:13.310 into a much more refined and probably more lucrative 00:03:13.310 --> 00:03:16.930 craft, gold beading. And that shift to gold beading 00:03:16.930 --> 00:03:19.750 is absolutely crucial for his career. Why is 00:03:19.750 --> 00:03:22.560 that? Well, because it brought the family into 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:26.120 direct contact with two things. An aspiring artist 00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:28.479 in the Renaissance absolutely needed, first, 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:31.360 the materials themselves, but maybe more importantly, 00:03:31.599 --> 00:03:34.159 the wealthy clients, the people who could actually 00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:36.360 afford gilded artwork and commissioned painting. 00:03:36.599 --> 00:03:39.979 Precisely. Vasari, the 16th century chronicler, 00:03:40.039 --> 00:03:42.740 even notes that Botticelli's first training wasn't 00:03:42.740 --> 00:03:45.539 with the paintbrush. It was as a goldsmith. Which 00:03:45.539 --> 00:03:47.520 was a very common starting point for so many 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:49.400 masters in Florence, wasn't it? It wasn't about 00:03:49.400 --> 00:03:51.539 the painting itself, not yet. It was about precision. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:55.280 Exactly. And that goldsmith training. It instills 00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:58.780 this dedication to line and to clear contours, 00:03:58.780 --> 00:04:01.280 this ability to execute these finely wrought 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:03.719 details. All the hallmarks of his mature style, 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:06.639 the fact that the line, the contour, always seems 00:04:06.639 --> 00:04:09.060 more important than shadow or volume in his work. 00:04:09.199 --> 00:04:11.860 You can trace that right back to this early training. 00:04:12.159 --> 00:04:14.280 Absolutely. And, you know, while the Agassati 00:04:14.280 --> 00:04:16.240 neighborhood was home to workmen and weavers, 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:19.339 it also housed the powerful families who were 00:04:19.339 --> 00:04:21.759 essentially fueling the Renaissance. So his family 00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:24.430 rented from the Ruchelai, a major... banking 00:04:24.430 --> 00:04:27.850 and merchant dynasty. And critically, they lived 00:04:27.850 --> 00:04:30.490 right next door to the Vespucci family. That 00:04:30.490 --> 00:04:33.170 Vespucci connection is just vital. They were 00:04:33.170 --> 00:04:35.990 staunch allies of the ruling Medici family, and 00:04:35.990 --> 00:04:38.910 they immediately became these regular, powerful 00:04:38.910 --> 00:04:41.519 patrons for the young Botticelli. Just think 00:04:41.519 --> 00:04:43.939 about that. One of his neighbors was Amerigo 00:04:43.939 --> 00:04:46.399 Vespucci, the explorer. The man the Americas 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:48.660 were named after. He was literally rubbing shoulders 00:04:48.660 --> 00:04:51.480 with the financial, political, and exploratory 00:04:51.480 --> 00:04:53.740 elite of Florence right outside his childhood 00:04:53.740 --> 00:04:56.259 home. He was in the perfect spot for advancement. 00:04:56.620 --> 00:04:58.480 So he's in the right place, he has this foundational 00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:01.120 skill, and then he lands the perfect mentor. 00:05:02.020 --> 00:05:05.699 Around 1461 or 1462, he gets apprenticed to the 00:05:05.699 --> 00:05:08.379 great Fra Filippo Lippi. And Lippi was the ideal 00:05:08.379 --> 00:05:10.600 teacher, not just for his skill, but because 00:05:10.600 --> 00:05:12.699 he was already a huge favorite of the Medici 00:05:12.699 --> 00:05:14.779 family. So this apprenticeship gives Botticelli 00:05:14.779 --> 00:05:17.079 an invaluable entry point into the most powerful 00:05:17.079 --> 00:05:19.620 artistic patronage network in the entire city. 00:05:19.740 --> 00:05:22.860 And you can see the stylistic influence so clearly. 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:26.639 Botticelli's early work just soaks up Lippi's 00:05:26.639 --> 00:05:29.480 distinct characteristics, that intimate composition, 00:05:29.620 --> 00:05:31.800 those incredibly clear outlines and the development 00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:34.060 of figures that are beautiful, but have the certain 00:05:34.060 --> 00:05:38.079 almost poetic melancholy. The DNA of Lippi is 00:05:38.079 --> 00:05:40.639 in the faces Botticelli painted for decades. 00:05:41.079 --> 00:05:44.139 By 1467, he'd left Lippi's workshop and within 00:05:44.139 --> 00:05:46.300 just a couple of years, he had his own shop and 00:05:46.300 --> 00:05:48.439 was getting major independent work. Which led 00:05:48.439 --> 00:05:51.939 to this crucial early commission in 1469 for 00:05:51.939 --> 00:05:54.050 the painting of Fortitude. And this was a huge 00:05:54.050 --> 00:05:56.209 moment for him because it threw him into direct, 00:05:56.430 --> 00:05:58.829 very high stakes competition with an established 00:05:58.829 --> 00:06:01.490 artist, Piero del Palo Olo. Right. The commission 00:06:01.490 --> 00:06:04.990 was for a set of seven virtues for the Merchant's 00:06:04.990 --> 00:06:07.290 Tribunal. And Pagliolo had already started the 00:06:07.290 --> 00:06:09.649 series. Botticelli was brought in to finish it. 00:06:09.750 --> 00:06:11.870 So this was a clear professional challenge. And 00:06:11.870 --> 00:06:14.370 Botticelli just rose to the occasion, showcasing 00:06:14.370 --> 00:06:16.970 his technical superiority. Our sources from the 00:06:16.970 --> 00:06:19.370 time, they emphasize that Botticelli's figure 00:06:19.370 --> 00:06:23.019 of fortitude was just so much more elegant. artfully 00:06:23.019 --> 00:06:26.339 designed than Puliolos. One account even mentions 00:06:26.339 --> 00:06:29.480 fanciful enrichments so as to show up Piero's 00:06:29.480 --> 00:06:31.600 poverty of ornamental invention. Yeah, it is 00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:35.019 basically a historical burn. He didn't just meet 00:06:35.019 --> 00:06:38.000 the standard. He elevated the whole project and 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:40.319 made his competitor look old -fashioned. It was 00:06:40.319 --> 00:06:42.699 a clear declaration of his independent genius. 00:06:43.160 --> 00:06:46.379 And by 1472, he cements his new status by taking 00:06:46.379 --> 00:06:49.579 on his first apprentice, Filippino Lippi, the 00:06:49.579 --> 00:06:52.170 son of his late master. which shows loyalty but 00:06:52.170 --> 00:06:54.990 also professional standing. Their works from 00:06:54.990 --> 00:06:57.389 this period, especially all the Madonna and Child 00:06:57.389 --> 00:07:00.009 paintings, are so similar that scholars still 00:07:00.009 --> 00:07:02.050 find them hard to tell apart. His fame was now 00:07:02.050 --> 00:07:04.649 starting to spread beyond Florence. In 1474, 00:07:04.930 --> 00:07:07.189 he was briefly summoned to Pisa to fresco the 00:07:07.189 --> 00:07:09.389 Camposanto there. And even though those specific 00:07:09.389 --> 00:07:11.649 works don't survive, the simple fact that a city 00:07:11.649 --> 00:07:13.889 like Pisa was willing to pull him away from local 00:07:13.889 --> 00:07:16.870 projects, it just speaks volumes about his growing 00:07:16.870 --> 00:07:19.709 reputation. But the real climax of his early 00:07:19.709 --> 00:07:22.709 style. The work that truly exploded his profile 00:07:22.709 --> 00:07:25.790 within Florence was the Adoration of the Magi 00:07:25.790 --> 00:07:28.730 from around 1475. This is a masterpiece that 00:07:28.730 --> 00:07:30.790 works on two levels, isn't it? It's religious 00:07:30.790 --> 00:07:33.449 art, but it's also political portraiture. Exactly. 00:07:33.509 --> 00:07:36.269 It was placed in the very public, widely visited 00:07:36.269 --> 00:07:38.850 church of Santa Maria Novella, which guaranteed 00:07:38.850 --> 00:07:41.769 maximum exposure. And while it was commissioned 00:07:41.769 --> 00:07:44.410 by a money changer, it really served as this 00:07:44.410 --> 00:07:46.730 monument to the most powerful family in Florence. 00:07:47.899 --> 00:07:50.680 Of course. The cast of characters is just incredible. 00:07:50.959 --> 00:07:53.199 You've got the deceased patriarch, Cosimo de' 00:07:53.300 --> 00:07:56.279 Medici, as the oldest magus, with his sons, Piero 00:07:56.279 --> 00:07:58.540 and Giovanni, right there. And then the next 00:07:58.540 --> 00:08:01.339 generation, the current rulers, Lorenzo Magnifico 00:08:01.339 --> 00:08:04.300 and his brother Giuliano. It's a stunning visual 00:08:04.300 --> 00:08:07.620 roll call of Medici power, seamlessly woven into 00:08:07.620 --> 00:08:10.420 a devotional scene. And contemporaries just celebrated 00:08:10.420 --> 00:08:12.800 it for the sheer variety of facial angles and 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:15.339 expressions Botticelli captured. It proved he 00:08:15.339 --> 00:08:17.660 was a master of psychological depth, not just 00:08:17.660 --> 00:08:20.100 beautiful lines. And if you look closely, he 00:08:20.100 --> 00:08:23.120 even put himself in the painting. He did. Standing 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:25.639 prominently on the far right, making eye contact 00:08:25.639 --> 00:08:27.839 directly with you, the viewer. He was literally 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:30.439 placing himself, the successful artist, right 00:08:30.439 --> 00:08:33.860 inside the orbit of the city's rulers. And his 00:08:33.860 --> 00:08:37.240 immersion in that Medici orbit was total. He 00:08:37.240 --> 00:08:39.440 wasn't just hired to paint beautiful family portraits. 00:08:39.539 --> 00:08:42.179 He became this integral part of their political 00:08:42.179 --> 00:08:44.279 propaganda machine. And that meant getting his 00:08:44.279 --> 00:08:46.759 hands dirty. This is where the story gets really 00:08:46.759 --> 00:08:49.200 dramatic. And where Botticelli proved he was 00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:51.879 ready to take huge political risks for his patrons. 00:08:52.519 --> 00:08:57.120 The year is 1478. The Pazzi conspiracy. The brutal 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:00.100 attempt by the rival Pazzi family to assassinate 00:09:00.100 --> 00:09:03.220 the two key Medici brothers, Lorenzo and Giuliano. 00:09:03.379 --> 00:09:06.559 Giuliano was killed. Lorenzo survived and just 00:09:06.559 --> 00:09:09.440 unleashed this brutal retaliation. And Botticelli 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:11.379 was immediately commissioned to paint a huge 00:09:11.379 --> 00:09:13.820 fresco on the wall of the customs house right 00:09:13.820 --> 00:09:15.899 near the center of government. This was a form 00:09:15.899 --> 00:09:18.399 of public shaming known as pittura infamante. 00:09:18.620 --> 00:09:20.940 Which literally translates to painting of infamy. 00:09:21.080 --> 00:09:23.679 It was a Florentine custom where traders were. 00:09:24.029 --> 00:09:27.070 Conspirators who had fled or been executed would 00:09:27.070 --> 00:09:29.809 be painted in a degrading position, usually hanging 00:09:29.809 --> 00:09:32.870 by their heels, in a highly visible public place. 00:09:33.009 --> 00:09:35.309 So it was a visual act of state -sanctioned humiliation, 00:09:35.549 --> 00:09:39.269 a warning. A very powerful one. So Botticelli 00:09:39.269 --> 00:09:41.990 was painting the execution of the leaders of 00:09:41.990 --> 00:09:44.929 the Pazzi conspiracy. His artwork became this 00:09:44.929 --> 00:09:48.269 massive, terrifying public billboard advertising 00:09:48.269 --> 00:09:51.049 the absolute power of the surviving Medici. It 00:09:51.049 --> 00:09:53.809 just confirms his deep, undeniable alliance with 00:09:53.809 --> 00:09:56.629 the ruling faction. And that Fresco was so politically 00:09:56.629 --> 00:09:59.450 inflammatory that the pope himself protested. 00:09:59.629 --> 00:10:02.009 One of the figures depicted was an archbishop. 00:10:02.269 --> 00:10:04.230 Eventually, the entire thing was destroyed in 00:10:04.230 --> 00:10:06.429 1494 when the Medici were kicked out of Florence 00:10:06.429 --> 00:10:09.370 for a while. But for 16 years, Botticelli's image 00:10:09.370 --> 00:10:11.710 defined public justice in the city. It's such 00:10:11.710 --> 00:10:13.950 a stark contrast to the grace of Venus, isn't 00:10:13.950 --> 00:10:16.929 it? It is. He could do the idyllic, but he could 00:10:16.929 --> 00:10:19.509 also do the ugly, necessary work of political 00:10:19.509 --> 00:10:21.990 terror. His ability to handle that kind of high 00:10:21.990 --> 00:10:24.389 -stakes competition was proven again in 1480 00:10:24.389 --> 00:10:26.809 with the Ognissanti competition, right back in 00:10:26.809 --> 00:10:29.409 his home parish. That's right. His neighbors, 00:10:29.649 --> 00:10:32.110 the Visvucci family, commissioned him to paint 00:10:32.110 --> 00:10:35.500 St. Augustine in his study. and they placed it 00:10:35.500 --> 00:10:37.879 directly opposite a competing work, Saint Jerome, 00:10:38.159 --> 00:10:41.279 by Domenico Ghirlandaio. And Ghirlandaio was 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:44.200 rapidly becoming Botticelli's main artistic rival 00:10:44.200 --> 00:10:47.159 in the city. So that side -by -side rivalry must 00:10:47.159 --> 00:10:49.580 have been intense. You had the city's two leading 00:10:49.580 --> 00:10:52.620 masters competing for honor and patronage, knowing 00:10:52.620 --> 00:10:55.100 their work would be permanently compared. One 00:10:55.100 --> 00:10:57.240 art historian noted that this kind of direct 00:10:57.240 --> 00:11:00.120 competition always pushed Botticelli to put out 00:11:00.120 --> 00:11:03.340 all his powers. And his St. Augustine, his earliest 00:11:03.340 --> 00:11:05.980 surviving fresco, is considered one of his finest 00:11:05.980 --> 00:11:08.700 pieces. But we also get this wonderfully clear 00:11:08.700 --> 00:11:11.779 glimpse of his famous wit in this piece, don't 00:11:11.779 --> 00:11:14.539 we? We do. Vasari tells this story. If you look 00:11:14.539 --> 00:11:16.580 at the open book above St. Augustine, there are 00:11:16.580 --> 00:11:18.360 some what look like trivial scribbles. They're 00:11:18.360 --> 00:11:20.500 actually a practical joke. A joke in a church 00:11:20.500 --> 00:11:23.019 fresco. An inside joke, yeah. possibly aimed 00:11:23.019 --> 00:11:25.179 at the religious order running the church. A 00:11:25.179 --> 00:11:27.419 recognizable line reads, Where's Brother Martino? 00:11:27.759 --> 00:11:30.549 He went out. And where did he go? He is outside 00:11:30.549 --> 00:11:33.529 Porta El Prato. So it's a piece of overheard 00:11:33.529 --> 00:11:36.289 everyday dialogue just scribbled into the painting. 00:11:36.590 --> 00:11:38.470 Exactly. It suggests he had this sharp sense 00:11:38.470 --> 00:11:41.110 of humor, maybe a little irreverence. He was 00:11:41.110 --> 00:11:44.389 a master, but also a man of mischief. So he's 00:11:44.389 --> 00:11:46.870 established himself as this dominant, politically 00:11:46.870 --> 00:11:50.409 powerful and witty figure in Florence. And that 00:11:50.409 --> 00:11:53.009 combination of skill and influence leads directly 00:11:53.009 --> 00:11:56.350 to his greatest career milestone. The Summons 00:11:56.350 --> 00:12:00.240 to Rome. The Sistine Chapel Commission in 1481. 00:12:00.539 --> 00:12:02.700 And this wasn't just a prestigious job. It was 00:12:02.700 --> 00:12:05.480 deeply political. It was. It was brokered as 00:12:05.480 --> 00:12:07.559 part of a peace deal between Lorenzo de' Medici 00:12:07.559 --> 00:12:10.779 and Pope Sixtus V, following all the hostilities 00:12:10.779 --> 00:12:13.379 that erupted after the Pazzigi conspiracy. To 00:12:13.379 --> 00:12:15.720 seal the deal, the Pope summoned Botticelli, 00:12:15.779 --> 00:12:18.000 along with other top Florentine masters like 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:21.299 Irlandaio and Perugino, to fresco the newly completed 00:12:21.299 --> 00:12:23.580 chapel walls. The logistics of that must have 00:12:23.580 --> 00:12:26.519 been staggering. A massive, rapid endeavor. The 00:12:26.519 --> 00:12:28.740 artists were on incredibly tight deadlines. Each 00:12:28.740 --> 00:12:31.460 of the main narrative panels was enormous, about 00:12:31.460 --> 00:12:33.399 three and a half by five and a half meters. And 00:12:33.399 --> 00:12:35.500 they had to be done in a matter of months. Right, 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:38.039 which meant relying heavily on a skilled team 00:12:38.039 --> 00:12:41.340 of assistants. Botticelli contributed three of 00:12:41.340 --> 00:12:44.299 the large scenes to the paired cycles, illustrating 00:12:44.299 --> 00:12:47.220 the life of Christ and the life of Moses. The 00:12:47.220 --> 00:12:50.179 entire cycle was designed to assert papal supremacy, 00:12:50.580 --> 00:12:52.879 wasn't it? It was. It was all about showing the 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:55.539 continuity and divine origin of the pope's authority. 00:12:56.139 --> 00:12:58.840 But what's fascinating is how Botticelli approached 00:12:58.840 --> 00:13:02.419 the composition. How so? Unlike his peers, who 00:13:02.419 --> 00:13:04.740 sort of spread the narrative across the canvas, 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:07.980 Botticelli often imposed this triptych -like 00:13:07.980 --> 00:13:11.299 structure. He'd divide each huge scene into a 00:13:11.299 --> 00:13:13.799 distinct central group and two flanking groups, 00:13:14.059 --> 00:13:16.139 often showing three different incidents within 00:13:16.139 --> 00:13:18.139 the same panel. And that shows his learning, 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:20.730 his erudition. In The Punishment of the Sons 00:13:20.730 --> 00:13:23.309 of Korah, he includes this really prominent copy 00:13:23.309 --> 00:13:25.590 of the Arch of Constantine. Right, the great 00:13:25.590 --> 00:13:27.710 Roman triumphal arch. And that wasn't just some 00:13:27.710 --> 00:13:30.110 background detail. It shows that even when he 00:13:30.110 --> 00:13:32.429 was painting religious stories, he was consciously 00:13:32.429 --> 00:13:34.909 engaging with the language of classical antiquity 00:13:34.909 --> 00:13:37.529 and imperial power. He also designed 10 of the 00:13:37.529 --> 00:13:39.549 invented portraits of the earliest popes high 00:13:39.549 --> 00:13:42.009 up on the chapel walls. But here's the critical 00:13:42.009 --> 00:13:45.080 point. He was only in Rome for a very short time. 00:13:45.139 --> 00:13:49.259 A very short time. From July 1481 to May 1482. 00:13:49.740 --> 00:13:52.230 Then he went straight back to Florence. His heart 00:13:52.230 --> 00:13:54.309 and his workshop always remained in his home 00:13:54.309 --> 00:13:56.669 city. So the 1480s, right after he gets back 00:13:56.669 --> 00:13:59.629 from Rome, that's undeniably his most successful, 00:13:59.870 --> 00:14:02.309 his most creatively potent decade. Without a 00:14:02.309 --> 00:14:04.629 doubt. This is the period that defined him for 00:14:04.629 --> 00:14:07.549 all future generations, even if the works themselves 00:14:07.549 --> 00:14:09.909 were kept in private hands for centuries. We 00:14:09.909 --> 00:14:11.870 are talking, of course, about the monumental 00:14:11.870 --> 00:14:15.029 mythological subjects. Primavera from about 1482 00:14:15.029 --> 00:14:18.580 and the birth of Venus around 1485. And the scale 00:14:18.580 --> 00:14:20.340 of these two works, I mean, depicting subjects 00:14:20.340 --> 00:14:23.279 from classical mythology, it was truly revolutionary. 00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:26.379 You just didn't see huge secular mythological 00:14:26.379 --> 00:14:29.639 canvases in Western art on this scale since ancient 00:14:29.639 --> 00:14:31.940 times. They are the very definition of Renaissance 00:14:31.940 --> 00:14:36.000 humanism. And their aesthetic appeal is so immediate, 00:14:36.120 --> 00:14:39.620 so profound. The figures have this quality of 00:14:39.620 --> 00:14:43.600 idealized, dominant female beauty. Vasari famously 00:14:43.600 --> 00:14:47.279 defined his style as having Grace, a kind of 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:49.840 lightness and elegance that was instantly recognizable. 00:14:50.120 --> 00:14:52.559 And later in the 19th century, John Ruskin would 00:14:52.559 --> 00:14:55.220 focus on their amazing linear rhythm, you know, 00:14:55.220 --> 00:14:57.779 defined by those soft, continuous contours and 00:14:57.779 --> 00:15:00.539 that delicate use of pastel colors. It's the 00:15:00.539 --> 00:15:03.139 visual language that just grabs you. But beneath 00:15:03.139 --> 00:15:05.620 that immediate beauty, there's a deep, complex, 00:15:05.740 --> 00:15:08.379 philosophical layer. Largely revolving around 00:15:08.379 --> 00:15:11.039 Renaissance Neoplatonism. This is a crucial concept 00:15:11.039 --> 00:15:12.960 we have to unpack to really get these paintings. 00:15:13.860 --> 00:15:16.039 Neoplatonism, as it was championed. by the Medici's 00:15:16.039 --> 00:15:18.580 intellectual circle was this philosophical attempt 00:15:18.580 --> 00:15:21.659 to reconcile classical pagan thought with Christian 00:15:21.659 --> 00:15:23.940 devotion. The idea being that the earthly world 00:15:23.940 --> 00:15:25.940 was just a reflection of the divine spiritual 00:15:25.940 --> 00:15:28.620 world. Exactly. So how does that relate to a 00:15:28.620 --> 00:15:31.919 nude Venus riding a seashell? Well, for the Neoplatonists, 00:15:32.059 --> 00:15:34.120 Venus wasn't just the goddess of carnal love. 00:15:34.360 --> 00:15:37.580 She became Venus Urania or Celestial Venus, the 00:15:37.580 --> 00:15:40.379 personification of divine love, beauty, and charity. 00:15:40.700 --> 00:15:43.259 Ideals that were entirely compatible with Christian 00:15:43.259 --> 00:15:46.850 morality. Precisely. By depicting Venus, Botticelli 00:15:46.850 --> 00:15:49.490 could explore these profound Christian -adjacent 00:15:49.490 --> 00:15:52.350 concepts using the powerful visual language of 00:15:52.350 --> 00:15:54.889 the ancient world. It justified the monumental 00:15:54.889 --> 00:15:57.230 scale. So the scholars who commissioned these 00:15:57.230 --> 00:16:00.049 could enjoy the classical nudity while reading 00:16:00.049 --> 00:16:02.789 this deeply sophisticated philosophical meaning 00:16:02.789 --> 00:16:06.120 into it. You got it. However, the exact commission 00:16:06.120 --> 00:16:08.240 and the original location of these paintings, 00:16:08.399 --> 00:16:11.179 that remains a subject of really intense scholarly 00:16:11.179 --> 00:16:14.200 debate. Right, because Vasari saw them both together 00:16:14.200 --> 00:16:17.200 at the Medici Villa di Castello in the mid -16th 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:19.840 century, but earlier evidence suggests they had 00:16:19.840 --> 00:16:22.639 different origins. A Medici inventory from 1499, 00:16:22.779 --> 00:16:25.279 for instance, suggests that Primavera was initially 00:16:25.279 --> 00:16:28.740 painted for the townhouse of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco 00:16:28.740 --> 00:16:31.500 di Medici, Lorenzo il Magnifico's cousin. And 00:16:31.500 --> 00:16:33.460 that inventory suggests it was displayed with 00:16:33.460 --> 00:16:36.120 another mythological work, Pallas and the Centaur. 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:39.000 And the birth of Venus might have been commissioned 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:41.840 for a completely different patron or place altogether 00:16:41.840 --> 00:16:44.639 and only later consolidated with the others at 00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:47.879 the villa. So the idea that these two incredibly 00:16:47.879 --> 00:16:50.279 famous pieces were conceived as a single pair 00:16:50.279 --> 00:16:53.639 from the start is probably a later romantic interpretation. 00:16:54.059 --> 00:16:55.940 Let's look closer at some of the mythological 00:16:55.940 --> 00:16:58.799 works and the clues Botticelli embedded in them. 00:16:58.919 --> 00:17:02.759 Take Venus and Mars from around 1485. Its long 00:17:02.759 --> 00:17:06.190 rectangular shape strongly suggests It was a 00:17:06.190 --> 00:17:08.750 spoliera, meaning it was designed to be fitted 00:17:08.750 --> 00:17:11.150 into the wall paneling or furniture of a room. 00:17:11.210 --> 00:17:13.230 And here we get a beautiful little piece of visual 00:17:13.230 --> 00:17:15.230 detective work. If you look closely, you see 00:17:15.230 --> 00:17:17.690 tiny wasps buzzing around the head of the sleeping 00:17:17.690 --> 00:17:19.910 Mars. That's not just a random nature detail. 00:17:20.049 --> 00:17:22.769 Why wasps? That is way too specific to be an 00:17:22.769 --> 00:17:25.329 accident. Because the Vespucci family name, his 00:17:25.329 --> 00:17:28.109 close neighbors and important patrons, literally 00:17:28.109 --> 00:17:31.509 translates to... Little wasps in Italian. And 00:17:31.509 --> 00:17:34.250 they featured wasps on their coat of arms. Exactly. 00:17:34.470 --> 00:17:36.930 So since the painting shows Mars asleep after 00:17:36.930 --> 00:17:39.529 lovemaking, being teased by these little infant 00:17:39.529 --> 00:17:42.049 satyrs, it was almost certainly a celebratory 00:17:42.049 --> 00:17:44.690 piece commissioned for a Vespucci marriage. It 00:17:44.690 --> 00:17:46.750 just reinforces that family connection. It really 00:17:46.750 --> 00:17:49.549 emphasizes how intertwined art and civic identity 00:17:49.549 --> 00:17:52.289 were in Florence. These weren't just decorations. 00:17:52.329 --> 00:17:54.670 They were personalized symbols of lineage and 00:17:54.670 --> 00:17:57.190 political alignment. And we see that political 00:17:57.190 --> 00:17:59.509 alignment even more clearly in Palace and the 00:17:59.509 --> 00:18:02.509 Centaur from 1482. The composition shows the 00:18:02.509 --> 00:18:05.789 wild centaur representing untamed passion and 00:18:05.789 --> 00:18:08.849 brute instinct being subdued by the goddess Pallas, 00:18:09.049 --> 00:18:12.130 who embodies reason and wisdom. And Pallas's 00:18:12.130 --> 00:18:14.730 dress is emblazoned with the interlocking rings 00:18:14.730 --> 00:18:17.569 that were the specific symbol of the Medici family. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:20.019 So the interpretation is almost unavoidable. 00:18:20.140 --> 00:18:23.240 It's a clear statement favoring Medici, illustrating 00:18:23.240 --> 00:18:25.759 the triumph of reason and civilization over chaos. 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:28.200 It's powerful visual messaging. Beyond these 00:18:28.200 --> 00:18:31.359 huge mythologies, this era also saw him producing 00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:33.880 major narrative works, which required a completely 00:18:33.880 --> 00:18:36.079 different kind of storytelling skill. I'm thinking 00:18:36.079 --> 00:18:38.640 of the four panels illustrating Boccaccio's story 00:18:38.640 --> 00:18:42.119 of Nastagio degli Onesti. Commissioned in 1483 00:18:42.119 --> 00:18:45.519 by Antonio Pucci for his son's wedding. And again, 00:18:45.740 --> 00:18:48.509 the patronage is key. You can see the coats of 00:18:48.509 --> 00:18:50.589 arms of the Medici and the families involved 00:18:50.589 --> 00:18:53.890 right there in the third panel. These panels 00:18:53.890 --> 00:18:56.190 really show Botticelli's versatility, moving 00:18:56.190 --> 00:18:59.269 from the ethereal grace of Venus to this lively, 00:18:59.349 --> 00:19:02.470 sequential, visual storytelling. This period 00:19:02.470 --> 00:19:05.329 is Botticelli at the absolute height of his influence 00:19:05.329 --> 00:19:08.220 and mastery. The 1480s were Botticelli's absolute 00:19:08.220 --> 00:19:10.359 peak, financially and in terms of influence. 00:19:10.740 --> 00:19:13.319 But the next decade, the 1490s, that brought 00:19:13.319 --> 00:19:16.279 this massive political and religious upheaval 00:19:16.279 --> 00:19:19.059 to Florence. And that in turn triggered a dramatic 00:19:19.059 --> 00:19:21.220 and profound shift in his artistic style and 00:19:21.220 --> 00:19:23.359 his focus. That's right. Although the mythological 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:25.680 masterpieces dominate his modern reputation, 00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:28.279 his working catalog was always primarily focused 00:19:28.279 --> 00:19:30.180 on religious commissions, especially after he 00:19:30.180 --> 00:19:32.319 came back from Rome. And his reputation was so 00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:34.579 strong by then that many of these commissions 00:19:34.579 --> 00:19:37.259 were for larger more expensive altarpieces. So 00:19:37.259 --> 00:19:39.359 let's look at how his technique and his style 00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:42.500 began to evolve in these religious works, moving 00:19:42.500 --> 00:19:45.180 away from that polished humanism of the mythological 00:19:45.180 --> 00:19:47.920 era. We can start with the Bardi Altarpiece, 00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:50.920 finished around 1484. Okay, so here we see the 00:19:50.920 --> 00:19:54.299 Madonna and Child in a very traditional, quiet 00:19:54.299 --> 00:19:57.980 setting. A hortus conclusus, a closed garden, 00:19:58.079 --> 00:20:00.680 which symbolized the Virgin's purity. It's elegant, 00:20:00.839 --> 00:20:03.900 it's detailed, but already Botticelli is starting 00:20:03.900 --> 00:20:05.859 to play with the artistic conventions of the 00:20:05.859 --> 00:20:08.460 day. How so? Well, you can see his very relaxed 00:20:08.460 --> 00:20:10.920 approach to strict linear perspective, which 00:20:10.920 --> 00:20:13.180 was all the rage with his contemporaries. Right. 00:20:13.240 --> 00:20:15.339 The top ledge of the stone bench the Madonna 00:20:15.339 --> 00:20:17.930 sits on is clearly viewed from above. But the 00:20:17.930 --> 00:20:20.029 vases of lilies on it are shown as if you're 00:20:20.029 --> 00:20:22.210 looking up at them from below. So it's a deliberate, 00:20:22.349 --> 00:20:24.890 non -mathematical rendering. He's prioritizing 00:20:24.890 --> 00:20:28.230 design over absolute naturalism. Exactly. And 00:20:28.230 --> 00:20:30.190 that intentional deviation is important because 00:20:30.190 --> 00:20:32.589 it really foreshadows his later, more radical 00:20:32.589 --> 00:20:35.109 shifts. If we move to the San Barnabas Altarpiece 00:20:35.109 --> 00:20:38.130 around 1487, we see the clear emergence of what 00:20:38.130 --> 00:20:41.109 art historians call his emotional late style. 00:20:41.450 --> 00:20:43.490 What does that mean, emotional late style? In 00:20:43.490 --> 00:20:47.119 this work, the setting is much grander. a palatial 00:20:47.119 --> 00:20:50.220 heavenly interior, which shows his new interest 00:20:50.220 --> 00:20:53.019 in complex architecture. But the figures themselves 00:20:53.019 --> 00:20:55.619 change dramatically. The heads are sometimes 00:20:55.619 --> 00:20:58.359 larger, the expressions are varied and intense, 00:20:58.660 --> 00:21:00.960 and the whole thing feels more crowded. So the 00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:03.279 effortless grace of Venus is being replaced by 00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:05.920 something else. It's being replaced by this palpable 00:21:05.920 --> 00:21:09.319 sense of anxiety and fervent devotion. And that 00:21:09.319 --> 00:21:11.720 intensity gets amplified in the works that follow, 00:21:11.859 --> 00:21:14.920 like the Sestello Annunciation. That painting 00:21:14.920 --> 00:21:17.799 has a really somber background and an exaggerated 00:21:17.799 --> 00:21:20.599 expressiveness, especially in the dramatically 00:21:20.599 --> 00:21:23.660 bending poses of the Virgin and the Angel. The 00:21:23.660 --> 00:21:25.579 shift really culminates in works like the two 00:21:25.579 --> 00:21:28.420 Lamentations from the early 1490s. In these, 00:21:28.579 --> 00:21:30.940 the figures are crowded and tightly intertwined 00:21:30.940 --> 00:21:33.279 around the body of Christ. They consume nearly 00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:35.700 all the picture space. The visual language is 00:21:35.700 --> 00:21:39.200 moving closer to an intense, almost gothic emotionalism. 00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:41.460 Right, rather than the refined rationalism of 00:21:41.460 --> 00:21:43.240 the high renaissance that was just getting started. 00:21:43.660 --> 00:21:45.720 And you see a technical change in those Lamentation 00:21:45.720 --> 00:21:48.099 paintings, too. In how he treats the halos, right? 00:21:48.279 --> 00:21:51.000 Yes. In the Munich Lamentation, for example, 00:21:51.180 --> 00:21:53.940 all the figures except Christ are given these 00:21:53.940 --> 00:21:56.839 flat halos that are shown in perspective, a convention 00:21:56.839 --> 00:21:59.880 he used consistently from then on. It's a move 00:21:59.880 --> 00:22:03.000 toward a more symbolic, simpler... visual element 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:05.380 now we have to address the colossal influence 00:22:05.380 --> 00:22:08.920 of jerome savonarola this moralistic dominican 00:22:08.920 --> 00:22:11.980 friar who preached these fire and brimstone sermons 00:22:11.980 --> 00:22:15.059 in florence from 1490 until he was executed in 00:22:15.059 --> 00:22:18.079 1498 and his impact on florentine life and art 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:21.759 was just Vazari's account of Botticelli's devotion 00:22:21.759 --> 00:22:24.759 to Savonarola is legendary. He claimed Botticelli 00:22:24.759 --> 00:22:27.160 became a fanatical follower, one of the piagnoni, 00:22:27.299 --> 00:22:29.700 meaning snivelers or weepers. Right. That was 00:22:29.700 --> 00:22:31.980 the term for the friar's devoted followers. And 00:22:31.980 --> 00:22:34.000 Vazari claimed this devotion was ruinous for 00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:35.980 Botticelli's career. He says Botticelli gave 00:22:35.980 --> 00:22:38.440 up painting entirely, fell into poverty, would 00:22:38.440 --> 00:22:40.000 have starved if his friends hadn't helped him. 00:22:40.119 --> 00:22:42.480 So he paints Botticelli as this tragic artist 00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:44.960 whose talent was just abandoned because of religious 00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:46.960 zealotry. That story is certainly compelling, 00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:49.460 but modern scholarship provides a really crucial 00:22:49.460 --> 00:22:51.980 counterpoint. So it's not the whole story? Not 00:22:51.980 --> 00:22:55.119 at all. While Botticelli was undoubtedly moved 00:22:55.119 --> 00:22:58.500 by Savonarola's messages, I mean, many Florentines 00:22:58.500 --> 00:23:01.519 were, the idea that he quit painting and starved 00:23:01.519 --> 00:23:04.539 is now seen as a huge exaggeration. Why would 00:23:04.539 --> 00:23:07.259 Vasari exaggerate it? Because it makes for a 00:23:07.259 --> 00:23:10.339 better story. It's a narrative about the perils 00:23:10.339 --> 00:23:13.460 of religious fanaticism, which fit Vasari's own 00:23:13.460 --> 00:23:16.450 intellectual outlook. While Botticelli's production 00:23:16.450 --> 00:23:19.390 did slow down after the political chaos of 1495, 00:23:19.829 --> 00:23:22.630 we have concrete evidence that he was still available 00:23:22.630 --> 00:23:25.250 for work later. And what's that evidence? In 00:23:25.250 --> 00:23:27.910 late 1502, four years after Savonarola's execution, 00:23:28.369 --> 00:23:31.049 the powerful patron Isabella Desti was looking 00:23:31.049 --> 00:23:33.569 for a Florentine painter. Her agent reported 00:23:33.569 --> 00:23:35.789 back that Botticelli was free to start at once 00:23:35.789 --> 00:23:38.509 and ready to oblige, which indicates he was actively 00:23:38.509 --> 00:23:40.710 looking for work. But she didn't hire him. No, 00:23:40.730 --> 00:23:43.200 she chose to wait for Perugino instead. Which 00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:45.380 suggests Botticelli wasn't the first choice of 00:23:45.380 --> 00:23:47.720 the most sophisticated patrons anymore, but he 00:23:47.720 --> 00:23:50.059 was far from the starving hermit Vasari describes. 00:23:50.480 --> 00:23:52.759 Even if he wasn't starving, his style certainly 00:23:52.759 --> 00:23:55.420 underwent this radical, almost archaic transformation 00:23:55.420 --> 00:23:57.960 that put him totally out of step with the new 00:23:57.960 --> 00:24:00.619 high Renaissance. This is maybe the most fascinating 00:24:00.619 --> 00:24:03.359 part of his late career. While Leonardo and the 00:24:03.359 --> 00:24:05.740 young Michelangelo were obsessively perfecting 00:24:05.740 --> 00:24:08.940 naturalism and perspective, Botticelli deliberately 00:24:08.940 --> 00:24:11.750 moved backward. He embraced this simplified, 00:24:12.150 --> 00:24:14.950 non -naturalistic visual language. And the prime 00:24:14.950 --> 00:24:17.230 example of that is the Mystical Nativity from 00:24:17.230 --> 00:24:19.990 around 1500. That's his only dated painting, 00:24:20.170 --> 00:24:22.769 and it's cryptically inscribed with Greek text 00:24:22.769 --> 00:24:25.990 that references the upheaval of the period. It's 00:24:25.990 --> 00:24:30.609 very small, intensely personal, and highly idiosyncratic 00:24:30.609 --> 00:24:33.390 work. The iconography is unique, packed with 00:24:33.390 --> 00:24:35.430 details like these little devils hiding in the 00:24:35.430 --> 00:24:37.509 rocks below the scene. And visually, it just 00:24:37.509 --> 00:24:40.430 defies all the new rules of painting. The scale 00:24:40.430 --> 00:24:43.329 is completely inconsistent. Precisely. The Holy 00:24:43.329 --> 00:24:45.329 Family is painted much, much larger than the 00:24:45.329 --> 00:24:47.049 surrounding figures, even the ones that are visually 00:24:47.049 --> 00:24:49.609 closer to the viewer. This is a clear, conscious 00:24:49.609 --> 00:24:51.829 return to the visual conventions of the earlier 00:24:51.829 --> 00:24:54.309 Gothic period. It was a stylistic rejection of 00:24:54.309 --> 00:24:56.490 the High Renaissance. A complete rejection. And 00:24:56.490 --> 00:24:58.970 he also tackled powerful political allegory in 00:24:58.970 --> 00:25:01.549 this archaic style. We have to talk about the 00:25:01.549 --> 00:25:03.430 mystic crucifixion from around the same time. 00:25:03.799 --> 00:25:06.599 This piece is a direct allegory of the political 00:25:06.599 --> 00:25:09.000 and religious convulsions Florence was going 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:12.380 through. It shows Christ on the cross, but beside 00:25:12.380 --> 00:25:15.160 him is the Marzocco Florence's heraldic lion. 00:25:15.359 --> 00:25:17.759 The ultimate symbol of the Florentine Republic 00:25:17.759 --> 00:25:21.079 and its liberty. Seeing it in a painting was 00:25:21.079 --> 00:25:23.740 a direct representation of Florence itself. And 00:25:23.740 --> 00:25:26.359 in Botticelli's painting, an angel is shown violently 00:25:26.359 --> 00:25:28.460 whipping the lion. It's an incredibly powerful 00:25:28.460 --> 00:25:30.849 and disturbing image. And for a contemporary 00:25:30.849 --> 00:25:33.789 Florentine viewer, it would have directly represented 00:25:33.789 --> 00:25:36.170 the divine judgment being passed upon Florence 00:25:36.170 --> 00:25:39.250 for all its chaos. The expulsion of the Medici, 00:25:39.470 --> 00:25:42.309 Savonarola's rule, the French invasions. The 00:25:42.309 --> 00:25:44.309 whipping of the lion symbolized the suffering 00:25:44.309 --> 00:25:46.650 of the Republic under divine punishment. Exactly. 00:25:46.690 --> 00:25:48.789 His very last works, like the scenes from The 00:25:48.789 --> 00:25:51.309 Life of Saint Zenobius, they push this expressive 00:25:51.309 --> 00:25:54.490 distortion even further. He used non -naturalistic 00:25:54.490 --> 00:25:56.730 colors and figures that appear intentionally 00:25:56.730 --> 00:25:58.809 simplified and exaggerated in their emotion. 00:25:59.230 --> 00:26:01.309 These final pieces are a real puzzle for art 00:26:01.309 --> 00:26:04.289 historians. They are. Some compare them to the 00:26:04.289 --> 00:26:06.750 intense, devout simplicity of the earlier master 00:26:06.750 --> 00:26:10.109 for Angelico. Others see these tormented figures 00:26:10.109 --> 00:26:13.289 as sort of anticipating the emotional exaggeration 00:26:13.289 --> 00:26:16.869 of mannerism. It's a profoundly personal, often 00:26:16.869 --> 00:26:20.049 troubled and visually confusing final phase that 00:26:20.049 --> 00:26:22.170 ensured he was completely out of step with the 00:26:22.170 --> 00:26:25.140 tastes of the new century. Okay, so moving away 00:26:25.140 --> 00:26:28.039 from the grand altarpieces, we have to talk about 00:26:28.039 --> 00:26:30.519 the economic backbone of Botticelli's workshop. 00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:33.000 His steady income. Which came from producing 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:35.680 countless Madonna and Child paintings. Absolutely. 00:26:35.759 --> 00:26:38.420 These devotional images were enormously popular 00:26:38.420 --> 00:26:41.079 and provided this reliable source of income for 00:26:41.079 --> 00:26:43.079 his shop. They were the bread and butter of his 00:26:43.079 --> 00:26:45.700 business. And he didn't just paint them, he pioneered 00:26:45.700 --> 00:26:49.079 a specific format for them. The large round tondo. 00:26:49.279 --> 00:26:52.279 Yes, the tondo format, this large circular painting 00:26:52.279 --> 00:26:55.410 often over a meter. across was crucial to his 00:26:55.410 --> 00:26:58.089 legacy. Before Botticelli, this shape was often 00:26:58.089 --> 00:27:00.750 reserved for smaller decorative works. He elevated 00:27:00.750 --> 00:27:03.769 the tondo to a prestigious major artistic statement, 00:27:03.970 --> 00:27:06.289 usually reserved for the palaces of the ultra 00:27:06.289 --> 00:27:08.549 -wealthy. And you can see his mastery of the 00:27:08.549 --> 00:27:11.369 format in the Magnificat Madonna from about 1483. 00:27:11.769 --> 00:27:13.690 It's a perfect example. Mary is writing down 00:27:13.690 --> 00:27:16.009 the Magnifico, and she's surrounded by these 00:27:16.009 --> 00:27:20.109 incredibly beautiful wingless angels who look 00:27:20.109 --> 00:27:23.420 less like celestial beings and more like you 00:27:23.420 --> 00:27:25.500 know, fashionable Florentine youths with perfect 00:27:25.500 --> 00:27:27.259 hair and clothes. Which, of course, eventually 00:27:27.259 --> 00:27:30.779 drew some fire. It did. Samarola was known to 00:27:30.779 --> 00:27:33.160 complain bitterly that some church paintings 00:27:33.160 --> 00:27:36.640 made the Virgin appear dressed as a whore. suggesting 00:27:36.640 --> 00:27:39.380 Botticelli's high -fashion Madonnas were maybe 00:27:39.380 --> 00:27:42.240 a little too secularly beautiful for devotional 00:27:42.240 --> 00:27:45.119 use. His approach to secular portraits was equally 00:27:45.119 --> 00:27:46.900 distinctive, though it's important to clarify 00:27:46.900 --> 00:27:49.420 that he painted far fewer actual portraits than 00:27:49.420 --> 00:27:51.880 have been attributed to him over the years. Right. 00:27:51.960 --> 00:27:54.880 Many of those idealized female figures, the ones 00:27:54.880 --> 00:27:57.359 often linked by romantic gossip, to the legendary 00:27:57.359 --> 00:28:00.000 beauty Simonetta Vespucci. The uncrowned queen 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:02.059 of Florence. They probably don't represent specific 00:28:02.059 --> 00:28:04.769 people. They're idealized concepts of beauty, 00:28:04.910 --> 00:28:06.970 secular equivalents of his graceful Madonnas. 00:28:07.390 --> 00:28:10.009 But when he did paint a portrait, he followed 00:28:10.009 --> 00:28:12.890 specific conventions. Women almost always in 00:28:12.890 --> 00:28:15.410 profile, men in the popular three -quarters pose. 00:28:15.730 --> 00:28:19.089 And he favored very plain settings, often just 00:28:19.089 --> 00:28:21.509 an open window showing the sky, avoiding the 00:28:21.509 --> 00:28:23.849 detailed landscape backgrounds that other artists 00:28:23.849 --> 00:28:26.640 loved. The famous portrait of a man with a medal 00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:29.960 of Cosimo the Elder from 1474 is a great technical 00:28:29.960 --> 00:28:32.619 example. What's so unique about that work is 00:28:32.619 --> 00:28:35.140 that the medal the man is holding isn't just 00:28:35.140 --> 00:28:38.960 painted. It's an actual inserted gesso cast of 00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:41.960 a real commemorative medal of Cosimo de' Medici. 00:28:42.119 --> 00:28:44.539 So he's integrating a sculptural element right 00:28:44.539 --> 00:28:47.000 into the painting. It's a mark of his technical 00:28:47.000 --> 00:28:50.240 ingenuity and his continued use of Medici iconography. 00:28:50.700 --> 00:28:53.059 Beyond painting, Botticelli had this lifelong, 00:28:53.319 --> 00:28:56.019 almost obsessive interest in the great Florentine 00:28:56.019 --> 00:28:59.039 poet Dante Alighieri. He did. Not only is he 00:28:59.039 --> 00:29:01.000 credited with perhaps the most famous imagined 00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:03.680 portrait of Dante, but he also made this significant, 00:29:03.880 --> 00:29:06.720 if commercially difficult, foray into printmaking. 00:29:06.940 --> 00:29:09.240 He designed illustrations for the first printed 00:29:09.240 --> 00:29:12.680 edition of Dante's Divine Comedy in 1481. That 00:29:12.680 --> 00:29:15.680 print project, engraved by Baccio Baldini, was, 00:29:15.740 --> 00:29:17.799 well, it was something of a failure, wasn't it? 00:29:17.880 --> 00:29:19.940 It was. It was very ambitious. But only 19 of 00:29:19.940 --> 00:29:22.019 the required 100 illustrations were actually 00:29:22.019 --> 00:29:23.700 engraved and published. What was the problem? 00:29:23.940 --> 00:29:26.220 It seems to have been technical. Baldini, the 00:29:26.220 --> 00:29:28.700 engraver, just didn't have the skill to translate 00:29:28.700 --> 00:29:31.700 the delicacy and intricate detail of Botticelli's 00:29:31.700 --> 00:29:34.960 designs onto the copper plate. So he compensated 00:29:34.960 --> 00:29:37.319 for the failure of the printed edition by launching 00:29:37.319 --> 00:29:39.660 an even more luxurious, more ambitious project. 00:29:40.079 --> 00:29:43.400 The luxury manuscript Dante project. This time 00:29:43.400 --> 00:29:45.640 he illustrated the divine comedy on parchment, 00:29:45.900 --> 00:29:49.140 creating these highly detailed, exquisite drawings. 00:29:49.759 --> 00:29:52.519 And the 93 surviving pages now split between 00:29:52.519 --> 00:29:54.940 the Vatican and Berlin represent the bulk of 00:29:54.940 --> 00:29:57.519 his surviving graphic work. Even incomplete, 00:29:57.920 --> 00:30:00.920 they're just astonishing. So let's quickly talk 00:30:00.920 --> 00:30:03.960 about the man himself. Vasari gave us this impression 00:30:03.960 --> 00:30:06.359 that Botticelli wasted it all through carelessness 00:30:06.359 --> 00:30:09.160 after his religious conversion, implying severe 00:30:09.160 --> 00:30:12.009 poverty. But that financial narrative seems largely 00:30:12.009 --> 00:30:14.630 inaccurate. Right. He owned property, including 00:30:14.630 --> 00:30:17.329 a small country villa, and he continued to live 00:30:17.329 --> 00:30:19.730 and work in the family home right up until his 00:30:19.730 --> 00:30:22.990 death in 1510. He seems to have been financially 00:30:22.990 --> 00:30:25.869 comfortable, if not as business savvy as some 00:30:25.869 --> 00:30:28.829 of his rivals. And he never married. No. And 00:30:28.829 --> 00:30:31.109 he gave us that famous anecdote about his profound 00:30:31.109 --> 00:30:34.529 dislike of the idea. When his patrons suggested 00:30:34.529 --> 00:30:37.390 he marry, Botticelli recounted a dream where 00:30:37.390 --> 00:30:39.849 he had married. He woke up struck with grief 00:30:39.849 --> 00:30:42.210 and then claimed he walked the streets for two 00:30:42.210 --> 00:30:44.829 days to stop the dream from restarting. That 00:30:44.829 --> 00:30:47.390 is a remarkably visceral reaction to the idea 00:30:47.390 --> 00:30:50.150 of marriage. It is. And this lack of marriage, 00:30:50.250 --> 00:30:52.730 coupled with the tumultuous atmosphere in Florence, 00:30:52.869 --> 00:30:55.609 inevitably led to speculation about his sexuality, 00:30:56.009 --> 00:30:59.329 specifically concerning a charge found in the 00:30:59.329 --> 00:31:02.910 Florentine archives from November 1502. The charge 00:31:02.910 --> 00:31:06.250 simply reads, Botticelli keeps a boy, which was 00:31:06.250 --> 00:31:09.099 an accusation of sodomy. It's a serious accusation, 00:31:09.119 --> 00:31:11.559 but scholars are heavily divided on how to interpret 00:31:11.559 --> 00:31:13.839 it. What are the two main arguments? Well, one 00:31:13.839 --> 00:31:15.839 side argues it has to be dismissed as standard 00:31:15.839 --> 00:31:18.940 Savonarola -era slander. Accusations of sodomy 00:31:18.940 --> 00:31:21.240 were a common political weapon used to discredit 00:31:21.240 --> 00:31:23.319 rivals during that religiously charged period. 00:31:23.539 --> 00:31:25.839 The charge itself was likely never proven. And 00:31:25.839 --> 00:31:28.119 the other side? The other side cautions against 00:31:28.119 --> 00:31:30.819 dismissing it too quickly, noting that the allegation 00:31:30.819 --> 00:31:33.589 exists regardless of the political climate. And 00:31:33.589 --> 00:31:36.710 some also observe a certain homoerotic sensibility 00:31:36.710 --> 00:31:40.250 in his religious works, particularly in the androgynous 00:31:40.250 --> 00:31:43.009 grace of his nude young saints like St. Sebastian. 00:31:43.369 --> 00:31:46.650 So he dies in 1510 and he's buried as he wished 00:31:46.650 --> 00:31:49.690 in Ognissanti. And this brings us back full circle 00:31:49.690 --> 00:31:52.589 to the central paradox of our deep dive. The 00:31:52.589 --> 00:31:54.849 complete and utter eclipse of his reputation. 00:31:55.089 --> 00:31:57.390 It's extraordinary. Botticelli's reputation suffered 00:31:57.390 --> 00:31:59.930 longer and more thoroughly than virtually any 00:31:59.930 --> 00:32:02.910 other major European artist of his stature. His 00:32:02.910 --> 00:32:05.190 style, which was so personal and intentionally 00:32:05.190 --> 00:32:08.289 archaic in his later years, it just fell completely 00:32:08.289 --> 00:32:10.910 out of fashion as the high Renaissance masters 00:32:10.910 --> 00:32:14.000 Leonardo Michelangelo. Raphael came to define 00:32:14.000 --> 00:32:16.920 the new century. For centuries, his masterpieces, 00:32:17.119 --> 00:32:19.599 Venus and Primavera, remained tucked away in 00:32:19.599 --> 00:32:22.599 private Medici villas or obscure churches, overlooked, 00:32:22.880 --> 00:32:25.519 ignored, or misattributed. His paintings were 00:32:25.519 --> 00:32:28.000 truly ignored until the mid -19th century. They 00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:30.259 just didn't fit the tastes of the Baroque, Rococo, 00:32:30.299 --> 00:32:32.680 or neoclassical periods. They were seen as too 00:32:32.680 --> 00:32:35.460 linear, too flat, too primitive. So what was 00:32:35.460 --> 00:32:38.960 the spark? What ended 400 years of silence? The 00:32:38.960 --> 00:32:42.460 pivotal moment seems to be 1857 in England. The 00:32:42.460 --> 00:32:45.279 mystical nativity, that small, intensely personal, 00:32:45.460 --> 00:32:47.980 archaic painting, was exhibited at the massive 00:32:47.980 --> 00:32:50.480 Art Treasures exhibition in Manchester, where 00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:52.680 it was seen by over a million people. A million 00:32:52.680 --> 00:32:55.859 people saw this strange, slightly anti -modernist 00:32:55.859 --> 00:32:57.720 relic, and that triggered an entire movement. 00:32:58.099 --> 00:33:01.279 Exactly. The public visibility led directly to 00:33:01.279 --> 00:33:04.500 artistic and literary reappraisal. The pre -Raphaelite 00:33:04.500 --> 00:33:06.500 Brotherhood, who prized early pure Renaissance 00:33:06.500 --> 00:33:09.839 styles, they embraced him immediately. And crucially, 00:33:09.880 --> 00:33:11.740 the aesthetic movement, championed by the critic 00:33:11.740 --> 00:33:14.220 Walter Pater, took up his cause. And Pater's 00:33:14.220 --> 00:33:16.920 analysis captured that unique melancholic spirit 00:33:16.920 --> 00:33:19.720 of Botticelli's work for a new generation. The 00:33:19.720 --> 00:33:22.039 grace that Vasari sought was rediscovered, leading 00:33:22.039 --> 00:33:24.299 to this absolute flood of books and exhibitions 00:33:24.299 --> 00:33:27.960 between 1900 and 1920, solidifying his massive 00:33:27.960 --> 00:33:30.220 modern reputation. The resurrection was complete. 00:33:30.829 --> 00:33:33.190 From a man deemed obsolete and forgotten, he 00:33:33.190 --> 00:33:36.150 became once again monumentally valued, a status 00:33:36.150 --> 00:33:39.250 confirmed by that staggering 2021 sale of one 00:33:39.250 --> 00:33:43.210 of his portraits for $92 .2 million. The little 00:33:43.210 --> 00:33:45.190 barrel from Agnesanti is now one of the most 00:33:45.190 --> 00:33:47.710 expensive artists in history. So we've journeyed 00:33:47.710 --> 00:33:50.130 far beyond just the iconic image of Venus today. 00:33:50.250 --> 00:33:52.829 We have. We've seen Botticelli as the complex, 00:33:53.029 --> 00:33:55.690 deeply rooted Florentine figure he truly was. 00:33:56.230 --> 00:33:59.210 Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, a master 00:33:59.210 --> 00:34:01.990 goldsmith turned painter, completely entangled 00:34:01.990 --> 00:34:04.410 in the political machinery of the Medici. Even 00:34:04.410 --> 00:34:07.069 down to the level of public humiliation via Petura 00:34:07.069 --> 00:34:10.619 and Famante. He was a visual genius. capable 00:34:10.619 --> 00:34:14.360 of synthesizing complex pagan Neoplatonism with 00:34:14.360 --> 00:34:17.219 profound Christian devotion, using the language 00:34:17.219 --> 00:34:20.199 of mythology to talk about divine love. And yet 00:34:20.199 --> 00:34:22.840 he also showed this radical willingness to just 00:34:22.840 --> 00:34:25.119 abandon the aesthetic principles of the rising 00:34:25.119 --> 00:34:27.440 high Renaissance, the principles his rivals were 00:34:27.440 --> 00:34:30.599 perfecting in favor of a more expressive, emotional 00:34:30.599 --> 00:34:33.639 and personal archaic style. A style clearly driven 00:34:33.639 --> 00:34:35.980 by the turmoil of Savonarola's Florence. His 00:34:35.980 --> 00:34:38.460 career arc from the height of the Sistine Chapel 00:34:38.460 --> 00:34:40.940 and the mythological masterpieces to that profoundly 00:34:40.940 --> 00:34:44.039 troubled final style. It gives us a complete 00:34:44.039 --> 00:34:46.579 picture of an artist who was hypersensitive to 00:34:46.579 --> 00:34:48.619 the political and religious currents swirling 00:34:48.619 --> 00:34:50.869 around him. Currents that ultimately ensured 00:34:50.869 --> 00:34:53.250 his immediate work just fell out of favor. So 00:34:53.250 --> 00:34:55.170 what does this all mean for you grappling with 00:34:55.170 --> 00:34:58.610 art history? Botticelli was incredibly prolific. 00:34:58.650 --> 00:35:01.690 He produced dozens of popular devotional works 00:35:01.690 --> 00:35:04.369 and these revolutionary mythological canvases. 00:35:04.369 --> 00:35:07.289 And yet his reputation went completely dark for 00:35:07.289 --> 00:35:09.949 four centuries. Considering that such a foundational 00:35:09.949 --> 00:35:12.230 master of the Renaissance could be so thoroughly 00:35:12.230 --> 00:35:15.110 ignored, it really compels us to consider the 00:35:15.110 --> 00:35:18.679 sheer randomness of historical reputation. What 00:35:18.679 --> 00:35:21.179 other great innovative artists, prolific and 00:35:21.179 --> 00:35:23.260 successful in their own time, might currently 00:35:23.260 --> 00:35:26.119 be in their eclipse phase? Their masterworks 00:35:26.119 --> 00:35:28.920 gathering dust and overlooked collections, just 00:35:28.920 --> 00:35:31.539 waiting for their own 19th century Walter Pater 00:35:31.539 --> 00:35:34.539 or pre -Raphaelite moment of rediscovery. It 00:35:34.539 --> 00:35:37.119 makes you wonder what truly great forgotten masterpieces 00:35:37.119 --> 00:35:39.239 are simply waiting for history to finally decide 00:35:39.239 --> 00:35:39.679 to care.