Sandro Botticelli's Influence

During the fifteenth century, Florence was filled with artistic, humanistic, technological, and scientific achievements, in the midst of a period known as the Renaissance. Founded on the rediscovery of the classical world, Renaissance culture focused on hero ideals and promoted the study of the liberal arts, largely centering on the individual’s intellectual potential. At this time, Florence was influenced largely by the powerful Medici family, who had political and financial influence over most of central Italy (Florence and Central Italy, 1400-1600 A.D.). Sandro Botticelli was born as Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi in 1445 in Florence, Italy. After finishing school, Botticelli studied under one of the most admired Florentine painters of the …show more content…
Additionally, Botticelli acquired many aspects of painting as well as stylistic types and compositions from Lippi including a certain fanciness in costuming, a linear sense of form, and a partiality to paler hues that were still visible even after Botticelli had developed his own strong color schemes (Lightbown). Botticelli’s work truly represents the spirit of the Renaissance because his paintings embody the new values of questioning authority, celebration of the individual, and focus on scholarship.
Botticelli’s paintings “Primavera” and the “Birth of Venus” demonstrate the Renaissance value of challenging authority by challenging the church as well as Christian values. Although pagan imagery such as Greek and Roman mythology grew more common during the Renaissance period, many priests and preachers did not approve. Among them was Girolamo Savonarola, an Italian friar and preacher who did not approve of paintings containing pagan and nude imagery, began to have an impact on the people of Florence (Bowen). The first example of Botticelli’s work that questioned authority is his painting “Primavera”, one of the best-known works of art that was produced during the Florentine Renaissance.