Botticelli

The melancholic Madonnas and allegorical paintings of Alessandro Filipepi, known as Botticelli (1445–1510), the quintessential Florentine painter, continue to attract ever more admirers. Botticelli is, first and foremost, a line—firm yet fluid at the same time; he also embodies a profound harmony with the doctrines of his time: no one has so skilfully translated the complexity of Neoplatonic thought into images, particularly in The Spring and The Birth of Venus in the Uffizi Gallery. Following the fall of the Medici, Botticelli burnt his *Venus* paintings and immersed himself in a mystical style.

Offering a fresh interpretation of the artist’s great masterpieces, placed in context alongside works from his studio, his contemporaries and his followers, this monograph reconstructs the artist’s creative output by situating it within his biography. Supported by extensive iconography and numerous close-ups of the works, this rich chronological and thematic analysis explores every facet of the painter’s work, placing him in his historical context whilst demonstrating how deeply his art can still move us today.