The secrets of Botticelli's drawings
//Summary - Level-C2//
Botticelli, renowned for mythological masterpieces, remains enigmatic due to limited writings about his creative process. Curator Furio Rinaldi sheds light on Botticelli's drawings, providing intimate insights into the artist's development and influences. Trained under Fra Filippo Lippi, Botticelli's workshop experience and meticulous drawings reveal his evolution. The late Mystic Nativity reflects a shift influenced by Savonarola's moral reforms. Botticelli's artistic legacy endures despite falling out of favour in later years, celebrated for his graceful lines and expressive storytelling.
//10 perspectives//
1. Botticelli's Enigmatic Drawings:
Like a few others, Botticelli is entrenched in our collective imagination as the embodiment of Renaissance Florence. However, his drawings remain relatively unknown.
2. Unveiling Botticelli's Creative Process:
Designing a painting requires understanding how Botticelli conceived his ideas. Though he left no written record, his drawings served as a tool to unravel his creative process.
3. Intimacy through Drawings:
Furio Rinaldi, the curator of drawings and prints at the Fine Arts Museums of San, emphasises the intimate understanding and unfiltered contact that drawings provide.
4. Botticelli's Humble Origins:
Born around 1445 in Florence, Alessandro Botticelli hails from a large family of modesty, symbolising the Florentines' aspiration for social advancement.
5. Lorenzo de Medici's Influence:
Florence, a blend of social classes, saw Lorenzo the Magnificent, a poet, as its leader. Lorenzo de' Medici pioneered a unique role as a patron and politician, inviting intellectuals, artists, and writers into his home.
6. Renaissance Workshop Dynamics:
Trained initially as a goldsmith, Botticelli entered Fra Filippo Lippi's workshop, where the collaborative Renaissance workshop culture shaped his early artistic development.
7. Botticelli's Artistic Evolution:
Exposure to Fra Filippo's workshop influenced Botticelli's technique and storytelling, which is evident in works like the dynamic "Herod's Banquet."
8. Botticelli's Advertising through Art:
Botticelli skillfully advertised himself through preparatory drawings, showcasing the process of creating a painting and leaving a visible mark on his artistic journey.
9. Exploration of Line and Form:
Botticelli's approach to art involved careful consideration of line. His drawings reveal precision and a graceful, rhythmic quality that adds a musical dimension to his work.
10. Legacy of Botticelli:
Botticelli's legacy lies in his unparalleled use of lines to convey stories, emotions, and narratives, influencing artists from the Pre-Raphaelites to Picasso and Hepworth, and his voyeuristic allure remains intriguing.
//Explanation for School Students//
Botticelli and His Drawings:
Botticelli is a famous artist from a long time ago. People usually remember him for his beautiful paintings, but few know about his drawings.
Some people today think that drawing and painting are different, but Botticelli showed how they are connected.
Finding Ideas for Paintings:
To create a painting, you need to plan or design it first. Botticelli didn't write about how he got his ideas, but we can look at his drawings to understand.
His famous paintings, like "The Primavera" and "The Birth of Venus," became well-known because of his drawings.
Getting to Know the Artist:
Furio Rinaldi is a person who takes care of Botticelli's drawings in a museum. Drawings help us understand the artist better, like getting to know a friend closely.
Botticelli's Early Life:
Botticelli was born in Florence, Italy, a long time ago. His family was not very rich, but he loved art from a young age.
He first learned about art as a goldsmith and later trained with a famous painter named Fra Filippo Lippi.
Artists and City Life in Florence:
Florence was a city where people from different social classes lived together. The leader, Lorenzo the Magnificent, invited artists and thinkers to discuss art and politics.
Botticelli learned a lot in Florence and became an artist. His drawings show how he thought and prepared for his paintings.
1)
Like a few other past artists, Botticelli is embedded in everyone's imagination as the epitome of Renaissance Florence. But very few people know about his drawings.
Contemporary people tend to think that drawing is not part of painting. They are two separate processes. They do not understand how they are connected.
2)
You have to design this painting. So, we want to know how Botticelli came up with his ideas. How do we do that? He didn't write about it. Nobody else wrote about how he developed his ideas, but we have a tool.
We can look at his drawings. Botticelli's fame today is undoubtedly based on his memorable mythological compositions, The Primavera and The Birth of Venus, the first Renaissance works of art to depict excellent mythological literary references on a large scale.
3)
My name is Furio Rinaldi. I'm the curator of drawings and prints at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the curator of the exhibition Botticelli Drawings at the Legion of Honour. Drawings, in general, allow such an intimate understanding of the artist, such a close contact, unvarnished.
4)
Unlike paintings made for the public, especially at that time, drawings allow intimacy that few other artistic outputs can match. Alessandro (Sandro) Botticelli was born in Florence around 1445. He came from a massive family of rather humble origins, a true expression of the Florentines' desire to better themselves and their social situation.
5)
Unlike most cities in Italy or Europe, Florence was a mixture of different social classes. The leader of the city, Lorenzo the Magnificent, was a poet. With Lorenzo de' Medici, we have a patron and a politician for the first time who invites intellectuals, artists, and writers to his home.
6)
They dine at his table. They stay together in the garden and discuss art and politics. The intellectuals of Florence and the artists are on the same level.
Early sources tell us that Botticelli was first trained as a goldsmith. The precision required to work with metals, particularly gold, probably dictated Botticelli's tendency towards linear ornamentalism and preciousness.
7)
What is more certain is that when Botticelli was about 12 or perhaps 15 years old, his father, Mariano, sent him to work in the workshop of Fra Filippo Lippi.
The Medici's favourite painter at the time, Fra Filippo, was an accomplished draughtsman who used drawing in every step of the then-relatively new creative process. Botticelli absorbed his master's symbolic vocabulary, drawing techniques and painting solutions.
8)
All the artistic production of that time was based on this idea of workshops. It means a group working together under a workshop leader, a master, who lived in the workshop with the master. At a certain point, it was like a kind of boarding school. Today, in art school, the aim is to learn your voice.
9)
That wasn't the intention of a Renaissance workshop. As a student, you aim to help the master and learn to paint like him and paint parts of a work.
For example, you might be responsible for the sky or the architecture. As you get better, you might be able to do the drapery, and if you get perfect, you might be able to do some of the figures.
10)
Sandro has slowly worked his way up the ladder. Fra Filippo Lippi received a significant commission to decorate the cathedral of Prato, just 30 minutes outside Florence. It was with Fra Filippo Lippi, and especially in Prato that Botticelli made his first artistic steps. Botticelli had an excellent opportunity to learn how to paint on fresco.
11)
How does one physically paint a fresco? It's not easy. You have to put plaster on the wall. As the Italians would say, you must paint while the plaster is still wet or fresh.
Hence the word fresco. The frescoes in the cathedral are dedicated to and illustrate the stories of two saints, St Stephen and St John the Baptist, the chapel's patron saint.
12)
One of the most striking scenes, and perhaps the one where the young Botticelli participated, is Herod's banquet.
It is a beautiful scene, very dynamic, in which Fra Filippo's virtuosity, not only as a painter but also as a storyteller, with particular attention to precious details and an ornamental elegance, is fully displayed, something that Botticelli continued to develop in his artistic work.
13)
So Botticelli came into his own as an artist. He's coming up with new solutions. He's looking at how things have been done in the past and saying, let me see if I can do it differently.
The Adoration of the Magi was known for several representations of it. One is from the early part of his career, commissioned by Gaspare del Lama.
14)
He wasn't in the inner circle of the Medici, but he wanted to be. So, he commissioned this work and asked Botticelli to include portraits of the Medici because he wanted to be associated with this important family.
Botticelli chose to depict critical members of the Medici family as the Three Kings. So we have contemporary people in the historical, religious painting, which was quite daring.
15)
Botticelli's early Adoration of the Magi has been particularly praised for the variety that you see. You have some figures looking straight ahead or in profile or three-quarters.
You have older people and young people. Sandro Botticelli is occupying a liminal space between us and the painting, which depicts himself on the far right, looking at us.
16)
So our world, the viewers, the contemporary world, the real world, is somehow linked to the imaginative scene of the Medici offering their gifts. It's pretty brilliant.
He, the artist, is the intermediary between us, the viewers, and the scene he has created. He's bigger and off to the side as if to say, this is what I've made.
17)
It was an obvious, legible way of advertising himself and saying here I am. Botticelli was very, very skilful. He developed his way of having critical preparatory drawings. The idea of the initial drawing is interesting because we can see the process of making a painting in front of us.
18)
What kind of shadows would you cast if you had the light coming in at a sharp angle? We have composition studies where you have these five or six different elements. Where do I put them?
In the drapery study, you see how the drapery folds on a piece of cloth, and he would explore that. What happens when you rustle the drapery? What happens when there's a breeze? He would do various experiments on how drapery can show movement and death.
19)
If you look at Botticelli's paintings, especially his drawings, you can see that this man thought through the line. Not everyone was like that. Some people feel more in terms of blocks of colour, but for Botticelli, it was the line. Often, the line is not rigid and stiff, but there's a curve to it.
20)
There's a gracefulness to it. And when you have a series of graceful lines, they create a rhythm. There's a space between them, and that rhythm allows his figures to move.
And that rhythm moves the paintings from the canvas or panel into our imagination. I have always felt that there is something very musical about Botticelli's work.
21)
If you look at works like the Primavera, it is a ballet with nine figures. In that sense, Botticelli can be seen as a fantastic choreographer.
It's all about the body's ornamental quality, the expressive qualities of the body, the emotions that the body conveys in a particular pose, and the arrangement of the figures in space.
22)
All these aspects are present in Botticelli's drawings. Through drawing, he explores the expressive, potent, organised single figure and contains the composition within the picture plane. We can certainly single out the late Adoration of the Magi, usually considered one of Botticelli's last works.
23)
It's unfinished and shows the underdrawing, the visible graphic preparation that precedes the painting. It's an unusual interpretation of the Adoration of the Magi. We can see in the background that it's very unfinished.
He has a hazy indication of rocks to the left and right, but most importantly, the whole foreground is filled with crowds, and we find details of that crowd scene in the beautiful large-scale drawings Botticelli made for this painting.
24)
These are three fragments drawn on linen, a very unusual drawing support. They were part of a unified design cut in three, which allows an unprecedented understanding of Botticelli's artistic practice from drawing to finished painting, or in this case, unfinished painting. Botticelli lived the last part of his life at a tough time for Florence.
25)
He began to work more religiously. The death of Lorenzo the Magnificent, who was his most prominent patron, and the rise and violent fall of Fra Girolamo Savonarola, the Dominican friar who preached against the moral corruption of Florence, and that established a moment of theocracy where he ruled the city.
26)
Savonarola had very particular ideas about art and society. He's best known today for having a bonfire of the vanities where he destroyed wigs, playing cards, make-up, and what he considered offensive works of art.
Some of Botticelli's early works were probably there; some of the nude women and Venuses he had painted were burned in the fire.
27)
Botticelli didn't give up his art completely. He didn't change everything, but he began to change the subject slightly and adjust the moral meaning of many of his figures.
Botticelli lost all the grace, fluidity, and charm of his youth. The most important document we have is his late masterpiece.
28)
The Mystic Nativity, his only signed and dated painting, shows in its bizarre iconography how Botticelli responded to Savonarola's preaching and writing. On the one hand, it's pretty simple. It's a small work. It's on canvas, which is unusual.
Most of Botticelli's paintings were on the panel, and in the centre, it shows the adoration of the Christ child by his mother, the three shepherds, and the three wise men.
29)
But at the top, there's an inscription, and it begins: "I, Alessandro". Botticelli is expressing his religious views. On one side, you see the three wise men wearing effortless clothes, and that's unusual.
Most artists, even Botticelli, show the wise men as kings, and it was an opportunity to show crowns, jewels, and furs, pull out all the stops, and enjoy the chance to show wealth.
30)
Not here. It's pretty remarkable how simply these three wise men are dressed. In the centre of the painting, you see the Madonna worshipping the Christ Child, and the Madonna is very, very large.
He's entirely out of scale. It's not that Botticelli forgot how to show figures in scale. Instead, he wanted to indicate status.
31)
He wanted to show hierarchy. He wanted to offer something symbolic. Symbolically, to show the importance of the Virgin, he makes her very big, and that's a clue for the viewer.
Alessandro doesn't try to show reality. He is not trying to show what you would see if you looked out of the window. This is a visionary painting that refers to a vision of Savonarola.
32)
Savonarola's life ended rather violently when he was burned at the stake in 1498 for challenging the authority of the Pope. At the time of Botticelli's death in 1510, we know he never had any children. He had never been convicted of a crime.
He never married. We know he died in near poverty. His art went entirely out of fashion, and I think that is something exciting for us.
33)
A few years later, an artist who was the epitome of Renaissance Florence was already out of fashion and almost forgotten.
Yet he remained faithful to his style and artistic development, which is more evident in his drawings than anything else. Botticelli is one of those familiar figures you meet everywhere in Florence.
34)
At first, I was too used to him to appreciate him. But when I had the opportunity to study his paintings up close, I had a kind of revelation. I was able to see his mind. Most of these old masters are perceived as very distant and unapproachable.
Still, through their drawings, we can have a much more direct and fresh understanding of how they thought, designed, and articulated their memorable compositions.
35)
To be in touch with an artist's mind is to change your mind completely. And that is something moving. These drawings were just tools to create a painting when they were made. But for us, they're also seen as works of great beauty.
So, what is Botticelli's artistic legacy? I'd say it's his unparalleled use of the line to convey stories, emotions and new narratives.
36)
And it's not surprising to see references to Botticelli throughout art history, particularly in the 19th century, from the British Pre-Raphaelites to Pablo Picasso to Barbara Hepworth. His most important legacy is the fluidity of line and the skilful linear expressiveness of his work. It is very voyeuristic.
I don't think Botticelli or the others would be happy that we now know their secrets.
The secrets of Botticelli's drawings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdQu3cOOaWE
Bringing a new perspective on the beloved Renaissance artist, "Botticelli: Rhythm of the Line" reveals the central role that drawing played in Sandro Botticelli's art and practice. This short documentary takes viewers through the streets of Florence, where the artist lived and worked, to the Uffizi galleries, home of Botticelli's most striking masterpieces. The story is told by Furio Rinaldi, curator of drawings and prints at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Jonathan K. Nelson, art historian at Syracuse University in Florence, and Cecilia Frosinini, art historian at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence. These voices speak in chorus to give us an original narrative that illuminates Botticelli's life, process, and legacy.
Botticelli Drawings is the first exhibition ever dedicated to the drawings of Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli (ca. 1445 – 1510). Exploring the foundational role drawing played in Botticelli's work, the exhibition traces his artistic journey from studying under maestro Fra Filippo Lippi (c. 1406 – 1469) to leading his workshop in Florence. Featuring rarely seen and newly attributed works, the exhibition provides insight into the design practice of an artist whose name is synonymous with the Italian Renaissance. Botticelli's drawings offer an intimate look into the making of some of his most memorable masterpieces, including Adoration of the Magi (c. 1500), which will be reunited with its preparatory drawing, surviving only in fragments. From Botticelli's earliest recorded drawings through expressive designs for his final painting, the works on display reveal the artist's experimental drawing techniques, quest for ideal beauty, and command of the line.
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A Symposium on Botticelli
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0LUHV78mD4
Join us for a one-day international symposium and hear from scholars, curators, and academics on Sandro Botticelli's art and design processes. This program will introduce the Botticelli Drawings organised by exhibition curator Furio Rinaldi, the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts curator.
It will also include original scholarship and presentations by Emanuele Lugli, assistant professor at Stanford University; Patricia L. Rubin, emeritus professor of Renaissance art at the Institute of Fine Arts in New York; Jacqueline Thallmann, curator at the Christ Church Picture Gallery in Oxford, and more.
//Postscript//
I have been to Florence three times before because the city is so beautiful and has many masterpieces in art museums and on the streets.
Especially, "The Primavera" and "The Birth of Venus" are masterpieces of masterpieces; I could not move soon and sat down in front of the sofa.
Please check the third photo on my blog site.
His drawing looks like a Looks like Michelangelo's Pietà sculpture.
I believe this is Botticelli's secret. He could also draw curtains that swayed in the wind.
It meant that he could draw not just a stop-moment painting but a moving and dancing painting.
In his later years, he suffered from artistic persecution, leading him to create paintings that lacked sparkle and brightness, but he continued to take on new challenges.
The idea was not to dress the three wise men in gorgeous jewellery or furs but in simple clothes to make Mary's presence stand out.
I often watch a making-of video before/after watching a film or a documentary about an artist before watching a masterpiece.
"Botticelli's drawings" are preliminary and actual paintings, but I realised they are like a making-of-video and have a beautiful value.
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Pietà (Michelangelo) - Wikipedia
