Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/49



Anno Domini 1500 Sandro Botticelli finished painting that populous Nativity which is one of the chief attractions of the London National Gallery; over it may still be read the painter's own words in Greek: "This picture was painted by me Alexander amid the confusions of Italy at the time prophesied in the Second Woe of the Apocalypse, when Satan shall be loosed upon the earth."

old Botticelli has never been outside the confines of his native Italy, hence he wrote of the "confusions of Italy." And truly a confused Italy it was; it was the Italy of the days when a cardinal could be known as the father of four children and yet be elected Pope; it was the Italy of the secularized princes of the Church and of municipal dictators, the Visconti and Sforza of Milan, the Scaligers of Verona, the Gonzagas of Mantua, and the Medici of Florence. vivebat 1446–1510.