Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/399

* BOTTICELLI. 351 BOTTICELLI. eighty-six of them being in the Berlin Museum. All of these were sketched in silver point and finished with the pen. Some were completed in body colors, and it is supposed that tlie original scheme was for the whole to he carried out in colors, in the style of the earlier illustrations of Dante. It was also after his return from Rome that Botticelli became a disciple of the Dominican friar Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who came to Florence about 1490. Vasari says that in his religious frenzy Sandro entirely abandoned painting, and was reduced to misery and want. I5ut there is abundant evidence of the falsity of this statement : for though he naturally ceased painting profane subjects, and was a firm be- liever in the friar's prophecies until his death, he was to the last one of the coimselors of the Medici in the public works. Thus, in 1491 he and Ghirlandajo had charge of the mosaic work in the cathedral at Florence, and competed in plans for finishing the facade: and in 1503 he was one of those consulted as to the best place for Jlichelangelo's statue of David. But of more significance than all is tlie fact that while Savonarola was burned in 1498, it was in l.iOO that Botticelli painted one of his most beautiful religious pictures, "The Xativity," in the Na- tional Gallery, London. This work is doubly in- teresting because it shows that though the artist ■was still constant to the memory of Savonarola, he had lost nothing of the wealth of his fancy, nothing of his tender sentiment, and nothing of that distinction of attitude which characterized his early works. The story of his poverty is also probably ex- aggerated, for Botticelli's income ta.x for 1498 shows that he was then keeping house with his nephew in Florence, and at the same time pos- sessed 'a gentleman's villa' and vineyards out- side the gates of San Frediano. His father, too, seems to have been in comfortable circumstances, since in 1.510 he purchased the family vault in the Church of the Ognissanti, where Sandro is now buried. Probably no artist in the entire range of the Italian Renaissance has evoked such contrary opinions of his merits as has Botticelli. As ha.s been seen, his reputation among his contempo- raries was high ; but later, when the merely technical excellences of the art of painting, and especially the quality of surface fidelity, had as- sumed an exaggerated importance, he went out of favor, and for three hundred years his work was not considered as a factor in the develop- ment of art. Today, however, with the freedom from the tyranny of conventional criticism, with the opportunities of forming individual opinions instead of echoing those of the acknowledged critic of the day, Botticelli has fully regained favor. One reason for his present popularity is that in the breadth and richness of his cul- ture, in the varied character of the subjects ho chose, and in the greatness of his aim. he repre- sents the most striking features of the memor- able period in which he lived. For the range of his subjects extended from the great scriptural compositions, "through the most touching scenes in the life of the Virgin," to events in classic history, and thus in his works the brilliancy of the Medici's Court, the force of Christian tradi- tions, and those classic myths tnat were the de- light of Renaissance scholars, are all present in varying degrees. Nor did he escape the errors of his day. The superabiuiJance of his orna- ment, the graceful yet mannered form of his draperies, and the introduction of gold into these and other accessories were to some extent due to the demands of his patrons. But though he is thus a reflex of his time. Bot- ticelli's works are yet pronounced and individ- ual. Living in a generation of naturalists, he might have been a mere naturalist among them. There are traces enough in his work that he was deeply impressed by nature, by man. and by things considered as plastic objects. The sea, rocky moimtain scenerj', soft woodland land- scapes, and gardens of every variety of rose, appear again and again in his paintings. But Botticelli was essentially a visionary painter, and to represent merely the outward inuige was not enough for him. Instead, he clothed all he saw with the color of his own moods and ideas, and thus made each of his works an outgrowth of his own personality. In color, too, he showed independence, for while in his j-outli he used the gay colors common in his age, in his later works his color scheme was more subservient to the central idea and sentiment of his work. He was also one of the first to accept art as an instru- ment of general culture, and as much at the service of the world as of the Church. Before bim, few ventured outside the range of subjects provided by the Scriptures. But while Botti- celli painted religious works, he painted them with an originality of feeling which appeals to the spectator as the real matter of the work through the veil of its ostensible subject. On the other hand, his Venuses have so much feeling and such tender grace that they seem "iladon- nas masquerading in mythology." In his Madonnas the chief characteristics of his art are revealed. Nowhere does he give greater proof of his personal feeling and creative energj' than in depicting Mary and her Child. In the Madonnas at Palazzo Corsini (Rome) and at the Spedale degle Innocenti (Florence), the in- fiuence of Filip|)o Lippi is apparent. Like those of the friar, these virgins, though lacking in religious feeling, are full of a naive tenderness and ati'ectionate maternity. Even the style of arrangement and mode of drapery are copies of the mode carried out h.v Filippo. In the later Madonnas Filippo's inlhience is still seen in the Virgin's slenderness. The motive, too, is almost the same — Mary embracing the Cliild. who stands in her lap and raises His riglit hand in l)lessing toward the throng of worshipers. P>ut the veil of sorrow has fallen over the youthlulness that delighted in his earlier .works; Mary's joy as a mother is under the shadow of a prophetic fore- boding of woe to come. This mjstic luiion of the highest blessedness with the sharpest an- guish, the result of Savonarola's miglity influ- ence on the painter, is the keynote of all his later Madonnas. Sometimes the Virgin's sad- ness is communicated to the angels, but usually it is the Child who feels the bunlen of an in- e.orable destiny and turns to His mother with tender caresses. Even to his profane subjects Botticelli communicates this element of sad- ness, and nothing is stranger than to see the bright Greek myths tinged with mediaeval colors and shadowed with the "grim humor of Floren- tine tliought."