With an unknown birthdate circa 1445 Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi was appreprenticed to Fra Filippo Lippi in the early 1460s and within several years had his own workshop, from which he launched a stellar career that made him the quintessential Quattrocento artist of Florence -- very much including the charge of sodomy. Called Il Botticello (little barrel) he had a horror of marriage, never wed, dated young men, and -- with his priorities perfectly clear in his painting, as above -- was a favorite of Popes. Even more importantly, he was a favorite of Medicis, who commissioned many pieces including two of the most iconic works in Western art, The Birth of Venus and Primavera. After his death on May 17, 1510, he was forgotten and his work was ignored for 350 years. Of course, it took a gay man to rescue him from oblivion, Walter Pater in the 1870s. Get the oversized monograph with 200 color plates Botticelli: Likeness, Myth, Devotion or Ronald Lightbown's biography Botticelli: Life and Work. At left, a probable self-portrait and after the jump, more images.
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