The buying and selling of art is big business. People willingly spend millions on paintings by artists long dead, wealth is flaunted and private collectors covet status-rich images for absurd amounts often using proxies to make the purchase. That great art, I’m sure many would agree, is better off in a museum but if you’re like me you’re probably very jealous of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
So with all the profit to be made what would you expect for this particular Renaissance portrait below?
30 million is the asking price, but expect more with taxes and handling fees. This image of a humanist scholar is by Sandro Botticelli and in October of 2019 it was released from a private collection. Botticelli would probably love to see his art 400 years later valued at so much. Even those who don’t ‘get’ art have surely seen his works immortalized in pop culture. Here’s Beyonce replacing Venus in Botticelli’s most famous work.
Botticelli’s legacy lives on so here are five things worth knowing about the master:
Breakdown:
- 15th century painter born in Florence, 1445.
- Apprenticed at a young age, painted alongside other great Renaissance artists such as Da Vinci.
- Attracted wealthy patrons, most notably the rulers of Florence, the Medici family.
- Works include: Primavera and the Birth of Venus.
- Gave up painting in the late 1490’s when extremist monk Savonarola rose to power. Savonarola was eventually hanged and burned.
- Died in Florence, 1510.
#1 You Could Own a Botticelli.
It’s hard to know if a portrait is genuine or fake, especially when it’s been handed down privately for generations. We know that most of Botticelli’s works are accounted for — his hometown of Florence has kept a large amount in the Uffizi gallery while a few others are either privately owned or held in other museum collections. So in order to possess a Botticelli it has to be either bought at an auction or sneakily wrestled from a private collection. With all that money and prestige involved it’s common for forgeries to make their way onto the market and museum collections.
Forgeries are a common issue for any museum and once deemed fake the art is discarded by the red-faced staff; giving the docents some talking points for the next tour. Determining what’s real and what’s not takes great prudence.
There recently was a case of misguided sagacity when one family gifted a picture of the Madonna and child to the museum of Wales whom promptly dismissed its legitimacy. The portrait was kept in storage until the hosts of an art-related BBC show noticed some signature Botticellian characteristics; namely doodles. Doodles that only Botticelli could have done were discovered under the paint and led to the rise from trash to treasure. The Renaissance icon would rarely have painted 100% of his paintings since that would stifle production so instead he had assistants do the less important features. Apparently they were so bad that the museum was convinced it wasn’t authentic and hid the work away for more than 50 years. Much like a restaurant where line cooks do the bulk of the work before the chef completes the dish, Botticelli would have been in charge of the finishing touches. These workshops, known as Bottegas, were numerous and gave steady employment to many artists.
The Madonna and child was put in storage in the 1950’s but could have rewarded a buyer with a great ROI. Its eventual addition to the museum collection is arguably the best outcome.
#2 A Man and a Brand.
Just like Warhol, Botticelli is a brand. Botticelli converted his name (actually a nickname) into a type of style we associate with intricately detailed elongated contours which capture eyes, entice them with their Nile-length flow and offer a mysterious sensuality. His curves according to art historians evoke an agility which can be found most noticeably in his mythological works. In Primavera, the dancing nymphs are used by Botticelli to show off his mastery of the female form from three separate angles.
For Renaissance elites the desired appearance of a beautiful woman was tall and curvy with lily-white skin. Such voluptuous curves, flowing hair and perfect unblemished skin were desired by the growing class of wealthy merchants and bankers — the powerful Medici family were Botticelli’s patrons so it was in his best interest to keep them duly satisfied.
These godly proportions are most emphasized in Venus. The goddess of love and fertility reborn in human form looks quite unnatural and art historians routinely comment on her oddly long neck and limbs, but for a goddess of such beauty artistic license is warranted. As the figurehead of the Botticelli brand she needs to be perfect, free of disease or impurities.
Botticelli made figures both sensual and regal with a blend of mysterious allure and serenity. Be it the Madonna or Venus they represent an instantly recognizable brand that has lasted more than five centuries and continues to be rehashed in a myriad of cultural contexts.
#3 The Renaissance’s Stan Lee.
Stan Lee was a pioneer storyteller of archetypal superheroes battling evil and ensuring the preservation of good but Botticelli was way ahead of the game. The superheroes of Renaissance Italy were the obsessed-over gods of classical antiquity. These gods fit well with the newly popularized Renaissance humanism. Encyclopedia Britannica describes the movement: “The purview of Renaissance humanism included not only the education of the young but also the guidance of adults (including rulers) via philosophical poetry and strategic rhetoric. The wellspring of humanitas was Classical literature. Greek and Roman thought, available in a flood of rediscovered or newly translated manuscripts, provided humanism with much of its basic structure and method”. Basically it took the best parts of the Greco-Roman world and merged them with Christian sentiments. Botticelli’s depictions of gods and saviors were perfect for the zeitgeist of the time.
Some paintings were even like giant storyboards as seen below with the Story of Lucretia; a large oil painting depicting the anecdotal events leading to the fall of the Roman monarch and the beginning of the republic. It’s separated into three scenes going from extreme left to right, with the final scene culminating in the center.
To the left is Lucretia held at knife point by the king’s son, she is subsequently raped and in the furthermost right portion we see the discovery of her body after committing suicide. The table where her body is laid commands focus; it is the catalyst for rebellion. The bold colours, agility of figures, and detailed depth and perspective of the image show Botticelli’s mastery of storytelling centuries before Marvel or DC.
#4 Lived Through Great Changes.
Just 100 years prior to Botticelli’s birth the Black Death wiped out half of the European population (beat that COVID-19) and what followed was an intense period of innovation.
Botticelli would have been around to witness Da Vinci paint the Mona Lisa, Gutenberg invent the printing press, Machiavelli and Michelangelo redefine their mediums, and be among the throngs of Florentines to hear of Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. This era of achievements was however fraught with war and the unnerving presence of an extremist monk named Girolamo Savonarola.
Savonarola filled the void left when the rulers of Florence, the Medici family, were pushed out. France had invaded Italy in 1494 and were at the gates of Florence. An apocalyptic sense of dread spread among the citizens so Savonarola used his clerical position to at first reassure and then enforce severe religious austerity. He condemned the sins of Florentines and had young boys patrol the streets collecting immoral items such as secular art; these ‘vanities’ were then burned in a massive bonfire of which historians call the ‘bonfire of the vanities’.
The apocalyptic climax touted by Savonarola could only be avoided if all citizens started living piously. Of course this didn’t work and he was eventually hanged and burned. Botticelli was deeply affected by this and soon after completing some extremely religious content he stopped painting all together. His map of hell for Dante’s Divine Comedy reminds us that Christianity played an important role for everyone.
#5 His works are Everywhere.
Monty Python, Bjork, The Simpsons, James Bond, Andy Warhol, Lady Gaga… These are just a few of the well-known icons that have used Botticelli in some way.
Botticelli’s art is loved for the iconic figures, flowing hair, and elongated curves portrayed in either devotional or mythological settings. It embodies the sharp switch from staunch medieval scholasticism to the less god-fearing more self-aggrandizing ideals of Renaissance humanism. At a time when deep meditations on body and soul were to lead to drastic changes in philosophy and science, Botticelli captured what was to be the beginning of the ‘European miracle’.
For more information, find Alessandra Pagano’s article in National Geographic History.