Botticelli - Mappa dell'Inferno
Sandro Botticelli, was born March 1, 1445 in Florence and died there on May 17, 1510.
He began his apprenticeship in the workshop of Filippo Lippi and together, they painted in the Cathedral of Prato.
During the time spent at the Lippi’s workshop Botticelli painted many Madonnas with the style of his master. On the death of Lippi in 1469, he opened his workshop and began his personal production of paintings influenced by Pollaiuolo and Verrocchio. In 1472 he joined the Compagnia di San Luca, the brotherhood of artists in Florence. In 1475 he began working for the Medici family, who commissioned many works to beautify their homes.
In 1478 the series of allegories and myths began: "The Spring" of 1478, "Pallas taming the Centaur" of 1482, "Venus and Mars" in 1483 and "Birth of Venus" in 1484.
In this same period, 1481-82, he was called to Rome to work on the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. These are the only works that he realized far from Florence.
In the following years he continued painting remaining loyal to his style based on refined elegance and charming ethereal figures, the choice of the subjects instead underwent a change, returning to prevail religious subjects on mythological themes. This change coincided with the death of Lorenzo de 'Medici (1492).
From 1490 to 1497 he painted the illustration of the Divine Comedy (preserved partly in the Prints and Drawings of Staatlische Museen in Berlin and partly in the Vatican Library).
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