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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

MONOGRAPHS ON ARTISTS

MONOGRAPHS ON ARTISTS

EDITED, AND WRITTEN IOINTLY WITH OTHER AUTHORS

BY

H. KNACKFUSS

VI.

Botticelli

BIELEFELD AM) LEIPZIG
VELHACEN & KLASING
NEW YORK. LEMCKE & BUECHNER
iuoi

BOTTICELLI

BY

ERNST STEINMANN

TRANSLATED BY

CAMPBELL DODGSON

WITH 90 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PICTURES AND DRAWINGS

BIELEFELD AND LEIPZIG
VELHAGEN & KLASING
NEW YORK. LEMCKE & BUECHNER.
1 901

S\Z

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Wi i riu, Lur:

DONNA EMILIA PERUZZI
IN MEMORIAM.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Botticelli's own Portrait. From the Punishment of Korah, Dathan and Abiram in the
Sistine Chapel, Rome ...  . .
Fig. i. Fortitude. Uffizi Gallery, Florence .  . . .
2. Judith returning with the Head of Holofernes. Uffizi Gallery, Florence
3. The Discovery of the Body of Holofernes. Uffizi Gallery, Florence . .
4. Madonna. Corsini Palace, Florence . . ...
5. St. Sebastian. Museum, Berlin .... . .
6. Madonna. Spedale degli Innocenti, Florence
7. Fra Filippo Lippi. Madonna. Uffizi Gallery, Florence
8. Madonna. The Louvre, Paris . . .
9. Madonna. Museum Poldi-Pezzoli, Milan
10. Madonna. Santa Maria Nuova, Florence
1 1 . Madonna. Museum, Naples
12. Madonna and Saints. Academy, Florence
13. Madonna. Lately in the Chigi Gallery, Rome
14. Madonna of the Magnificat. Uffizi Gallery, Florence
15. Head of the Madonna of the Magnificat
16. Group of Angels from the Magnificat 
17. Madonna enthroned, with the two SS. John. Museum, Berlin .
18. The. Coronation of the Virgin. Academy, Florence
19. Madonna. National Gallery, London . 
20. The Canigiani Madonna. Academy, Vienna .... . .
21. Madonna with St. John the Baptist and an Angel. Turin . .
22. Madonna del Passeggio. Pitti Palace, Florence 
23. Madonna with seven Angels. Museum, Berlin ....
24. Madonna enthroned with Saints. Academy, Florence ....
25. Study of an Angel. Academy, Florence . ....
26. Madonna. Uffizi Gallery, Florence . .......
27. Heads of three Angels from the Tondo in the Uffizi Gallery
28 Pen-drawing of the Adoration of the Holy Child. Uffizi Gallery
29. The Nativity. National Gallery, London
30. St. Augustine. Ognissanti, Florence
31. Sixtus II. Sistine Chapel, Rome
32. Stephanus Romanus. Sistine Chapel
33. Pope Cornelius. Sistine Chapel . .
34. Temptation of Christ. Sistine Chapel
35. The Sacrifice of the Leper and the Temptation of Christ. Sistine Chapel
36. The Leper escorted by two Friends : in the foreground to the right the
portrait of Julius II as Cardinal. Sistine Chapel . . .
37. Central group from the Sacrifice of the Leper. .Sistine Chapel

Frontispiece Page 4 5
6 7
9
10
1 1
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14
15 16
17 19
2021222325262728293°
3i 32 33
35373940
41 414243
4546

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Fig. 38 39
40.
4'-
42. 43-44-
45-
46.47-
48. 49
5°-5'-5253
54-55-56-57-
58-59-
60 61.
62.63-
64. 65.
66.
67.68.69. 70.7i.
72.73-
74-75-76.77- 78.
79-
80 81.
82.83.
84.85-86. 87-
KX.

Detail from the Sacrifice of the Leper. Sistine Chapel . . .
Detail from the Sacrifice of the Leper. Sistine Chapel . .
Head of a Young Man from the Sacrifice of the Leper. Sistine
The Boy with a Serpent. Sacrifice of the Leper .
The Girl with a Serpent. Capitoline Museum, Rome
The Early Life of Moses. Sistine Chapel ....
The Exodus Early Life of Moses 
The Sons of Moses. Early Life of Moses . . .
Head of Aaron. Early Life of Moses ....
Detail from the Early Life of Moses 
Central Group from the Early Life of Moses
Moses drawing Water. Early Life of Moses
The daughters of Jethro. Early Life of Moses . .
The Punishment of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Sistine Chapel
Moses, from the Punishment of Korah . . ...
The Stoning of the Blasphemer, from the Punishment of Korah
Two Portrait Heads from the Punishment of Korah . . .
Study for the Adoration of the Magi. Uffizi . . . . •
Adoration of the Magi. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg .
The National Gallery, London
Uffizi Gallery, Florence . . . .
Uffizi Gallery, Florence . .
Medici. Museum, Berlin . .
Stadel Institute, Frankfort

Adoration of the Magi.
Adoration of the Magi.
Adoration of the Magi.
Portrait of Giuliano de'
Portrait of a Woman,

Chapel

Pallas Athene taming a Centaur. Pitti Palace, Florence
Head of Pallas 
Mars and Venus. National Gallery, London
Head of Venus, from Primavera .
Primavera. Academy, Florence .
The Three Graces, from Primavera .
The Birth of Venus. Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Two Winds, from the Birth of Venus .
Giovanni Tomabuoni with the Seven Liberal Arts. The LomTe, Paris
Giovanni degli Albizzi receives the Gifts of the Four Cardinal Virtues
The Louvre, Paris . 
Detail from one of the Villa Lemmi Frescoes. The Louvre, Paris .
The Unjust Judge, from the Calumny of Apelles ...
The Calumny of Apelles. Uffizi Gallery, Florence .... .
Detail from the Calumny of Apelles  .
Penitence and Truth, from the Calumny of Apelles 
The Outcast. Collection of Prince Pallavicini, Rome 
Scenes from the Life of St. Zenoliius. Picture Gallery. Dresden
The Annunciation, UIT1/.1 (iallcrv, Florence ....
The Entombment. Museum Pohli-1'e/./.oli, Milan . ...
The Lamentation for Christ. Munich 
The Assumption ol the Virgin National Gallery, London . . . .

Dante. Haul. .
Dante.
Dante. iJantc.Hantc.Dante.

Inlerno XXXI .
I 'ur^alorio I ,
I'ur^atorio IX .
I'mi^atorio XXX
Paradiso I
Paradiso XXVIII
Paradiso VII .

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liui iicia.ia's „w portrait. Fr.m, the Pimiahmc-nl of Korah, Dathan and Al.iram in the Sistine Chapel, Rome.
(From a photograph by Anderson, Rome.)

SANDRO BOTTICELLI.

i.
THERE are numerous pictures in which the portrait of Sandro Botti
celli has been discovered by early or recent critics. Of all these
portraits, the best documentary evidence attaches to that of a young man,
wearing a red mantle and black cap, who stands at the further end of
the spectators to witness the crucifixion of St. Peter in Filippino's fresco
in the Brancacci Chapel at Florence. The evidence is the statement of
Vasari. But the sharp profile, in which the pupil piously traced the features
of his master, has suffered so severely from the destroying hand of time,
that its effect at the present day is almost repulsive, and this necessitated
a search for some other picture representing Botticelli's figure and counte
nance with more fidelity to life. The artist's portrait of himself in the
Sistine Chapel at Rome is perhaps the best calculated to fulfil every
kind of expectation, while it most closely corresponds to the picture of
him which fancy has created in our minds. In the fresco of the "Punish
ment of Korah" we see the master in the fulness of his creative power,
only a little older than in the panel at the, Berlin Museum, in which we
may also recognise a portrait of himself. The young artist appears in a
plain black painter's dress, in the midst of the princes of the church, clad
in velvet and scarlet, who contribute to the splendour and significance
of the fresco. The straight brown hair covers the brow under the dark
cap ; the head is bent a little forward , and the eyes look keenly to one
side , as though fixed on some special object. The regular lines , the
nobly formed mouth , the intelligent , somewhat sad looking eyes , lend to
this countenance the same winning charm , the same melancholy interest,
which enchant us in the many portraits of the youthful Raphael.
Such a portrait, moreover, throws a very welcome light on the character
of a man, who has all our sympathy, whose many masterpieces testify to
a life of ample achievement, and whose outward career can nevertheless
only be traced with great difficulty by the aid of Vasari's unreliable in
formation, by the brief and categorical statements of an anonymous writer,
and by some few documents. The careless buoyancy of a true artist nature

may reveal itself to us in these features ; but, in addition, there are already
signs of that curious leaning to reverie, so unknown, as a rule, to the Italian,
that he has no term for it in his language ; a tendency which, nevertheless,
in later years grew so much on this gifted artist, that it made him completely
forget all care for the things of the present world.
The son of Mariano Filipepi was never destined to rise beyond the
narrow limits of a modest middle-class existence ; the days of Raphael and
Michelangelo had not yet come, when artists moved amongst the leading
men of their time, and enjoyed the highest prizes life could give. On the
other hand Alessandro Botticelli, or more briefly, Sandro, was told in later
years by an angry friend that he had learnt nothing, that he was hardly
able to read , and might try in vain for a life-time to expound Dante.
And who was there, in fact, to render a tanner's child, the youngest
of four sons, familiar with the intellectual treasures of Italy, or to initiate
him into the aristocratic culture of the humanists, the very essence
of which he yet succeeded in expressing by the wonderful intuition of
the artist, in his most delightful
works r
The boy was born in 1447 ; in
early youth he showed the same
dislike of learning as nearly all his
brethren in art, down to the great
Michelangelo. Reading and writing
became more of a torment to him
the longer he tried to learn , and
when his father found that the boy
would never control his wandering
thoughts sufficiently to do an}' good
at school , he gave up the attempt
in despair, and apprenticed him to
a goldsmith. But young Sandro
meant to be a painter, and it was
not till they made him a pupil of
Fra Filippo of the Carmine that his
restless spirit found peace. He de
voted himself with his whole soul
to the new art, and thus earned the
affection of his famous master, while
lie soon, according to Vasari, went
far beyond anything that had ever
been expected of him.
The young Sandro's rich imagi
nation , however, was by no means
entirely satisfied with the agree
able manner of Fra Filippo, whose

ti^, 1 I-'ok I iTUl.a. Uffizi Galh-ry, Florence.
(From .1 photograph by Oiaconio Bro^i, l-'loritrtc.

Fig.

Judith returning with the head of Holofernes. Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
(From a photograph by Giacomo Brogi, Florence.)

cheerfulness of disposition was reflected in his works. In Botticelli's earlier
Madonnas we see the impression made on him by the powerful features
peculiar to Verrocchio, while in the "Fortitude" of masculine beauty in
the Uffizi (Fig. i), his first independent work mentioned by Vasari, he was
perfectly able to adapt himself to the style of the brothers Pollaiuolo, who
had carried out the other six Virtues, cardinal and theological, for the
Mercanzia at Florence.
The allegorical figure of Fortitude , splendidly preserved , sits on a
high-backed throne, wearing a rich but martial dress and holding a gleaming
sceptre in both hands. The splendid woman shows no trace of that harsh
severity with which earlier art invested these personifications of the virtues

Pip;, 3. The Disohikv of thk Bodv of H,-iu^:k\ks. Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
(From a photograph hy Giacomo Brogi, Florence.)

— a set of subjects of extremely common occurrence — ; she retains none
of the stiff and unwieldy emblems of her strength, such as a slain lion
or a club held up in menace : but there is a wonderful rhythm in the
mighty limbs and warrior frame, and a human beauty in the features.
Botticelli's individuality asserts itself, apart from all foreign influences in
the grace of movement and in the pensive gaze of the slightly downcast eves.
The two small pictures of Judith in the Uffizi, which once adorned the
study of the notorious liianca Capello, and the St. Sebastian at Berlin

Fig. 4. Madonna. Corsini Palace, Florence.
(From a photograph by Alinari Brothers, Florence.)

belong likewise to a period in which Botticelli was still subject to alien
influence, now from one side, now from another. "Judith returning after
the accomplishment of her enterprise" (Fig. 2) is a little picture of enchanting
naivete, well preserved and wonderfully delicate in colouring. Holding a
sword in her right hand, an olive branch in her left, the victorious heroine
returns with head uplifted and quickened step to the camp of her people.
Her youthful countenance, which reminds one strongly of Verrocchio, has
an expression of slight melancholy, whereas the handmaiden, with her
stalwart stride, carries the head of the slain enemy in an earthenware dish,
on her own head, and in her hand the wine bottles which Holofernes had
emptied. The second picture (Fig. 3), painted in dark, full-toned colours,
represents the discovery of the dead Holofernes by his soldiers, and arouses
our interest especially, because this is Botticelli's first attempt at a large
composition, though only on a small scale. He has by no means over
come the difficulties which the problem of an agreeable arrangement and
a wise subordination of minor details to the principal motive was bound
to present; but the emphatic utterance of grief and horror, of com
passion and vindictiveness in the faces of the throng of soldiers excites
our admiration. The St. Sebastian .(Fig. 5), which was probably painted in 1473 for
Santa Maria Maggiore at Florence, stands so strongly under the influence
of Antonio Pollaiuolo in the modelling of the naked body, that it formerly
even bore that master's name ; but in the sad-looking youthful head with
its clustering curls, one is reminded of Verrocchio's expressive boys heads.
At any rate Botticelli has sacrificed natural truth to beauty in this early
work, for the anguish which the six arrows must have caused the martyr
leaves no trace, or merely the faintest shadow, on his countenance or in
his gestures. There are certain Madonnas , of still earlier date than the Fortitude,
the picture of Judith, and the St. Sebastian , in which the process of the
painter's gradual emancipation from alien influences can most clearly be
traced. It is a peculiarity which Botticelli shares with Leonardo, Raphael,
and Michelangelo, that his Madonnas reveal one of the chief characteristics
of his art; we may even say that, in depicting the tender relationship of
Mary and her child, he gives greater proof than anywhere else of personal
feeling, inexhaustible resource and creative energy.
While Renaissance art has received the most diverse appreciation on
the aesthetic side , another and more essential part has been too much
neglected. Sufficient emphasis has never been laid on the fact that the
home of Art is in heaven, and that she attains her greatness as a
priestess of Religion, whose consecrated hands bear down to earth the
similitude of the Divine. And yet pictures of saints and of the Madonna
were the inexhaustible theme of art for more than a thousand vears , a
striking witness to mankind's craving to give tangible form to what lies
beyond the range of the senses. And since the "eternal womanhood" in

Mary*drew the hearts of be
lievers more forcibly to itself
than the stern type of the
suffering Redeemer or the
incomprehensible majesty of
the Father, it was above all
the picture of the Madonna,
that innumerable artists at
every period strove to create,
now in a more divine , now
in a more human form; and
the very greatest painters of
the Renaissance , even the
rugged Michelangelo , ex
pended their whole genius
on the everlasting theme,
which Raphael carried to its
utmost perfection in the
radiant vision which we call
the Sistine Madonna.
The circumstance that
Botticelli has signed only
one of his countless panels
with name and date, may
raise our esteem for his
freedom from self-conscious
ness as an artist; but his
voluntary surrender of post
humous fame has consider
ably increased the difficulty
of arranging his works in
chronological order. The
powerful influence exercised
by Fra Filippo on the young
Sandro permits us to con
jecture that the earliest works
of the latter are the Madonnas
at Palazzo Corsini and at the
Spedale degli Innocenti. In
the composition of the latter
(Fig. 6) the pupil followed the
famous picture of his master
at the Uffizi (Fig. 7). The child
Christ, lifted by the hands of
an angel towards His mother,

Fig. 5. St. Sebastian. Museum, Berlin.
(From a photograph by Franz Hanfstangl, Munich.)

10

Fig. 6. M\n<>NN.\. Spedale degli Innocenti, Florence.
(From a photograph by Alinari Brothers, Florence.)

who is drawn in profile, is the motive of both pictures; but while the
disciple already shows his superiority to the master in the drawing of the
hands, and in the structure of the charming children's heads, it is especially
in the human beauty of his idea of the Mother of God , that he gives an
intimation of the tendency afterwards followed, with conscious or un
conscious emphasis, in his paintings of the Madonna. Mary no longer has
her hands folded and raised towards the Child in adoration, as in Fra Fi-
lippo's picture, where his appeal for a caress remains unheeded; she
embraces I Iim , though timidly, as if feat ing to touch a holy thing, and
the Child Himself is one ofthe earliest pleasing conceptions ofthe Infant
Jesus which art has produced.

1 1

Fig. 7. Fra Filippo Lippi. Madonna! Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
(From a photograph by Alinari Brothers, Florence.)

The Madonnas in the Louvre (Fig. 8) and in the Poldi-Pezzoli Gallery at
Milan (Fig. 9), carry on the same idea, while both betray a certain constraint
combined with the ingenuous charm of youth, and prove in their turn how
individual and profound was Botticelli's apprehension of his subject. The Child
becomes more urgent in his demand for tenderness from His Mother, while
Mary learns by degrees to overcome her awe of the Divine, and to show
to her Son the pure fervour of her love. But she knows none of the joys
of a mother's highest bliss; a presentiment of coming woe casts its shadow
on her soul, and in the picture at Milan she gazes in mute sorrow on the
nails and crown of thorns, which the unconscious Babe holds out playfully.
Verrocchio's harsher conception of the subject shows itself, in contrast
to Fra Filippo's more tender sentiment, in a group of Madonnas, also the

Fig. 8. M v

The Lot

\rc. rans.

product ol the painter's youth, in which he has wavered and permitted
first one, then the other ot his teachers to influence his work in a greater
or less degree. In the Madonna at Santa Maria Nuova at Florence (Fig. io),
in that recently removed from the Chigi Palace at Rome (Fig. 13), and in
the Madonna ol the Museo Nazionale at Naples (Fig. 11), to name only
the best, Botticelli retains, indeed , the by no means skilful composition of

13
Fra Filippo, but in the types of the faces of the Virgin, the Child, and the
angels he has followed Verrocchio without reserve. Seeing that Fra Filippo
left Florence for ever in 1466, to paint the Assumption of the Virgin
in the choir at Spoleto , may not his apprentice of nineteen have sought
another guiding star to point out the right path for his genius ? As a matter

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of fact, the lofty brow, the heavy eyelids, the strongly arched eyebrows,
the broad ridge of the nose , peculiar to this whole group of Madonnas
by Botticelli, are at the same time characteristic marks of the severe
feminine type of Verrocchio, whose blunt, unrefined children with splendid
curly hair have also tempted Fra Filippo's pupil to imitate a different model.
U

Fig. io. Madonna. Sta. Maria Xuova, Florence.
(From a photograph by Alinari Brothers, Florence/

And was it an easy matter for Botticelli to shake off the spell of a
personality like Verrocchio's? No indeed! The Madonna at Naples evinces
in the elaborate folds of the ungirt robe, in the veil of dazzling whiteness,
and in the depth of soul expressed in Mary's face, the maturity of
a thoroughly independent artist , while yet the influence of Verrocchio
is strongly marked in the charming landscape which fills the background
of the picture.
The conflict between acquired formal expression and his own emotional
life, now quickening with new vigour, is still more remarkably expressed
in the Cliigi Madonna, one of the most original, most lovable paintings
of the Virgin of Botticelli's earlier period. A boy with a wreath of fresh

'5

Fig. ii. Madonna. Museo, Naples.

green on his curly head presents to the Mother and Child a dish laden
with grapes and ears of corn, which the little Jesus, resting comfortably in
his mother's lap, blesses benevolently, while Mary holds one of the ears
in her hand. Bread and wine , the symbols of the Sacrifice of the Death
of Christ — symbols which Mary willingly accepts , which Christ by his
benediction ratifies — who but Botticelli could have clothed so solemn a
thought in a form so winning?
While Verrocchio's influence is unmistakable in the types of the
children; while we see, in the Virgin, Fra Filippo's naive ideal of the
Madonna, yet the conception is as original as the feeling is solemn,
mysterious, and suggestive. Did the artist mean to express , in this
curiously interesting picture, a decisive moment in the life of the soul,

16
of both Mary and her Child, a moment at which destiny stood before
each for acceptance or denial?
Unmistakable traces of the sharply accentuated art of Leonardo's great
teacher are to be found, lastly, in the badly re-painted Madonna in the
Accademia at Florence (Fig. I2j, in which the pupil for the first time
reveals himself as a master in characterisation, in composition, and in
perspective. The picture is one of those "holy conversations" beloved

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(From a photograph by Giacomo Brogi, Florence.
of the Quattrocento: the Mother of God, enthroned in the centre, has
male and female Saints assembled round her, while the patrons of the
house of Medici, SS. Cosmo and Damian , kneel in an attitude of worship
before the steps of the throne.
But the purest embodiment of Botticelli's earlier ideal of the Madonna
is the Virgin of the Magnificat in the Uffizi ij'ig. 14). This is in every way
the most celebrated of his religious pictures, and it is constantly surrounded
by a throng of silent admirers. There is nothing of Fra Filippo, nothing
of Verrocchio, in this picture, which reveals so much of Botticelli's genius
Fig. 13. Madonna. Lately in the Chigi Gallery, Rome.
(By permission of Mr. Domenico Anderson.)

Steinmann, Botticelli.

in its wealth of inward meaning, its brilliancy of colour and beauty of form.
The Virgin (Fig. 15) and her Child are no longer supernatural beings who
graciously accept our prayers: they have come amongst us men as our
fellow-creatures ; but they are of princely lineage, of perfect beauty in body
and soul, and for that very reason strangers among their brethren. We
would fain search into their history, penetrate their beauty, and share their
sorrows; but we dare not greet with any words of love these beings so
infinitely worthy of it. Neither can we pray to them; we can but re
joice afar off in the august beauty of the Virgin, in the grace of the Child
whose soul is the dwelling-place of God's Holy Spirit. Is not access to
the Holiest the exclusive privilege of the angelic hosts (Fig. 16), who
draw nigh in gentle curiosity to behold the Incarnate Godhead, to serve
in all humility the Handmaid of the Lord, to crown the Queen of Heaven ?
Botticelli's art was the first to create these beings of pathetic beauty,
who consecrate their service to the Madonna with all their heart and
mind, in ardent devotion and in tender reserve. Technically, also, this
picture is superior to all its predecessors : it has been thought that the
artist must have forsaken the use of tempera, the medium then in favour,
since the red and blue are so lustrous, the flesh-colour so transparent and
the single tones so delicately fused. It is certain that the artist himself
seems to have taken peculiar pleasure in this picture, and that this explains
the extreme care which he bestowed , as if he remembered his old craft
as a goldsmith, on the long golden curls of Mary and the angels, the delicate
patterns of their raiment , the exquisite border of gold , the variegated
wimple and fine transparent veil of the Madonna.
If the "Magnificat" picture in the Uffizi marks the climax of the
artist's mature achievement in painting the Virgin when absorbed in her
inner life, the picture of the Madonna with St. John the Baptist and St. John
the Evangelist in the Berlin Museum (Fig. 17), painted in the years 14S4 — 14S5
for the Bardi Chapel in Santo Spirito, is perhaps the first altarpiece in which
he was able to try his own original strength, liberated from every foreign
influence, on an undertaking of considerable importance. Nature and art
have created a paradise on earth to prepare a worthy setting for the Mother
of God, and the solemn Saints whose duty it is to guard her throne. A bower
of palms forms an arch over the Virgin's head ; olives and cypresses rise over
the two sentinels , and all around there is a scent of roses and lilies, and
of the countless flowers which cover the ground. The Virgin, of a solemn
and pensive beauty, is in the act of offering the breast to the struggling
Babe, but the sense of her dignity represses her motherly instinct. The
two aSaints, figures full of rugged character and stern experience of life,
show proof of their right to appear on the steps of this throne; the one
points with his hand to the scroll with "Agnus Dei", while the other holds
the open book, the raised pen, as if he were still engaged in writing his
Gospel of I. ove. liven in later years Botticelli never produced a religious
picture which tranquillises the soul, and gives a heavenward bent to earth-

19
bound thoughts, so persuasively as the "Madonna of the Palms", which
we must mentally replace in one of the dim side-chapels of Santo Spirito
in order fully to appreciate its effect.
What a tumult of emotion, what passion, halt repressed, is seen in the
"Assumption of the Virgin", formerly in the church of San Marco, now in

Fig. 14. Madonna of the Magnificat. Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
(From a photograph by Anderson, Rome.)

the Accademia at Florence (Fig. 18). There are many points which indicate
that this picture was produced about the same time as the Madonna at
Berlin and soon after the artist's journey to Rome in 1481. The drawing of
the principal group reminds us strongly of Fra Filippo's "Coronation of the
Virgin" in the Duomo at Spoleto; the colours have not the depth and
glow that we see, for instance, in the "Madonna enthroned", also in the
Accademia, while they have not, on the other hand, the cold and dim look
of the "Annunciation" in the Uffizi, a picture of Botticelli's latest period.

20

with an

In addition to this, the upper part of the picture, in accordance
old tradition , is painted on a background of gold , whilst in the figures

Fill 15. Ill>\l> UK TIIK Mu'ONW >i|. THE MlOXIFHU
l-'rnm 1 photograph hy Oi.icomo Brogi, Florence.)

ol saints who appear on a green meadow below, Botticelli does not yet
plainly show himself such a master of perspective as his contemporaries
ga\e him credit for being. But yet how clearly the character of each ot

21

the fdur men is portrayed ! The Evangelist of love , in strong emotion ;
St. Augustine, writing composedly ; St. Jerome, beholding the vision with a
gaze of indescribable yearning; and finally St. Eligius, patron of goldsmiths,
a venerable impersonation of the sanguine spirit. For in these four men
we find the four temperaments presented , and each takes part according

Fig, 16. Group of Angels from the Magnificat.
(From a photograph by Giacomo Brogi, Florence.)

to his nature in the great heavenly event. God the Father and the
Virgin appear above in a blue and red circle of cherubim, both con
sumed by the flame of fervent rapture. Mary in all humility and grati
tude is receiving the crown of heaven; God the Father seems almost
to show a holy anger in the energy with which He gives utterance to His
Will, as he places the crown on her head. The ardour of their enthusiasm

has communicated itself to the angels, who circle round the central SrouP
in ceaseless movement. They leap and soar, dance and fly throug t e
air in vehement joy. Nothing can check the tumultuous movement of t eir
flight; the heavens seem full of them, and those who are not taking part in
the circling motion scatter countless roses at the feet of the Queen of heaven.

Fig. 17. M\i>onna enthhum-i) \\11n 1 ui-- rwo SS. John. Museum, Berlin.
(From a photograph hy Franz H.inlatangl, Munich.)

In describing the quiet lite of an artist which was never duly re
warded by outward success, while its inward development was marvellously
logical and serene, and took a shape of infinite richness and productive
ness, we shall pay but small attention to the few historical data pre
served by tradition, and shall follow with sympathy the psychological process
of its hidden growth, perfection and decline. It helps us little to under-

Fig. 18. The Coronation of the Virgin. Academy, Florence.

^4
stand Botticelli , if we hear that he was commissioned in October, 1482,
jointly with Domenico Ghiriandajo, to paint the Sala dell' Udienza in
the Palazzo Pubblico , or that his art was to have been called in re
quisition, again with the same master, in 1491, for decorating with
mosaic the chapel of St. Zenobius in the Duomo at Florence, since he
seems never to have carried out either work; but we follow eagerly
the phases of his inward development, and remembering the animated
strife of opposite currents of thought of which Florence was the scene at
the end of the Quattrocento, we ask expectantly how his painting of the
Madonna, which was for him the chief theme of art, however varied the
episodes, will pursue its course, and what ultimate form its development
will take.
It is a fact that the most brilliant epoch of the rule of Lorenzo the
Magnificent was little to the advantage of religious art, because it was in
the antique that the period sought and found its ideal. Moreover Botti
celli's residence at Rome falls within this period ; it was then , too , in all
probability, that he painted the apparently very extensive frescoes at Villa
Lemmi near Florence ; and , finally, he was himself so deeply initiated in
the ideas of the humanist circle that it was the Hellenic goddess of love,
instead of the chaste Virgin Mary, who filled his imagination for a time,
and whose charming picture he has attempted to immortalise in paintings
which are among his most delightful works in beauty of colour and form.
Then, at the beginning of the nineties, there broke a devastating blast,
a destructive hailstorm, over the luxuriant flowers and luscious fruit which
the Renaissance had sown on mouldering soil. In 149 1 Savonarola began
his sermons in the Duomo at Florence. We know from more than one
eye-witness what an immense impression the voice of the preacher, calling
them to repentance, produced on his innumerable hearers. Pico della
Mirandola, for instance, one of the most brilliant luminaries in the brilliant
circle of the Magnificent, describes how his hair stood on end and he
trembled in every limb , as one of the thrilling sermons of the Dominican
passed over him like a storm. And Lorenzo Violi, who wrote down Savo
narola's sermons in the church, interrupts himself and writes: "Here I could
write no more, so overcome was I by the sweetness of his utterance "," and
at the close of the celebrated Good Friday Sermon of 1494 he makes the
same confession and adds: "So great was the pain and the sobbing which
overtook me" What wonder, that the eloquence and the example of this
powerful character, who was never weary of calling wanton Florence more
urgently and still mote urgently to repentance, completely changed the
look of the town in a lew months? In fact, when on the last day of the
Carnival in 1497 an immense pile of the most glorious works of art,
pictures, statues, miniatures, was abandoned to the flames amidst the
plaudits and hymns of all the youth of Florence, united in single-minded
enthusiasm, it seemed lor a moment as if the marvellous culture of the
Renaissance was doomed to sink lor ever into ashes. That culture had

25
its dart side , its elements of guilt and horror ; but it will always mark a
climax in the history of humanity. However, historical research has long
ago acquitted the monk of San Marco of the reproach of annihilating the
fairest flowers of art which the world has seen since the day of the Greeks.

Fig. 19. Madonna. National Gallery, London.

It is true that on one side he laid a hand on its development and checked
it, but what a rich and fertile current of thought he turned in another
direction! As Savonarola, year after year, held young and old, rich and
poor, high and low, spellbound by the fire of his eloquence, a permanent
impression could not fail to be made on the artist community of Florence.

Fig. 20. The Canigiani Madonna. Academy, Vienna.

Vasari relates , in fact , that among others Luca della Robbia , Lorenzo di
Credi, Fra Bartolommeo, Sandro Botticelli and lastly Michelangelo himself
were his most zealous adherents , and they have all given expression in
their works , to a greater or less extent , to the thoughts of their mighty
teacher. We may believe Vasari's statement that Botticelli , like so many
others, was completely lost for a time in the political confusion of those
days , but he was certainly misinformed when he related that Botticelli
really produced nothing more after coming into contact with Savonarola.
On the contrary, just as Michelangelo derived his intellectual ideal of the
Madonna from Savonarola's sermons, we can only suppose the Virgins of
Sandro, so full of soul, the outcome of so deep an emotion, to have been
produced under the influence of the same man, who had so much to tell
of the maternal love of Mary, of her anxious, foreboding soul, her prophetic
insight into the future. But with Michelangelo the merely human relations

27

Fig. 21. Madonna with St. John the Baptist and an Angel. Turin.

between Mother and Child were never completely lost sight of in the sad
and solemn strain in which he treated the subject. Botticelli, on the other
hand, with the same depth of affection but less strength of will, almost forgot
the ideals of his youth and returned by preference to entirely religious
painting under the influence of Savonarola's sermons. But even when he
remains true to his own nature and paints Mother and Child, as in earlier
years, in confidential intercourse, seeking love and receiving it, alone with
one another in the wide world, or guarded and adored by timid angels, or
accompanied , now and again , by the little St. John — even then we are
astonished at the tumultuous fervour, the half-repressed ardour of passionate
love with which Mary embraces the infant Jesus. And yet she is not
happy; the shadow of death makes the flame of joy burn dimly; even the
consoling love of the child Jesus cannot banish the Mother's secret fear.
One may compare the Madonna in the National Gallery (Fig. 19) with the

28
Madonna in the Louvre, already mentioned, and it will appear at a glance
how marvellously Botticelli's painting of the Virgin has gained in depth of
insight and expression under Savonarola's influence. As in all the later works
of the master, the composition has become more compact, but the motive is
still almost the same : Mary embracing the Child, who stands on her lap. But
just as the Child's craving for affection has become far more urgent/ the
Mother also expresses
the profoundest tender
ness of love. The veil of
sorrow has fallen over
the grace, over the
charm of youthfulness
which delighted us in the
Louvre picture, but for
Mary there has been an
awakening of the soul.
The "tondo" of
the Academy at Vienna
(Fig. :oi, that of the
Turin Gallery and , fi
nally, the Holy Family
of the Pitti Palace, intro
duce us similarly to a
magic circle, the stillness
of a region of dreams,
where the world is for
gotten. The motive ot
the first picture is an
extremely happy inven
tion. Two angels have
plucked roses for the
child Jesus and are offer
ing him the gift. The
boy has been eagerly
collecting the flowers out
of the lap of one of the
angels into the folds of
his own little shirt, and now he turns back happily to his Mother to bring the
treasure to her. But alas! her sorrowful mood persists; she expresses love,
it may be, and gratitude, but not |oy, and she does not perceive the question:
"Why are you not glad?" in the Child's disappointed look, so innocent and
touching. The angels, too, who were approaching, as in every picture, in
timid reserve, have noticeil the grief of the Madonna, and they divine its
cause. ".See how sad she is! ", the younger whispers to the elder, who bows
his lair, curly head, lost in thought, and still holds up his lap full of roses.

Fig

. -2.1. Madonna del P\smmD.di. Pitti F.il.ice, Florence.
(From a photograph by (iiacomo Brogi, Florence.)

29
The "tondo" at Turin (Fig. 2ij, executed in great part by the pupils
of the master, returns to the old theme of the Mother suckling her Child.
The little St. John and an angel have drawn near in silent adoration, but
Mary heeds them not; she has fallen to her knees in prayer and presses
the Child, who sucks eagerly at her breast, in fervent, almost passionate

Fig. 23. Madonna with seven Angels. Museum, Berlin.
(From a photograph by Franz Hanfstangl, Munich.)

love to her heart ; her eyes are downcast , her lips closed , but we feel
that her soul is rising in ardent entreaty to God.
The picture with life-sized figures in the Pitti Palace (Fig. 22), an
anticipation of Raphael's "Madonna del Passeggio", introduces once more
a fresh motive. The little St. John has met the Madonna wandering alone
in a rose-garden, and^'begged her to let him greet her Child with a kiss.
Mary cannot deny him his wish , and stoops down with the Child , till

3Q

Fie, -J4- Madonn\ knthkom-i> wmh Sums. Academy, Florence.

St. John is able to throw his arms round him in a transport of devotion.
St. John is the most attractive of the three persons in the picture, for the
Virgin and Jesus seem only to yield mechanical obedience to pressure from
without, and accept the boy's demonstration of love so coldly, with such
an abandonment to woe, that we ate aware of a great falling-off in the
artist's power, if, indeed, the actual execution of the painting is to be
regarded as the master's own.

31

"Wriiat shall I say of the maternal love of Mary for her Child? What
of Mary herself? There is little to be found in the Scriptures about her,
and the Holy Ghost, her Maker, has left much to the meditation of him
who contemplates her devoutly." That is the beginning of one of Savo
narola's sermons on the Virgin, in which he represents the Madonna as a
prophetess, deep in thought, looking forward to the future in sad expectation.
Botticelli, the "piagnone", caught at such words as those and made them
a law to himself. And there was never an artist before him who so
entirely forgot himself and concentrated his thoughts on the nature of the
Mother of God ; there has been none since his day who has been so un
wearied in inventing new motives which should either bring the Virgin
into human closeness to the believer or else show him a godlike being at
an unapproachable distance , and arouse perforce his awe and veneration
Under the influence of Savonarola, the picture of Mary seems to recede
from the artist's own sight into higher spheres ; he hardly dares to approach
the secret grief and love
of her mother's heart,
and the devotional picture
occupies ever more and
more of his fertile fancy.
The chief productions
of this period of the ar
tist's career are the "Ma
donna enthroned" of the
Accademia at Florence, a
tondo in the Uffizi, another
in the Pallavicini collec
tion at Rome and, finally,
though it comes at the
extreme limit of the pe
riod, the "Nativity" in
the National Gallery, Lon
don, to which the signa
ture with name and date
lends a unique interest.
But a quantity of pictures
were also produced after
1490 in Botticelli's studio,
which, like so many ot
Raphael's later Madonnas,
show the master's hand
in the drawing and, here
and there , even in the
execution , whereas al
most all the WOrk in them Fig. 25. Study of an Angel. Academy, Florence.

32

Fig. 26. Madonna Ufhzi Gallery, Florence.
(From a photograph by Anderson, Rome.)

had to be left to the hands of assistants, because it was no longer possible
for the master to cope with the ever-increasing number of commissions.
The large picture of the Madonna with angels bearing tapers, in the Berlin
Museum , and the round pictures in the Borghese Villa at Rome and the
Corsini Palace at Florence are among the best of this extensive category;
in fact, they have preserved so much of Botticelli's spirit, that there are
critics, even at the present day, who accept them as works of the master's
own hand in all respects.
It is a peculiarity of almost all these pictures that the Infant Christ
turns with His right hand raised in blessing towards a throng of worshippers,
while the burden of an inexorable destiny seems to weigh more and more
heavily on the Virgin.
It must be said that part of these pictures have hitherto been dated
almost ten years earlier; but if we allow that our artist went through a

33
logical.development, if we believe that the influence of Savonarola enabled
him to achieve yet higher things, if we recognise his never ceasing endeavour
to intensify expression and to depict the state of the soul itself, we
cannot deny to the monk of San Marco that important share in forming
Botticelli's ideal of the Madonna, which is undoubtedly his due. Indeed, it

Fig. 27. Heads of three Angels from the Tondo in the Uffizi Gallery.
(From a photograph by Giacomo Brogi, Florence.)

has always been rightly regarded as the effect of his heart-stirring preaching,
that profane art was never more than an episode in the Renaissance, and
that Mary and the Saints maintained their victorious supremacy over the
gods of Greece.
In the Madonna at Berlin (Fig. 23) the seven angels carrying tapers,
who surround the throne, especially arouse our interest. As far as com
position and drawing go , they are certainly Botticelli's own work. Such
Steinmann, Botticelli. 3

34
an idea occurs nowhere else in the master's pictures of the Virgin, and
it is worth observing, because it teaches us how Botticelli adhered to
the tradition of the church, which symbolised by the seven candles the
seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. Dante also, in the "Purgatorio", describes
the triumphal car of the church as accompanied by the seven candles
of the Apocalypse, and Botticelli has represented it accordingly in his
famous illustrations to Dante, which are among the greatest treasures
of the Cabinet of Prints and Drawings at Berlin.
"Vergine, madre, figlia del tuo figlio " — Virgin , mother, daughter of
thy Son - is the inscription on the highest step of the throne of the
Madonna which Botticelli painted for the Convent of St. Barnabas, and
which is now preserved in the Accademia at Florence (Fig. 24). The words
are taken from the thirty-third canto of Dante's "Paradiso", and it seems
as if the marvellous characterisation of the Virgin in the following line,
"Unfile ed alta piu che creatura"1), struck the key-note of the whole
picture. The huge painting, which has suffered in places from restoration,
is carried out everywhere with equal care, and is, technically, one of the
most finished pictures which Botticelli ever produced. With what noble
artistic effect the throne of the Madonna stands under the receding arch!
how unconstrained is the movement of the Saints in the wide space
before the throne ! It is a chosen group of holy men and women that have
gathered round the Virgin, as if they wished to keep all unholy things
from her presence , while they recommend the prayers of the faithful
to her merciful intercession. We behold a picture of stern asceticism in
St. John; next to him stands St. Michael, as a type of youthful beauty;
but between the two, like kindly old age reconciling the harsh contrasts
of youth , appears the white-bearded Augustine , with eyes bent devoutly
to the ground. While the latter seems to be absorbed in thought, fathoming
the mysteries of the Godhead, the black-bearded St. Barnabas on the opposite
side is expounding doctrine which St. Ambrose , in profound emotion , is
recording in his book. The charmingly naive St Catherine alone preserves
her virginal simplicity in the Divine presence; beauty confers on her the
privilege of appearing among those solemn men, and she compensates for
any want of profundity of thought by the true womanly feeling which we
can read in her features.
Whereas all these saints are represented as men, who are still searching
for enlightenment , the angels , forms of indescribable beauty, clad in rai
ment of light and variegated colours , take a direct part in the thoughts
and emotions of the Virgin. It is true, they are only ministering spirits;
but they fulfil their duties with the holy fire of enthusiasm, and with
boundless humility. Two ol them hold the crown of thorns and the nails
towards the Saviour, while two others are busv in fastening the crimson
curtains to the walls. Mary takes no heed of what is passing around her;
') Humble and high In-yoni! all other inrUun- (Longfellow).

35
she h»lds the Child almost mechanically in her arms whilst He gives the
benediction, and she gazes out of the picture with her large eyes, lost in
painful thought. Sitting on her throne, under the velvet canopy, affectio
nately served by angels , venerated in all humility by saints , she still can
feel no joy, and her silent grief has communicated itself to her Son.
How effective is the contrast, how deeply felt, and how vividly portrayed!
"Humble and high", in truth, "beyond all other creature" does the Virgin
appear, but sighing under the oppressive weight of her destiny. The scene
of the action leads us to the steps of a royal throne , and between the
chosen figures, in festal attire, which surround it, there sits on the throne

a^*»T"aa-jaaaTT -f

Fig. 28. Pen-drawing of the Adoration of the Holy Child. Uffizi Gallery.

a trembling woman with a naked babe in her arms; a woman, too, whom
Botticelli has clad , after Savonarola's stern injunction , in the plain robes
of a matron.
If Botticelli's youthful ideal of the Madonna took its purest and loveliest
shape in the "Magnificat", all criticism must finally be hushed before
the tondo (Fig. 26) of the Virgin surrounded by six angels, which hangs
exactly opposite the "Magnificat" in the Uffizi in its splendid original
frame , of light blue adorned with golden lilies.
It is a masterly composition , with subdued , rather sad colouring of
restful and pleasing effect, and wrought out with deliberate rejection of any
meretricious brilliancy of detail. Botticelli, like many another painter, had
been fond of gay colour in his youth ; but here we meet, perhaps for the
first time, with an effort to bring all the tones into harmony, to achieve
3*

36a calm and even effect of colour, and to lend outward emphasis to the
clearly accentuated unity of idea which the picture possesses. So com
pletely does this picture rise above the restrictions of space and time, that
we do not even know whether the scene is laid in heaven or on earth.
Golden rays descend through the pale blue ether on Mother and Child,
who are more than ever conscious of bearing the burden of all the sorrow
of mankind. The sad looking Babe grasps with his left hand the pomegranate
which Mary offers him, and holds up his right hand in benediction. He
lies softly resting in his Mother's lap. That Mother of Sorrows, whose
silent woe could not be more poignantly uttered, has communicated her
heartfelt grief to the angels, who throng round her closely, whispering
their eager questions , as if it were already their task to shield the Virgin
from contact with pain (Fig. 27). Yes, it is the lonely woman, exposed
to the scorn and railing of men, of whom Savonarola spoke in such im
pressive language; whose heart brooded day and night over the pro
phecies , in trembling expectation , in agonized foretaste of the inevitable
doom to come.
The Nativity, painted in 1500, in the National Gallery, London (Fig. 29!,
is removed by its subject from the group of pictures of the Madonna in the
narrower sense; but it gives the most remarkable proof, how firm and
deeply rooted was the recollection of Savonarola in Botticelli's soul, and it
must, therefore, be considered here in conclusion. The artist had already
treated the Adoration of the Shepherds at an earlier period; for in
stance, in a tondo which was formerly in Lord Dudley's collection: but
he had never ventured till now to blend the fancies created by his own
imagination with a biblical subject whose form was hallowed by the tradition
of centuries. A drawing in the Uffizi (Fig. 28) for the principal group is
remarkable because it teaches us that Botticelli was never satisfied with
his achievement in the way of expression, and that even if the drawing
showed a complete grasp of the idea, he still strove unremittingly, in the
execution of the picture, after a greater depth of realisation, after the
perfect rendering of the emotion which possessed his soul. Thus we see
the morose old foster-father, who in the sketch is just beginning to nod,
completely doubled up, in the picture, and sound asleep ; the naked Babe,
however, stretches his hands and feet in impatient craving towards his
Mother, who passes the Christmas night with her child in silent adoration,
yielding less than St. Joseph to the human need of sleep. To right
and left, at a measured distance, kneel the Kings and the Shepherds,
crowned with olive, whilst angels point out to them the miracle which
has come to pass. The Sages from the East appear, as in the unfinished
Adoration in the Uffizi, without the attributes of their royal dignity; but
liollicelli has represented them, according to old tradition, as personifications
of the three ages of human life. Three angels kneel on the thatched roof
of the shed and sing the -'Cloria in iwcrlsis " in deep devotion; both thev

Fig. 29. The Nativity. National Gallery, London.
(From a photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach and Paris.)

38and their companions, who dance in a circle in the sky in the fervour
of their rejoicing, carry large olive-boughs. Even the motion of the angels
in the Coronation of the Virgin seems subdued when compared with the
irresistible energy with which the heavenly hosts pursue their onward
course, as if they must needs give vent to their passionate enthusiasm.
Was the artist thinking of the carnivals of 1496 and 1497- when the b°ys
and girls of the city, in the unbridled transports of prematurely excited
passion, leaped round the bonfires, on which the costly luxuries of a re
fined civilisation were sacrificed to the idea of an undisputed dominion of
Christ over Florence? For that was the aim and object of all Savonarola's
sermons, an aim which he seemed to have attained when the inscription
"Jesus Christus Rex populi Florentini " was set up over the entrance of the
Palazzo Vecchio. In that case we have here not only another eloquent witness
to the active part which Botticelli took in the quickly-changing events of those
stormy days, but also a proof of the deep susceptibility of the artist, in
whose works we can still behold, as in a mirror, a picture of the times in
which he lived. In the subject represented at the bottom of the picture, the
son has erected a final monument of gratitude to his spiritual father. Here
three angels are greeting with kisses and embraces three Dominicans,
crowned with olive , while the fiends , who have nothing in common with
the souls of these holy men, are utterly confounded and seek refuge in the
clefts of the rocks. Even if there is no attempt at actual portraiture in the
faces of these men , there can be no doubt as to the persons whom they
represent. They are the three Dominican martyrs , Girolamo Savonarola,
Domenico Buonvicini and Silvestro Marussi, whom Botticelli has represented
here, according to the precedent of Fra Angelico, in the embrace of angels,
as the "homines bonae voluntatis", of whom it is said that "they rest
from their labour and their works do follow them". The half-mystical
inscription on the upper margin of the picture , containing the following
expressions: "I, Alessandro, painted this picture during the confusion of
Italy at the end of the year 1500 . . in the time when the Devil was let
loose for the space of three and a half years", has only recently found
an • interpreter ; it refers to the martyrdom of Savonarola and his ex
communication by Pope Alexander VI, events which, in 1 500, were three
and a half years old.
The picture is painted on a small scale and carried out with equal
care in every part. It entirely contradicts Vasari's assertion that the creative
energy of Botticelli was spent, when he came under Savonarola's influence.
This work brings us to the end of the master's career; we must now turn
back twenty years, and accompany him, at the prime of life, to the Eternal
City, where the greatest aitists of his native town, both before and after
him, produced their monumental works, and where Botticelli too made his
first attempts at historical painting on a large scale, and gained a brilliant
success. In his Madonnas Botticelli appears a dreamer who cherished an
ideal ol his youth even till his old age as a sacred memory, and clothed

39
it in new shapes with never-ceasing affection ; in Rome , at the court of
Sixtus IV, he becomes on a sudden the man of action, to whom the aged
Pope, with rare knowledge of character, entrusted the most difficult tasks
in the extensive cycle of paintings in his -palace-chapel , with the certainty
that they would be promptly executed.

II.
In the church of Ognissanti at Florence are to be seen two figures of
Saints in fresco, St. Jerome and St. Augustine, opposite to one another,
in the walls of the nave. Domenico Ghiriandajo painted the St. Jerome
in 1480; the St. Augustine was a slightly later work of Sandro Botticelli.
Vasari even tells a story of a competition between the two masters on this
occasion ; and may we not believe his words, when we see how seriously the
artists took the work
entrusted to them, and
what pains they took
to show off their whole
power and accomplish
ment in painting a
single figure in the
narrow space of a
theologian's study? In
fact, anyone who wishes
at the present day to
comprehend at a glance
the special importance
of those two men, who
shared the highest
honours of art in their
famous native town of
Florence, in the second
half of the Quattro
cento, may well devote
his attention to the two
figures of Saints at Og
nissanti, seriously, da
maged, but still impres
sive and ranking among
the finest and most cha
racteristic works of Bot
ticelli and Ghiriandajo
when in the full enjoy
ment of their powers.

Fig. 30. St. Augustine. Ognissanti, Florence.

40 St. Augustine (Fig. 30), an old man with a massive frame, sits at his
writing-table in a dimly lighted room, where enormous books are dis
played on the ledge which runs along the wall. The splendour of the gold
tissue in his episcopal robes is subdued, but the pearl-embroidered mitre
on the table betrays his high ecclesiastical rank. There is nothing in the
narrow chamber to distract him from serious thought ; a globe which stands
on the reading-desk, rolls of manuscripts and open books form the whole
of his working material. The Saint's left hand, from which the rich drapery
of the mantle is thrown back above the elbow, rests on the writing-desk and
grasps the ink-stand ; the right
hand is lifted to the breast
in an attitude expressive of
strong emotion. St. Augustine
has his head bent a little for
ward, his eyes are directed up
wards, and his lips slightly
apart. His eyes are radiant
and wide open, as if they be
held a vision. Is he receiving
at this moment a revelation
which will set him free at
once from all the perplexities
which earnest thought and
labour did not avail to solve?
What yearnings after things
beyond this world, what he
sitation , mingled with hope,
at escaping at last from the
torment of enquiry and be
holding the truth , the very
truth indeed , are revealed in
the gaze and attitude of this
aged figure , whose features
have taken a cast of great
nobility and expressiveness after long years of work and after profound
meditation. When Sixtus IV, probably at the suggestion of his nephew , Giuliano
della Rovere, who was travelling to France, summoned the best Florentine
artists to Rome in the summer ol 14S1, to paint the newly finished sanctuary
of his palace, Botticelli could point only to one achievement as a fresco-
painter, in addition to the St. Augustine at Ognissanti, and that one was
little calculated to recommend him.
It was not till November 25, 1480, that the citizens of Florence
were released, in a solemn ceremony before the closed bronze gates of
St. Peter's, from the interdict which rested on them in consequence of the

Fig. 31. Sixtus II. Sistine Chapel, Rome.
(From a photograph by Anderson, Rome,")

4'

unsuccessful conspiracy of the
Pazzi, in which the Pope him
self was implicated. Botti
celli was the very artist who
had painted the portraits of
the conspirators on the walls of
the Bargello in remembrance
of the happy preservation of
Lorenzo de' Medici and the
death of his enemies; and
among these portraits was that
of the Archbishop of Pisa,
whose assassination provoked
the bitter wrath of Sixtus.
As early as February 6, 1479,
the Pope addressed to the
Signoria of Florence an urgent
demand for the destruction of
these portraits; but his anger
does not seem to have ex
tended to the painter, for not
only is Botticelli named first

Fig. 33. Pope Cornelius. Sistine Chapel, Rome.
(From a photograph by Anderson, Rome.)

Fig. 32 Stephanus Romanus. Sistine Chapel, Rome.
(From a photograph by Anderson, Rome.)
among the artists who were
definitely engaged on Oc
tober 27, 148 1, but, if we may
believe Vasari, it was to him
that the direction of the whole
of this extensive work was
entrusted. The Chapel of Sixtus IV
will always prove the supre
macy of Florence over all the
other cities of Italy as the
birth-place of artistic genius
at the period of the Renais
sance. It will always be ce
lebrated as the chief glory of
the city on the Arno, con
taining, as it does, the united
achievements of the three
sister arts. A Florentine archi
tect, Giovanni de' Dolci, built
the Chapel ofthe Papal palace,
Mino da Fiesole designed and

4-carried out the greater part of its sculptural decoration, while, finally,
Florentine artists, from Sandro Botticelli to Michelangelo, won immortal
fame by the paintings which they executed on wall and ceiling. What
a ferment of life in quick pulsation, what a rivalry of powers exerted
to the uttermost, went on during the two years from the summer of 1481
to August 15, 1483, within the walls of the Sistine chapel, those walls
which were left for Michelangelo to finish, working there in solitude at his
Titanic task till the whole was painted.

Fig. 34. Temptation of Christ. Sisiine Chapel.
(From a photograph by Anderson, Rome i

The plan of the basilica of old St. Peter's, which remained till Bra
mante undertook its reconstruction in the reign of Julius II, seems to have
been received as a precedent for the design and decoration of the Sistine
chapel. The rich mosaic decoration of the floor, "opus Alexandrinum",
as it is called, is found almost invariably in the early Christian basilicas
of Rome, but hardly ever in Renaissance churches; the marble barrier
between the space allotted to the laity and that reserved for the priests
is also without a parallel in i/iiiif/rocnito art, and is imitated from the rail
which enclosed the tomb of the Princes of the Apostles in St. Peter's; but
the most remarkable thing is the distribution of ornament on the walls,
with the portraits ol popes at the top, level with the windows, the series
of historical paintings in the middle, and the pictorial tapestry below. This

Fig. 33. The Sacrifice of the Leper axd the Temptation of Christ.
(From a photograph by Anderson, Rome.)

Sistine Chapel.

44all proves how completely the successor of St. Peter was bent on reproducing
in his domestic chapel the main characteristics of the most venerable fane
in Christendom. Modern art can boast of no second series of monumental
paintings to compare with those of the Sistine chapel, in which the life of
Moses is so displayed as the counterpart of the life of Christ , that the
separate scenes are treated typically. The paintings by the hand of
Perugino on the wall above the altar were sacrificed to Michelangelo's
"Last Judgment" Of the twelve frescoes still preserved on the lateral
walls, three were carried out by Botticelli, while some of the martyr-popes,
represented above at full length between the windows, are also by his
hand, as we are told by Vasari. These pictures of the popes are arranged
in a long series, like a gallery of ancestors, and each of the dignified and
stately figures is so composed as to resemble a statue in a wide niche.
Their present condition is by no means satisfactory, but it seems as if
neither Fra Diamante nor Ghiriandajo, nor even Botticelli himself can have
exerted their full powers on paintings placed at such a dizzy height. The
close resemblance to the St. Augustine at Ognissanti enables us immediately
to recognise Sixtus II (Fig. 31) und Stephanus Romanus (Fig. 32; as works
of Botticelli. These are the finest types, and those of most spiritual signi
ficance, among the portraits of the popes; and in them the artist has
expressed a momentary mood — in one case holy enthusiasm, in the other
profound meditation — as he was wont to do in his best works. The youthful
Cornelius (Fig. 33) and the popes Soter, Evaristus, Caius and Marcellinus
are weaker in sentiment and less precisely drawn; but although they have
all suffered from re-painting and from the falling off of pieces of plaster,
they still betray clearly the strongly marked characteristics of their author,
whose share in the representation of the four-and-twenty martyr-popes was
probably confined to these seven.
It seems likely that Botticelli began his work in the Sistine chapel
with the single New Testament subject which is commonly called "The
Temptation of Christ" (Fig. 35). This curious picture is the second fresco
on the right-hand wall, between the " Baptism of Christ ' by Perugino and
Domenico Ghirlandajo's "Calling of the first Disciples", and directly op
posite the papal throne. Thus , even to the present day, the gaze of the
successor of St. Peter must fall on this very picture, when he assists at the
masses which are still sung regularly, at least twice a vear, in the Sistine
chapel. Has he any idea of the significance which that fresco possessed for
the builder of the chapel? Does he know the reason whv- the subject from
the New Testament is coiupleteh' thrust into the background by that curious
scene before a temple in the foreground? If we look first of all, as is
natural, in Botticelli's picture, for a connecting link between the "Baptism
of Christ" on the left and the "Calling of the Disciples" on the right of
his Iresco, we shall discover the "Temptation of Christ" carried out in
detail on a small scale in the background. On the left, on a rocky
eminence planted with olives, Satan approaches the Redeemer in the venerable

45
garb of* a capuchin. Holding his staff and rosary in his left hand, he points
with his right hand to the stones on the ground, while Christ, in gentle
but earnest protest, raises his hand against the tempter, whose true nature
isjnoreover betrayed by the vulture's claws and bat's wings.
The second scene of the Temptation introduces us to the pinnacles
of the temple, a splendid Renaissance building which dominates the middle
of the whole picture. "Cast thyself down", is the meaning conveyed by
the Devil's outstretched hand. "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" is

Fig. 36. The Leper escorted by two Friends: in the foreground to the right the portrait of Julius II. as Cardinal.
Sistine Chapel.
(From a. photograph by Anderson, Rome.)

the rebuke which we read in the countenance and gestures of the Redeemer.
Still higher rises the presumption of the Devil and still more emphatic grows
our Lord's refusal. In the first temptation Christ appears to admonish the
tempter gently ; in the second He refuses with indignation ; but the tempter's
invitation to fall down and worship him stirs Christ to the very depths.
The words "Get thee hence, Satan", illustrated by the scene on the pre
cipitous cliff in the right-hand corner, are accompanied by a passionate
gesture, and in his consternation Satan leaves the monkish dress behind
him, lets go the staff and rosary, and plunges into the abyss in his true
and repulsive shape (Fig. 34).

46 Three angels, however, are already approaching on the top of the cliff,
to spread a table with nourishment for the fasting Saviour, and lower down
on the left, in the middle distance, they appear once more, grouped round
the Redeemer as he walks, with lowly bearing, in fulfilment of the passage
of Holy Scripture: "And, behold, angels came and ministered unto him .

Fig. 37. Ce\ i kai croup from the Swkifice of thk Lftek. Sistine Chapel.
(From a photograph by Anderson, Rome.)

If Botticelli, in the "Temptation of Christ" in the background, was
continuing the series of New Testament subjects, he also commemorated
in the foreground an event of the time, the reminiscence of which must
have given much pleasure to the Rovere pope, as he sat opposite on his
throne, and listened to the sacred music of his choir. The purificatory
sacrifice of the leper, which is here being performed with minute observance
of all the usages prescribed by the Jewish law, and with magnificent display,
in the presence of the most distinguished dignitaries of the papal court, is
a subject which occurs here for the first and only time in the history of art.

47
It is nqfc surprising that for centuries no explanation of this ceremony was
known, and that even Vasari did not remember the curious meaning of the
scene, which is pyramidally constructed, and in its unity of composition
admirably occupies the whole wide foreground of Botticelli's fresco.1) The
directions given in Leviticus XIV, 2 — 7, for the purificatory sacrifice of the
leper form the text on which the representation is based :

Fig. 38. Detail from the Sacrifice of the Leper. Sistine Chapel.
(From a photograph by Anderson, Rome.)

2. This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He
shall be brought unto the priest.

*) I here repeat the explanation of this picture, with a few additions and corrections, as
I published it in the " Repertorium fitr Kunstwissatschaft", Bd. XVIII, Heft I. The "Punishment
of the Rebellion of .Korah " and its bearing, on the Archbishop of Carniola's attempt at a council,
which I shall explain in the following pages , were also unknown till the present time. I have
treated of them in greater detail elsewhere.

48 3. And the priest shall go forth out of the camp ; and the priest shall
look, and behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper:
4. Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed
two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:

Fig. 39. Detail from thk S\ckii-k> of the Leper. Sistine Chapel.
(From a photograph by Amlcrson, Rome.)

5. And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in
an earthen vessel over running water
C>. As for the living bird , he shall take it , and the cedar wood , and
the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the
blood of the bird that was killed over the running water:
7. And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the
leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living
bird loose into the open field.

49
Th* liberty which the artist was bound to allow himself, if he wanted
to combine a series of consecutive actions into a single moment which the
eye could seize at a glance, could not fail to increase the difficulty of
understanding his subject: but the touching scrupulousness with which he
has expressed every characteristic element in this sacrificial rite, is of great
assistance to us in explaining the details, when once we have seized the

Fig. 40. Head of a Young Man from the Sacrifice of the Leper. Sistine Chapel,
(From a photograph by Anderson, Rome.)
fundamental idea. In front of the splendid Renaissance temple, with
slight touches of Gothic in the windows of the upper storey, there stands
a great altar, in which the cedar wood is being burned in a cauldron
suspended over a blazing fire, in order that its fragrance may purify the
air tainted by the leper's breath. Round the altar kneels a grateful
throng, while the wife of the man who has been healed advances from
the background on the left with hasty steps , carrying two fowls in an
earthenware dish upon her head, half covered by a linen cloth. She is
Steinmann, Botticelli. 4

50
hurrying towards the running water on the right side, in order to kill one
of the birds in the earthen vessel, and to let the other go, as the Law
of Moses commands.
The leper himself seems to be looking round impatiently to see this
ceremony performed, though it is hidden from him by the bystanders. He
is just approaching slowly from the right , and , supported by two friends,

Fig. 41. The Boy with the Serpent. Sacrifice of the Leper.

has laboriously mounted the first step leading to the altar (Fig. 35). His
countenance still bears every trace of the malady which he has passed
through ; in fact, the man on his right is incredulous of his recovery, and
seeks to move the clothes aside with his hand , to convince himself that
the leprosy has actually disappeared. Meanwhile all the preparatory rites
have been performed ; the blood of the slain bird has been poured into
the golden dish, and a youthful priest in fluttering white robes is now
approaching, quite in the foreground of the picture, to offer the blood to a

5i
venerably old man in the high-priest's vestments as worn by Aaron (Fig. 37).
Both of them hold the shallow bowl, and the white-bearded elder at the
same time dips a bunch of green myrtle with the scarlet wool into the
blood, in ordre to sprinkle the leper with it seven times, and then to
restore him cleansed to the world.

Fig. 42. The Girl with a Serpent. Capitoline Museum, Rome.

We see that Botticelli has not omitted a single one of the prescribed
usages of this elaborate sacrificial rite ; and if he has chosen myrtle,
instead of hyssop , that is only because the cleansing power of the
Old Testament hyssop has been transferred to the other plant in the
custom of the Christian church: St. Margaret, for instance, in a picture
by Borgognone at Bergamo , sprinkles the unclean dragon with just such

52
a bunch of myrtle. It would have been impossible, then, for the artist
to characterize more plainly the curious process of purification; but we
ask in amazement what reason can have induced the pope to command
the insertion of a subject from the Judaic Law, a subject never previously
represented in art, in the midst of a series of New Testament pictures.
The answer proves to be simple enough, if we only remember how
Sixtus IV cherished the idea of beautifying Rome, and how zealously he
had carried on the construction of the magnificent Hospital of Santo Spirito,
which was just completed at the time when the Florentine masters began
to work in the Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately the splendid Renaissance
facade was sacrificed to a subsequent addition to the building; but an old
engraving proves that Botticelli made the facade of his temple an exact
reproduction of that of Santo Spirito. That in itself gives the explana
tion of the idea which Sixtus IV meant the artist to express in the sacri
fice of the leper's cleansing. /Was not this picture intended to enhance
the glory of the pope , in whose newly-erected hospital even the most
terrible of all diseases might hope to find a cure? Moreover, Sixtus IV
belonged to the Franciscan order, and it is not surprising that he fixed
upon leprosy as the type of all bodily maladies. Did not St. Francis, whom
the pope venerated most fervently as his especial patron, begin his glorious
career by overcoming his repugnance to the loathsome disease so far as
to devote himself to tending the lepers? The eyes of the aged pope, when
he sat on his throne, assisting at the solemn mass, might rest with special
delight on this fresco of Botticelli's, which extolled him as a worthy disciple
of St. Francis; and he might flatter himself that the picture would hand
down his glory to his most remote successors on the throne of St. Peter.
After the main point of this interesting painting has been explained,
one can understand why the oak-tree of the Rovere family is introduced
so frequently, and why so eminent an assembly of persons of rank, both
spiritual and civil , is gathered round the " Purificatory Sacrifice of the
Leper" rather than any other subject. Among others, the two most in
fluential of the pope's nephews have found a place in the picture. Giuliano
della Rovere, who was to receive the admiration of the world as Julius II,
appears in an attitude of calm superiority, holding a white cloth in his crossed
hands, at a slight distance behind the youthful priest; while the detested
Girolamo Riario, Gonfaloniere of the church since the autumn of 1480,
stands quite in the right-hand coiner, showing in token of his office the
gold-mounted wand which he had received only a few months ago from
the hand of the pope (Fig. 38). Unhappily it is almost impossible for
human ingenuity to discover the names of the men , so full of character,
and of the handsome youths, whom Botticelli introduces as more or less
interested participators in the ritual of the sacrifice; but we may assume
that most of them belonged to the Confraternity of Santo Spirito, which
Sixtus IV had founded as soon as the Hospital was finished, and of which
he and all his couit were members (Fig. 39 and 40J.

53
Tljere is one more fact, which arouses our interest in a picture com
posed with great artistic skill and executed with all the resources of an
inventive brain. In the foreground on the right in front of the woman

carrying wood (perhaps the only figure which Botticelli allowed a pupil
to paint for him), there runs a little half-naked boy who carries a quantity
of beautiful purple grapes in his lap, the possession of which a snake,
hardly recognisable at the present day, seems inclined to dispute (Fig. 41).

54
In the very happy idea which forms the motive, in gesture and play of
feature, in the uplifted right hand and the head thrown back with a fear
less expression, this boy precisely resembles the girl with a dove in the
Capitoline Museum, who also has a snake at her side, rather as a play
fellow than as an enemy (Fig. 42). The antique treasures of Rome
must have worked directly on Botticelli's imagination; and we see
how in the "Punishment of the Sedition of Korah" he introduced as
an architectural- background the Arch of Constantine, which was also
drawn by Michelangelo and countless other artists, another proof of the

Fig. 44. The Exodus. Early Life of Moaes.

impressionable nature of the artist, who found matter for meditation in
every impulse from without, and knew how to profit by it in his art when
occasion arose.
A political event, far-reaching in its effect on the last years of Sixtus IV,
and described by all contemporary writers as the most successful and
glorious circumstance of his tempestuous reign, had an indirect in
fluence on Botticelli's painting of the early life of Moses on the opposite
wall. On the 2 r1 August, 14X2, the warlike Tope was delivered by the
victory ol Roberto Malalesta at Camponmrto from his most dangerous
enemy, the Duke of Calabria; who, in the language of Jacopo da Volterra,
like a new Hannibal, had daily threatened the gates of Rome with the

55
terrors* of pillage. Sixtus commanded that the glorious feat of arms should
be commemorated in the cycle of pictures in his palace chapel, and in the
"Passage of the Red Sea" Piero di Cosimo raised a striking memorial to
the hero of Campomorto. But such an important subject demanded the
whole surface of the picture, and suffered no further scenes from the
life of Moses to be combined with it, according to the practice followed

Fig. 45. The Sons of Moses. Early Life of Moses.

in all the other frescoes, of painting several events within one frame. The
plan, moreover, was already settled before the battle was fought, and
the calling of Moses in the Old Testament was bound to correspond with
the calling of the first disciples in the New Testament. The only remaining
resource, therefore, was to connect the scene of the calling, which had to
be combined also with the Exodus from Egypt, with the preceding picture,
in which Botticelli had to depict the early life of Moses. Thus it came

56
about that the "Capitano degli Ebrei " appears only once in the fresco of
Piero di Cosimo , where the climax and conclusion of an important drama
had to be signalised , whereas Botticelli had to introduce the picture of
Moses no less than seven times on a surface of equal extent, as if he were
celebrating his achievements in an epic poem.
The difficulty of the problem was almost insurmountable — for who
was likely to recognise in such an accumulation of facts a free utterance

Fig. 46. Head of A \kon. K.irl\ Life of Moaes.

of the artist's own intention? — but, in solving it, Botticelli's power of
creation asserted itself (Fig. 43). He faithfully depicts the historical course
of events from right to left, but selects one incident of special and fasci
nating beauty as a centre for the artistic grouping of the other scenes.
In the right-hand corner the indignant Moses strikes down the unmerciful
Kgyptian overseer, who lies shrieking on the ground; the ill-treated
Israelite, with bleeding brow and face distorted with pain, falls into the
arms of his tenilied wife, who drags him from the spot. Thus the

57

death-*troke receives its formal justification ; and in the background we
see Moses, who has taken the guilt of the act upon him, fleeing alone into
the desert. Then the malice displayed by the shepherds towards Jethro's daughters
arouses his wrath again; he raises his staff and drives them in flight
before him. Then he waters the sheep of the innocent victims of their
persecution and appears , further off, as a shepherd with his sheep in

Fig. 47. Detail from the Early Life of Moses.

the act of taking off his sandals on holy ground. On his knees he re
ceives God's commandments out of the burning bush, and at last he
meets us for the seventh time as the leader of the people (Fig. 44). He
is followed by his wife and two sons, by Aaron, with a long black
beard and massive turban, and finally by women and men of the race
of Israel, the former heavily laden with household goods (Fig. 45),
the latter characterised by their costume as priest, sage or warrior
(Fig. 46 and 47).

Nothing could have stirred so deeply the sympathy of the spectator
for the hero of the Old Testament series of pictures as this straight
forward and, to all appearances, quite na!ve story, which serves as intro-

duction to his tremendous ca
a beautiful legend, and if wc
manner in which it is depicted

We are fascinated as by the narration of
ook closer, we shall discover in the simple

certain traits of profound psychological

59
truth. J.t is not the flight of Moses into the wilderness nor the routing
of the shepherds, events which are of peculiar significance as types of the
temptation of Christ; nor is it the miraculous summons from the burning
bush nor the triumphant departure from the land of servitude that have
given the artist the theme for the main composition of his picture : it is

Fig. '49. Moses drawing Water. Sistine Chapel.
(From a photograph by Anderson, Rome.)

an apparently subordinate feature of the early life of his hero that has
made the deepest impression upon him. Botticelli has characterised Moses
with his usual masterly skill as the man of action , who detests all wrong,
who does not even shrink from dealing a mortal blow where an act
of violence has to be avenged ; as the_ chosen of God ; as the leader of
the people. There is no incident over which he lingers with so much
pleasure as that loving action of the kindly stranger, who chivalrously

6o protects the weak, and gives ready help in an emergency by watering the
flock of the daughters of Midian with his own hand (Fig. 48)- This action
reveals the most beautiful side of the character of the youthful Moses, as
Botticelli's delicate tact perceived; he has represented it, accordingly, as
a charming idyllic scene by a fountain under shady oak-trees. The type
of Moses, as he draws the water (Fig. 49) is as beautiful as an ideal head
of Christ, and the two shepherdesses, one of whom has fastened the yarn,
which she has been spinning, to the top of her cloven pastoral staff, just

Fig. 50. The Daughters of Jethro. Sistine Chapel.
(From a photograph hy Anderson, Rome.)

as is done at the present day, are creations of enchanting freshness and
truly poetic beauty (Fig. 50).
This fresco has unfortunately suffered much damage on the right side,
where the baldachino is erected over the pope's throne, and it was im
possible to avoid restoring it. Apart from that, however, this picture also
must be regarded as Botticelli's own work throughout; indeed, he employed
the hands of assistants much less than the majority of the artists who worked
at the same task.
Thus in the last of the master's paintings in the Sistine chapel it is
only in the background on the right, in the row of columns, that a practised
eye will recognise a pupil's handiwork, whereas Botticelli himself must have

6i
carried„out the whole of the vast work in all essentials. It is, technically,
the most perfect of the three frescoes , and the execution is so careful in
every detail , even to the golden hem of a garment ; the events are so
dramatically set forth and the single figures so sharply characterised and
drawn with such a masterly touch, that one cannot but recognise a steady
growth of artistic power, while we must also assume that Botticelli's interest
was aroused more deeply than usual. Was external influence brought to
bear on him , and was a higher exertion of power demanded of him to
cope with a higher task? Or was he himself excited beyond his wont by
the difficulty of clothing an abundance of theological learning in an artistic
form hardly adapted to its needs? At any rate, as in the "Leper's Sacrifice",

Fig. 51. The Punishment of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Sistine Chapel.
(From a photograph by Anderson, Rome.)

so here , Botticelli has contrived , like a true artist , to clothe the stubborn
matter of his theme in such a beautiful form, that in his delight the
spectator quite loses sight of the difficulty of the subject. It was a personal
triumph, no doubt, for the artist: but, as regards the public, it was a
fatal error; for, to the present day, the so-called "Punishment of the Re
bellion of Korah" has remained "unto the Jews a stumbling-block and
unto the Greeks foolishness". This magnificent fresco, which always attracts
our eye and excites our imagination, cannot be completely understood
till we have, on the one hand, clearly grasped its significance as the
Old Testament prototype of Perugino's "Delivery of the Keys to St. Peter"
on the opposite wall, and, on the other hand, taken the trouble to search
out the sources in the Old Testament from which the separate scenes,
with their numerous figures, are derived.

62 It is obvious that the subject of the delivery of the keys to St. Peter
could not be omitted in his successor's court chapel; in fact, the whole
cycle of New Testament pictures had to reach its climax in this solemn
act, on which the historical position of the papacy is based. Perugino was
fully aware, how honourable was the task entrusted to him; and it may be
affirmed that he has quite sur
passed himself in his grand
and simple treatment of that
sublime moment, in which
Christ chose the noblest of
His disciples to be the corner
stone of the church. What
a clearness in the compo
sition, what a monumental
grandeur in the figures ! How
dignified, how noble is the
Giver! What humilty, what
faith are displayed by the
receiver! No doubt, it was a
mark of the Pope's special
confidence, when he allotted
this subject to the Umbrian
master: but must not Botti
celli, too, have given good
proof of his ability, before
Sixtus could permit him en
tirely to revolutionize the
treatment of its Old Testa
ment parallel ? The threaten
ing inscription on the Arch
of Constantine :
"Nemo sibi assumat hono-
rem nisi vocatus a deo
tanquam Aron 1),"
illustrates very clearly what
is taking place at the altar,
where the seditious mob of
Korah (Fig. 51) is being consumed by fire, because they dared with impious
hands to offer sacrifice to God, a privilege committed only to the priestly
race of Aaron. We see the aged high-priest in the background , adorned
with the triple crown , quietly swinging his censer, and Eleazar hurrying
away to make the censers of the men who have been burned into plates
for a covering of the altar, while Moses, in the foreground, in a dark-green

Fig. 52. MoaF.s, from the Punishment of Korah.

*) Let no man take office upon himself, unless he be called of God, as Aaron was.

63
mantle ^bordered with gold, with uplifted staff and eyes turned towards
heaven, invokes destruction on the rebels. This kingly figure is the ideal
Moses as conceived by the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance (Fig. 52).
It was only Michelangelo who could surpass this presentment of a being
kindled through and through with divine fire, and combining the noblest

Fig. 53. The Stoning of the Blasphemer, from the Punishment of Korah.

human dignity with a lofty consciousness of rights conferred by God. But
would Michelangelo himself have penetrated so deeply into the character
of the great Shepherd of Israel , if his predecessors in the Sistine chapel
had not exhausted their whole strength in painting the story of the life
of Moses? The most insolent of the rebels recoils in terror, as if from a
heavenly vision; a second, behind him, falls to the ground with a fearful
cry of anguish , and a third , lying stretched in mute despair by the altar,
hides his burning head on the ground. The contrast between the calmness

64of Moses, strong in his faith, and the helpless despair of the insurgents,
conscious of their guilt, on whom the terrors of death are fallen, impresses
the spectator instantly like the sight of some natural catastrophe of the
elements; and if he turns his eyes to the events depicted to right and
left , he supposes that he has already exhausted the chief interest of this
remarkable picture. And yet, taken as works of art, these groups are not
merely on the same level as the principal scene; the latter is only half
understood, if we have not grasped the significance of the former. To
the right, Moses again appears as a wrathful judge, inflexible in carrying out
the commandments of God. Surrounded by a merciless crowd, armed
with stones, a man is being led out to be stoned to death, because he has
blasphemed the Name of the Lord. As the fire consumed Korah and his
company, because they had impiously violated the sacred privileges of
Aaron, so this man, too, must perish, because he has dared to desecrate
the still more sacred Name of God. But in this case the tumult of a
passionately excited mob has extended its influence to Moses, who seems
with his uplifted hands — ("lay hands upon his head" are the words
of the Lord's commandment1) — to be fulminating the death -sentence
against the unhappy blasphemer.
In the foreground, on the left, the inflexible justice of the Old Testament
Jehovah is still at work, and Moses appears here again as the instrument
of God in an attitude expressing violent emotion; while some of Korah's
company are falling victims to the devouring fire from heaven, the others,
at Moses' bidding, are being swallowed up alive by the earth, which breaks
under their feet like thin sheets of ice. Here again the fearful anguish of
soul in the expression and gestures of the guilty men is very striking; but
Moses, as if weary of inflicting all these penalties, no longer displays either
youthful excitement, as in the stoning, or kingly repose, as when standing
by the altar. He bends under the burden of age , and is moved with
compassion, and it seems as if the artist, with delicate tact, wished to lead
up to Signorelli's representation of the last acts of Moses in the next
picture. But who are those two men , who are walking on clouds over
the yawning abyss , and seem to be hovering in the air with closed eyes
and groping hands? In a short passage ofthe fourth book of Moses (Numbers
XI, 26 — 29) is to be found the explanation of this strange apparition, which
both offers entirely new points of view for the understanding of the whole
picture and confirms our conviction that an experienced theologian must
have furnished the artist with the deep and pregnant theme of his picture.
26. There remained two men in the camp, the name of the one was
Eldad , and the name of the other Medad ; and the spirit rested upon
them; . . and they prophesied in the camp.
27. And there ran a young man and told Moses, and said, Eldad and
Medad do prophesy in the camp.
') Levi! XXIV, 10— 2.V

65
28. And Joshua . . answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them.
29. And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake ? Would God
that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his
spirit upon them.
Eldad and Medad, then, are the two men who, though accused, like
the blasphemer and like Korah and his company, of revolting against the
command of God, are moving safely upon a cloud over the chasm which
swallows up the true rebels. They are blind towards the things of the

Fig. 54. Two Portrait Heads from the Punishment of Korah.
(From a photograph by Anderson, Rome.)

outer world, but the Spirit keeps them in safety, and they do not imperil,
but confirm the privileges of the church.
Once more, it is a contemporary event which is reflected in Botticelli's
remarkable fresco.
Andrea Zamometic , Archbishop of Krain (Carniola), as the Germans
called him , disappointed in his expectation of becoming a cardinal , had
revolted against Sixtus at a time when the latter was hard pressed by other
foes without the church. With the secret support of Lorenzo de' Medici
and even of the Emperor, he proclaimed a general council on March 25th,
1482, in the Minster at Basle; and on July 21st he even issued a summons,
in which "Francis of Savona" is described in so many words as "the son
Steinmann, Botticelli. 5

66 of the Devil". The pope had to send nuncio after nuncio to Germany,
before he could compass the fall of the rebellious archbishop who was at
last arrested in December, 1482, and afterwards committed suicide in his
dungeon at Basle.
The connection is sufficiently clear. Sixtus IV wished to have his
activity as a builder commemorated in the "Purificatory Sacrifice of the
Leper", and he celebrated, in the "Destruction of Pharaoh in the Red
Sea", his success in war at Campomorto; so, finally, Botticelli's fresco was
to recall his victorious and energetic proceedings against the Archbishop
of Carniola. Did not Julius II and Leo X, three decades later, cause
Raphael to celebrate their triumphs over foes at home and abroad in a
precisely similar manner in the Stanza d'Eliodoror
It was for the unruly prelate that the threatening motto, "Nemo sibi
assumat ", &c, was coined ; it is to him that the lamentable end of Korah
and his company alludes ; he, finally, was represented in the person of the
blasphemer, who had sinned against the name of God, as Andrea Zamometic
had sinned against the sacred dignity of the pope.
If anyone is weary of theological subtleties, he may still feast his eyes,
in conclusion, on the characteristic portraits which Botticelli has introduced
into his subject on the right and left of the picture (Fig. 54). They have
all carried the secret of their name into the grave, with the exception ot
the master himself; who, as we saw, appears on the right, next to the
dignitary of the church, in a simple black painter's blouse and a black cap.
He might safely show himself among these influential and learned folk after
giving such proof of his own ability, and after remaining so loyal to his
own genius, although compelled to make his art subservient to a higher will.
It is certain that anyone, who merely demands of art that it shall
please the eye, without unduly exercising the brain , will scarcely find
what he wants in Botticelli's frescoes; yet surely, perfect comprehension
is the first condition of any true joy in a work of art. We must apply
to art the principle that earnest work is the price of the nobler forms
of enjoyment, and if we do not spare ourselves the trouble of understanding
more fully the spirit of the monumental wall-paintings in the Sistine chapel,
we shall easily comprehend Botticelli's unique position in early Renaissance
art. Try to realise once again the difficulty of the task allotted to him,
and the wonderful skill with which he managed to fulfil it ! When he had
to combine with the Temptation of Christ a commemoration of the building
erected under the auspices of Sixtus IV at Rome, he conceived the idea
of the "Leper's Sacrifice" Again, in the "Early Life of Moses", he had
to find room for seven separate incidents on the surface of the picture,
and he created a delightful idyll as their central point. Lastly, in the
"Rebellion ol Korah and his company" he had to do homage to the
sovereign power ol the Holy See as prefigured in the Old Testament; and
he knew how to fascinate the beholder so completely by the fantastic
beauty, the wealth of form and colour of his picture, that the most general

67

acquaintance with the subject re
presented was counted sufficient.
If we may believe Vasari, Pope
Sixtus himself was fully satisfied
with Botticelli's works, and was lavish
in his renumeration ; but he , with
the characteristic indifference of the
artist to property and rank, spent
all his earnings before he left
Rome, and returned to his native
city in the autumn of 1483, after an
absence of more than two years, as
poor as when he went away.

III.
There was a tendency among
artists, which grew ever stronger in
the course of the Renaissance , to
combine with some traditional sub
ject from the Bible a picture of the
brilliant civilisation of their own day.
This appeared at Venice chiefly in
the favourite banqueting scenes, while
at Florence the tendency found
its most marked expression in paint
ings of the "Adoration of the Magi".
The wedding at Cana, the supper
of the disciples at Emmaus, the
banquet of Levi, even the Last
Supper itself, were in reality merely
so many names for the private re
pasts or ceremonious feasts of men
who enjoyed life and its good things,
and for representation, not always of
the most innocent character, of the
wanton, pleasure-loving life of Venice.
The Adoration of the Wise Men
from the East, with the variety and
richness of costume of the kings
and their retinues , gave ample op
portunity of painting the distin
guished manners of the severer Flo
rentine aristocracy; and among the
numerous figures which the com-

\t, Ira

~~: " ¦ w % ¦

h

68 position required, countless portraits of celebrated contemporaries could be
introduced. It was Leonardo himself who had created the predominant
type in his unfinished "Adoration of the Magi", now in the Uffizi, which was
ordered in 1478 as an altarpiece for the chapel of the Palazzo Vecchio. The
manner in which the Madonna is at once brought forward out of a corner
into the centre of the picture, while the kings approach her from either
side in tumultuous devotion, and a brilliant retinue assembles in glad con
fusion round the principal group — all that is of Leonardo's devising, and it
is a device which Botticelli adopted and retained. Numerous studies and
paintings by the master are still in existence, in which this fundamental type
is maintained and further developed, and it is only in the National Gallery
picture, inspired as it is by deep emotion and reverence for Savonarola,
that all worldly ostentation in the presence of Mary and her Child is
banished, for obvious reasons, to make room for the heavenly hosts.
A second "Adoration" in the National Gallery (Fig. 57J, formerly
ascribed to Filippino Lippi, a similar one in the Hermitage at St. Peters
burg (Fig. 56) and a third, of later date, unfinished and much re-painted,
in the Uffizi (Fig. 58), all exemplify the same effective principle of com
position ; they place the event in a wide landscape, richly varied with rocks
and ruined buildings, and surround the adoring kings with a multitude of
people, in part reverential, and in part profane. Especially in the pictures
at the Hermitage and in the Uffizi, a wide circle is interested in the great
event of the Incarnation, and, around the Virgin, old and young have fallen
on their knees to adore the Infant Christ; but the further it is removed
from the centre, the more indifferent does the noisy throng become. Some
are busy in guarding the horses , which chafe in impatience at the delay ;
in another quarter a violent dispute has broken out, which has to be settled
sword in hand ; others , again , exchange their experience in quiet con
versation, and a portrait is recognisable here and there in the motley throng.
All these pictures are of later origin than the famous "Adoration of
the Magi" (Fig. 59) which Botticelli painted for Santa Maria Novella, and
which is now also in the Uffizi. There is not one of the many works ot
the artist which Vasari praises so lavishly or describes so fully. "Truly a
marvellous work", he exclaims, "of such beauty in colouring, drawing and
composition that every artist , even at the present day, beholds it with
astonishment." And it is a fact that this picture is unrivalled in the art
of Botticelli as regards the minute delicacy and the firm touch of the
drawing, the gradation of the local tones and the cheerful and harmonious
scheme of colour. It is carried out, moreover, with such a mastery of per
spective, that more than thirty persons move with the greatest freedom in
the limited space of its surface.
In a dark green mantle, trimmed with fur and covered all over with
gold embroidery, the aged Cosimo de' Medici, the father of his country,
kneels to receive the blessing of the Infant Christ, about to kiss the little
loot which he reverently holds with a linen cloth. Vasari admired in

Fig. S6. Adoration of the Magi. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg. (From a photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach and Paris.)

7o

this delicate portrait of the old man , executed with devoted industry and
perfect mastery of technique, the expression of joy at arriving at the goal
of the long pilgrimage, and happiness at being at length permitted to
salute Him for whom the whole human race had yearned. In the foreground,
quite in the middle, seen almost from the back, kneels Cosimo's son, Piero,

l''K- 57- Adoration oi- i hi-- ^Iagi. The X.itional Gallery, London.
(From a photograph by Franz H.mfa(.;ingl, Munich.^

in a scarlet mantle lined with ei mine ; he turns towards Giovanni, his
younger brother who died early, and who is also kneeling in the picture
to present his olfeiing to the Child in a vessel of gold. Between the two,
but further back, stands Piero's son, the unfortunate Giuliano, father of
Pope Clement VII , wearing a splendid, dark costume, with his expressive,
melancholy face bent down wauls and framed in long black hair. Two
other [toil i aits of him by the hand ot Botticelli are preserved at Berlin

Fig. 58. Adoration of the Magi. Uffizi Gallery, Florence. (From a photograph by Alinari Brothers Florence.)

(Fig. 60) and Bergamo, which show the darling ol the Florentines in a
precisely similar attitude. He fell a victim to the disastrous conspiracy
of the Pazzi, from which his brother Lorenzo escaped as if by a miracle.1)
The "Magnifico", who doubtless gave the commission for the picture,

appears on the far left in the foreground, with both hands resting on the
hilt ot his sword, wearing a gold - embroidered crimson doublet, with
') Aiiioiih the p,. .trails pru.luccil at tins pe-ri.ul which are still extant, that ofa lady, at
FranUort-on-lhc-Main (Kin. (.1), a tut the portrait ol (aterina Sforza at Alton burg are perhaps
tlic- Itni-st.

73

blue sleeves. He resembles his brother, not only in the imperturbable
tranquillity of his eyes , cast down in meditation , but also in the form
of his head, the way in which he wears his hair, and his attitude of aristo
cratic reserve. All the adherents of the house of the Medici take part
in the solemn action, but who can tell their names today, or restore a
personal existence in the
memory of posterity to
the brilliant assemblage
which the "Magnifico"
has collected round the
founders of his cele
brated family? One has
only to look at each
of these portraits singly,
and to study the hands,
with their masterly mo
delling, and the drapery,
so conscientiously made
to suit every movement,
in order to comprehend
Vasari's admiration; but
it will be noticed that
Botticelli has bestowed
far greater care on the
finish of those figures,
which are portraits from
life, than on the ideal
figures of Mary and
Joseph. This circum
stance undoubtedly
causes a slight discord
between the inward
significance and the out
ward appearance of
those, the principal per-
sonnages in the scene ;
but this discord is
softened by the quiet, harmonious sentiment which pervades the whole,
and by the emotions, temperate and well-attuned, which Botticelli has
seldom expressed with so much refinement, dignity, and calm.
With this "Adoration of the Magi ", which must have been produced
either shortly before, or immediately after, the master's visit to Rome,
Botticelli took his place at once in the front rank of the artists whom
Lorenzo honoured with his commissions. He seems to have worked, up
to the early "nineties", almost exclusively in the service of the Medici

Fig. 60. Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici. Museum, Berlin.
(From a photograph by Franz Hanfstangl, Munich.)

74

l-ig. 61. Portrait oi- * Woman, SchIiI Institute, Frankfort.
(From a photograph by Braun, Clement & Co , Porn.ich and T.iri-

and of their kinsmen and friends, the Tomabuoni. He witnessed the most
brilliant days of the Medici , and met the young Michelangelo , of whose
education Lorenzo had taken charge, in the Palazzo Riccardi. The
picture of that glorious age, which no one can study without yearning for
its revival, is most cleaily rcllected in the works of this period, in which
Botticelli displays, in his pictures ol Venus, the same enthusiasm for classical
antiquity as was shown by Arg\ ropulos , Marsilio Ficino, Poliziano and so
many others in their writings and orations.
The first of the numerous pictures painted for Lorenzo the Magnificent,
which Vasari mentions, is a life-si/ed Pallas, painted in tempera on canvas,

75
which was only recently brought to light in the Pitti Palace (Fig 62) The
blessings of peace and civil government, which Florence enjoyed under
the sceptre of her Medicean ruler, are celebrated here under the symbol
of a Minerva, crowned with olive (Fig. 63), who is reducing a shaggy
centaur to obedience. The goddess has caught the bearded monster
armed with bow and quiver, trespassing on forbidden ways at the foot
of a precipitous wall of stratified rock, where no escape is possible She
has speedily laid hold of the half-human creature by the forelock and is
administering the well-deserved rebuke with the calm superiority of a divine
being united with feminine grace. The centaur's anxious look speaks

Fig. 62. Pallas Athene taming a Centaur. Pitti Palace, Florenc
(From « photograph by Giacomo Brogi, Florence.)

;6
eloquently of a bad conscience. Pallas, in her fluttering raiment, decorated
all over with the rings of the Medici, moves along so lightly over the turf,
that one might suppose it needed the heavy lance and the large shield
which she carries on her back, to hold down the Zeus-born Goddess to

liu. 63. Head of Faixas.
[From a photograph by Alinari Brothers, Florence.)

the Earth. The original and most naive conception ot the antique, and
the humour of the subject lend a peculiar charm to this picture, which for
centuries was only known in a fragmentary fashion from a drawing in
the Uffizi and a piece ot tapestiy belonging to the Comte de Baudreuil.
lt has also a special historical interest as a graceful act of homage to
the house of Medici.

77

Another piece of
delightful humour, such
at it was seldom given
to Botticelli to express,
is the picture of Mars
and Venus in the National
Gallery, London (Fig. 64).
But it is not the little
roguish satyrs, amusing
themselves with the
heavy weapons of the
God of war, who en
chant us most; the secret
bliss of love as Gods feel
it, whose form is human
but who know no grief,
is painted with such sim
plicity, such chaste re
serve, such delicate and
poetical intuition , that
the picture cannot but
arouse the tenderest
emotions of those who
behold it. The sleeping
god, probably Giuliano
de' Medici himself, "il
bel Giulio" as the Flo
rentines called him, dis
plays almost entirely the
austere beauty of his
powerful limbs ; the
strong, breast rises and
falls in tranquil motion,
and we seem almost to
hear the deep breathing
of the sleeper, as he lies
with his head thrown
back and open mouth.
The dreamless sleep of
youth is his ; his body
has lost all elasticity, his
slackened limbs have
fallen into the easiest
position. Venus watches
over the slumber of her

7«beloved ; she reclines over against him in a shady grove of myrtle, lost in
pleasant reverie, like the heroine of Titian's famous picture in the Borghese
Gallery. She gazes into the distance, without passion, without desire, happy
in perfect enjoyment, in the consciousness of loving and being loved.
A white robe, falling into many folds, ornamented with a golden hem,

1'iy,' 65. ilivu oi-' Vims, from PrLiiM\era

veils the slender limbs of the Goddess of love, who seems human enough,
and only betrays her Olympian origin by the radiant happiness of her
nature. May we recognise a portrait in her also? One might almost think
so, on comparing the two splendid pictures of Venus at which Botticelli
must have been working about the same time for one of the Medici \illas,
probably at Careggi. Whereas the same individual feminine type appears
once more in the delightful vision of the Goddess of love as she moves
through the midst of the "Primavera" (Fig. 65), Botticelli has given the

Fig. 66. Primavera Academy, Florence. (From a photograph by Giacomo Brogi. Florence,

8o
purest expression to his own ideal ot Venus, approaching more nearly to
the antique, in the picture of the foam-born Aphrodite.
In order to enjoy that mavcllous creation of Botticelli's which bears
the name of "Primavera" (Fig. 66), and is derived, as regards the subject,
from a poem composed by Politian for a festal occasion, one must en
deavour to imagine the original colours restored, for the picture is painted

Fig. 67. Tin-: Th

Gr.ui-s, from Primaver.i

in tempera and has darkened considerably. When the sky still gleamed
in radiant blue through the shiny green of the oranges and myrtles, and
the dust of centuries had not yet darkened the golden fruits and white
bloom of the thick-foliaged trees; when the grass was still green and the
countless llowers still fresh, the spring-like charm of this landscape must
have been still more potent. The picture has certainly lost in outward
attractiveness in the course of centuries, but its intrinsic value can be
comprehended the more readily, even at the present day, because the

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Fig. 68. The Birth of Venus. Uffizi Gallery, Florence. (From a photograph by Anderson, Rome.)
82
figures, which are more than life-sized, are in a comparatively good state
of preservation. The slender Venus — probably the portrait of the mistress of Giuliano,
whose own portrait may be recognised, as some people think, in the
Mercury — appears in a white robe, ornamented with gold, as in the London
picture, in the centre of the composition, just in front of a luxuriant myrtle-

Fit;. 69. Two WiMia, from the Birth of Venus.
(From a photograph l>y t.iacomo Brogi, Florence

bush. Her red mantle, with gold embroidery, has slipped down and rests
on her right arm, of which the hand is raised; she steps forward slowly and
looks at the beholder with a gracious smile, bending her head, adorned with
a veil of gold tissue, a little to one side. Wanton Cupid hovers over her
gaily, blindlold, in the act ol pointing a glittering arrow at the three Graces,
clad in transparent gauze, who dance a vernal measure in gentlest motion,
rhythmically poised, before the Goddess of love (Fig. 67) Mercury, a
splendid youthful figure, who is sure to remind us at once of the sleeping

83
Mars, -drives the light clouds away from before them with his herald's wand ;
behind them, Primavera herself approaches, accompanied by Flora, who is
fleeing from the tempestuous embrace of Zephyrus. The Goddess of
Spring is plain rather than beautiful, but a marvellous creation of the fancy,
perhaps the most significant allegorical figure that the whole Renaissance
produced. A luxuriant spray of wild briar-rose serves as a girdle to hold
in her robe, which is adorned with countless flowers; a thick wreath of
fresh field-flowers surrounds her neck instead of glittering gems, and a
diadem of white primulas and blue cornflowers is entwined in her fair

Fig. 70. Giovanni Tornabuoni with the Seven Liberal Arts. The Louvre, Paris.

hair. She advances gaily, strewing the fragrant blossoms of spring from
the inexhaustible abundance of flowers in her lap on the path of the
Goddess of love. Flora , thinly veiled , hurries more rapidly forward , to
escape from the winged Zephyr. But, the wind-god, with puffed-out cheeks,
has already flung his arm round the shoulder of the frightened goddess,
and at his touch, as Politian's verses describe the scene, roses, anemones
and pinks spring from her open mouth.
All is gay, but there is nothing exaggerated in movement or ex
pression ; the triumphal progress of Venus , which we are permitted to
witness in the rustling orange-grove, moves past quietly and mysteriously,
like a fleeting dream-picture, before our delighted eyes. No bacchanalian 6*

84
dances accompany it ; no desire for hasty, unrestrained enjoyment finds
utterance here ; we seem to share the bliss of a moment which heaven and
earth adorn with their fairest gifts, and which the gods enjoy with a celestial
calm , as if it were their lot to keep such festival every day. That is the
felicitous purport of this creation of genius , in which the harmony of thought
and expression deserves, perhaps, the highest praise. So pure a harmony is
to be found in one other picture by Botticelli, and one only — the Birth of
Venus — a work produced about the same time for the same pleasure-loving
circle. This is that Lady Beauty, in whose praise
Thy voice and hand shake still, — long known to thee
By flying hair and fluttering hem.
These verses, from a sonnet, "Soul's Beauty", by Rossetti, express perhaps
better than any other words the poetical charm which clings to the birth
of Aphrodite from the foam of the sea (Fig. 68). Politian's poem in
celebration of a tournament of Giuliano de' Medici seems , here again , to
have given the immediate suggestion for the picture ; but "Primavera" and
"The Birth of Venus" are closely related to one another, independently
of any outward influence.
A pair of wind-gods, locked in a close embrace, with roses fluttering
round them, have just driven to the shore the light, gilded shell on which

Fig. 71. Giovanna dbgu Aliii//i receives the Gifts ok the Four Cardinal Virtues. The Louvre, Paris.

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Fig. 72. Detail from the Villa Lemmi Fresco.
(From a photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach and Paris.)
Venus has floated across the wide expanse of ocean (Fig. 69). Rippling
billows play gently round the fragile craft ; Venus stands on the edge of it,
modestly covering her bosom with her hand. A wonderful wealth of golden
hair floats round the Goddess, and her handmaiden, one of the Hours,
holds a mantle spread to cover her, sprinkled all over with flowers of spring.
This figure, of which the Berlin Museum possesses a weak repetition, has
been justly praised as the most beautiful Venus in modern art; there is,
perhaps, one picture with which it may be compared, and that is Giorgione's
"Sleeping Venus" at Dresden. The purity of soul which dwells in the
chaste and beautiful body of a perfect woman is depicted there with the
same charm. The picture speaks to us like a story of the golden age
of Saturn, which Marsilio Ficino has described in such glowing colours in
his letters; the spectator feels almost an intruder, as he stands before it,
witnessing one of the sacred mysteries, hidden in the marvellous book of
Nature. The action is represented with so much truth, the virginal charm
of the goddess, drawing her first breath, is so lifelike, the alacrity of her
86
ministrants is so irresistible, that we seem to hear the tremulous rustle
of the laurel-grove, the gentle plash of the waves, and eagerly await the
moment when the daughter of the foam will step ashore.
Botticelli stood on the level of the humanists in all he produced
for the house of the Medici, but in the wall-paintings which he carried out
in the villa of the Tomabuoni near Fiesole, he continued the venerable

Fig- 73- The I'niust Judgk, from the Calumny of Apelles.
(From a photograph by Giacomo Brogi, Florence.)
traditions of the Middle Ages. The wealthy Giovanni Tomabuoni, friend
and uncle to Lorenzo the Magnificent, employed for many years the most
eminent paint eis and sculptors of his native city. Ghiriandajo was com
missioned by him to produce the monumental frescoes in the choir of
Santa Maria Novella, and it was for him that Verrocchio carved the famous
relief on a sarcophagus in the Bargello. The marriage of his eldest son
Lorenzo with Giovanna degli Albizzi seems, finally, to have offered the

Fig. 74. The Calumny of Apelles. Uffizi Gallery, Florence. (From a photograph by Giacomo Brogi, Florence.)

88
opportunity of entrusting Botticelli with the decorative paintings in the
aforesaid villa. The severely injured frescoes which were discovered in
1873 under the whitewash in the Villa Lemmi, and which have been in the
Louvre since 188 1, represent on one side the bridegroom, being introduced
into the circle of the Seven Liberal Arts, and on the other side the young
wife, accepting the offering of the Four Cardinal Virtues. The first painting
(Fig. 70), in which Dialectic presents the bashful Lorenzo to the circle
of her Sister Arts, who are gathered round the throne of Philosophy, com
memorates the great accomplishments of the young Tomabuoni; while the
second fresco, which is unfortunately so damaged that we cannot be quite
sure what is actually taking place, celebrates Giovanna degli Albizzi as the
pattern of all the virtues (Fig. 71). The subject of the Seven Liberal Arts,
represented as personifications of the sciences , was already to be found
at Florence on Giotto's campanile, and in the paintings of the Spanish
Chapel. There is a group of them, sculptured in marble, round the tomb
of King Robert, Petrarch's friend , at Naples , and another set of the Arts,
cast in bronze, adorns the monument of Sixtus IV in St. Peter's at Rome..
But neither there, nor in the paintings of Melozzo da Fork' at Urbino, nor
in those of Pinturicchio in the Appartamento Borgia , is Philosophy so
distinctly characterised as the Queen of all the Sciences, as she appears
in Raphael's final glorification of her in the "School of Athens". This
lends a peculiar interest to Botticelli's fresco, and he is also the only
painter before Raphael who has collected the single figures into a charming
and animated scene, without destroying the precise characterisation of the
separate individuals. Philosophy, enthroned, in matronly dress, wearing a
mantle adorned with golden flames, has raised her right hand, as if im
parting instruction, and holds a bow in her left hand; at her feet sit, on
the left, Geometry with a square, Astronomy with a globe, Music with an
organ ; on the right , Arithmetic with a table of figures , Grammar with a
scorpion and a switch and finally, Rhetoric with a scroll half unfolded.
All turn their attention with a greater or less degree of sympathy to the
new arrival, whom Dialectic is just commending with an eloquent gesture
of the hand to Philosophy, who smiles graciously upon him.
It is not Venus and the Graces, as has hitherto been supposed, who
are to be recognised in the pleasing feminine figures, reminding us of
Jethro's daughters in the Sistine Chapel, who are approaching the young
wife of Lorenzo (Fig. 72). The very connection of subject with the first
fresco compels us to see in them the Four Cardinal Virtues, just as they
were painted by Piero della Francesca, in his famous picture in the Uffizi,
accompanying Battista Slorza on her Triumphal car; and as, in Dante
(Purgatorio XXXI, 107), they were appointed to wait on Beatrice, before
she descended to the lower world. But the bad preservation of the picture
makes it impossible to decide what is the meaning of the four flowers
(of which only the stalks are still preserved), which the first of the women
is about to present to Giovanna in an open napkin. Perhaps they sym-

89
bolize en equal number of virtues, which are to be imparted to the bride
by this ceremonious act.
It was at the conclusion of this period of his development, when he
was more employed in villas and palaces than in churches and chapels,
and when he designed, among other things, certain subjects from a story
in Boccaccio for a cassone of Lucrezia Pucci, that Botticelli painted the
"Calumny of Apelles" (Fig. 74), described by Vasari as his last picture.
The artist presented this picture, now in the Uffizi, to a nobleman of
Florence, Fabio Segni, who was his intimate friend; and Vasari declares

Fig. 75. Detail from the Calumny of Apelles.
(From a photograph by Giacomo Brogi, Florence,

that the beauty of its execution could not be surpassed, a judgment which
may still pass undisputed. But if we compare this panel, the preservation
of which is remarkably good, with the somewhat larger "Adoration of the
Magi" from Santa Maria Novella, we miss the vivid colour and fine
drawing in the faces, the accurate representation of bones and joints in
the long, lean fingers. If we put it by the side of the slightly later pictures
of Venus, full of calm and beauty, we are disagreeably surprised by the
wild and unrestrained movement of the figures, the restless fluttering of
the drapery, the lavish use of gold, and the ominous, almost terrifying
expression of some of the faces. The subject itself, derived from a de-

90 scription of Lucian's to which Leon Battista Alberti gave currency in the
art of the Renaissance, may be said to require some vehemence and passion
in the treatment ; it is a subject, in fact, which cannot fail to excite horror
and pity in any human heart; yet no one will be inclined to dispute that
Botticelli, when he painted the picture, had already declined from the zenith
of his fame. It was carried out, however, with consummate mastery of
technique, though with a certain degree of haste.
Every resource of art was expended on the decoration of the judgment-
hall , gleaming with gold and marble. Between its stately pillars there is
a distant view of the sea, with a surface as smooth as that of a mirror.
Life-sized marble figures are let into the niches of the pillars , like the
figures in the walls of Orsanmichele, the venerated national sanctuary of
Florence; while every vacant surface of socle, capital or vault is adorned
with richly gilded sculpture. The whole of the Renaissance building is
remarkable for its fine proportions. It is a scene which the fancy peoples

Fig. 76. Penitence and Tu iii, from the C.ilumny of Apelles.
llri-iii a photograph by Oiiicnmu ltrn^i, Florence.)

91
with gl»d and noble beings, who revive the virtues of all these marble
saints and heroes ; a place, it would seem, in which wisdom alone may be
heard , justice alone be executed ; a place of refuge in which poets and
thinkers may prepare for new intellectual achievements as they walk to
and fro in those cool corridors by the sea.
Instead of this we witness a fearful deed of violence. In bitter contrast
with the splendid marble all around, in ironical mockery of the solemn statues
of justice and virtue on the walls, a noisy throng is dragging the innocent
victim of calumny before the tribunal of the unjust judge (Fig. 73), who
sits, with crown and sceptre, clad in a long green mantle, on a richly de
corated throne. Two extraordinary female figures, Ignorance and Suspicion,
stand on either side of the throne, revolting alike in the irresistible passion-
ateness of their gestures, and in the stealthy haste with which they whisper
insidious words into the long ass's ears of him who sits on it. We see
how the king wavers and yields to the entreaties of the insinuating couple,
leaning forward to catch the words which Envy declaims with a gesture of
almost imperious force. Envy is an uncanny creature with shaggy hair and
beard, pale and deformed, with torn raiment. He lifts his left hand towards
the judge in emphatic asseveration, and with his right hand leads on Calumny,
who holds a burning torch before her as a treacherous symbol of her
pretended love of truth (Fig. 75). She dashes impetuously forward, with
her left hand mercilessly grasping the hair of the victim of her intrigues.
The latter, a young man nearly naked, has his folded hands raised towards
heaven in assertion of his innocence. Calumny's appearance is plausible
and crafty; her clothing is costly and her action so impetuous, that her
busy attendants, Fraud and Deception, have found no time to finish tiring
her hair, and are still eagerly engaged in twining a bunch of fragrant roses
in her floating golden hair.
The tormentor, Remorse, approaches slowly after the tumultuous throng
has passed. The lean and hideous hag is clothed from head to foot in
mourning attire all torn and ragged; she has clasped her trembling hands
before her in an attitude of reserve, and turned her horrible face towards
naked Truth, a slim female figure freely imitated from the Venus Anadyo-
mene, who gazes upwards and lifts her right hand to heaven in adjuration.
The full light of day streams from every side into the airy building,
is refracted by the golden marble ornament of the walls and casts a glaring
light on the curious scene, which belongs by its subject to the class of
pictures founded on antiquity, while in form and expression it is closely
allied to much later works by Botticelli.
The Calumny of Apelles is probably about contemporary with the
curious little picture in Prince Pallavicini's collection, which was not generally
known till a few years ago, but impresses the modern mind almost more
than Botticelli's pictures of the Madonna or of Venus, although it is by no
means remarkably well preserved (Fig. 77)- On a seat of stone before the
closed door of a massive Florentine palace of the early Renaissance there

9^

Fig. 77. The Outcast. Collection of Prince Paltavicini, Rome,
(By permission of Mr. Domenico Anderson.)

sits a miserable woman, wearing but a single torn linen garment , sobbing,
with her head buried in her hands , and her dark lank hair falling down
over her face. Her clothes lie scattered around her, but she has no
longer the energy nor the will to cover her trembling limbs with them.
The cold grey light of dawn is already falling on the freestone walls
of the palace, but no mortal approaches to console the mourner.
What is the secret that her bosom conceals? What story would her
life and eyes relate, if we could raise that head which now is sunk in

93
hopeless woe? All his contemporaries assert that Fra Filippo's pupil was a
pleasant fellow, full of humour and good spirits , in his actual life. In his
art Botticelli was the apostle of sorrow. The subdued and plaintive me
lancholy of his Madonnas rises in the "Abbandonata" to such an elemental
outburst of inconsolable grief, that poetry alone, and no poetry save Shake
speare's, can utter in words what the painter's art has expressed so mar
vellously in form. The beginning of the 29th sonnet:
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
is a motto which may safely be put under Botticelli's picture. Abandoned
by destiny, a very scorn of men and an outcast, in solitude and tears —
are any further words needed to denote the feeling which this picture
conveys, or to suggest an interpretation which everyone must ultimately
make and adopt for himself?
But still, the pictures of Venus, especially "Primavera", and the
Birth of Aphrodite — remain the truly characteristic utterances of Botticelli's
inner life in the golden days of Lorenzo the Magnificent. These are works
which reflect with marvellous truth that faith in the antique which rejoiced
the hearts of so many in that age.
But, alas ! no mortal on this earthly pilgrimage will ever set foot in a
land where the happiness of the senses is one with the peace of the soul.
Botticelli, too, had a sad awakening, an abrupt disturbance of his dreams,
when the thunder of the voice of Savonarola fell on his ears : he sought
in terror for some hold and stay, in life and in death ; the Gods of Hellas
sank like phantoms into the abyss, and out of the misty sea of early re
collections there rose, ever clearer and more brilliant, the pure symbol
of Christian art, Mary, the Mother of God.

IV.
It was not only in regard to the Madonna that Savonarola's sermons
and the personal influence of the great Dominican transformed the ideals
of Botticelli in his later years. Just as the artist was induced by the in
fluence of Fra Girolamo to choose exclusively biblical subjects, so do several
of the rather scanty easel-pictures of the last two decades of his life express
in other ways the austere spirit of the preacher of repentance. A peculiarity
of allJJiese pictures is a heightening of emotion ; many of them possess an
astonishing--amaunt of passion in expression and movement.
At the samejime the figures become more crowded, the colours colder
and mqre_gloomy~ in tone , and details are no longer carried out with the
s«£mTamounT~rf>ush as. before. Four small oblong panels with scenes
from the life~~oTst. Zenobius , dispersed at the present day among the
galleries of London, Florence and Dresden (Fig. 78), display almost all
these defects at once. The "Annunciation" in the Uffizi (Fig. 79), with

94

os

n

its dull colours, is a picture
which some critics have
struck off the roll of Botti
celli's works, but it is so
rich in delicate touches, so
brilliantly drawn and com
posed, that the painter can
have left nothing more than
parts of the colouring to
the hands of pupils. With
what humility does Mary,
just risen from her pric-dieu,
receive the message of the
kneeling angel, and how
effective is the rendering
of a twofold process , re
verential transmission and
hesitating acceptance, as ex
pressed by the right hand
of the angel, lifted up, and
that of Mary, directed down
wards. Savonarola, in describing
the relation of Mary to her
Child , had endeavoured to
represent the Virgin's joy,
as a mother, under the
shadow of a prophetical fore
boding of woe to come. He
had dwelt on her outward
appearance as announcing
the awed expectation of a
tremendous destiny, rather
than pure joy in her first
born Son. But , on the
other hand, he would attri
bute to her no undignified
demonstration of grief at the
Crucifixion. In his Good
Friday sermons of 1494 and
1495 the "prophet sent of
God ", whose fervid elo
quence then reached its
climax, placed himself and
his hearers , a devout and

95
eager multitude, which the huge Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore could
not contain , beneath the cross and at the sepulchre of the Lord. He
described in impressive tones the last act of the great drama of Salvation,
beginning at Christ's parting from His Mother, and proceeding to the
elevation of the cross ; and his imagination was inexhaustible in depicting
the agony of these last hours. "But do not think", he said, "that Mary

Fig. 79. The Annunciation. Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
(From a photograph by Giacomo Brogi, Florence.)
went screaming through the streets and tore her hair, and conducted her
self as one distraught; she followed her Son gently and in great humility.
She may have shed some tears; but her outward mien was that of one
not sorrowful only, but sorrowful and glad at once, so that men marvelled
that she did not conduct herself in the manner of other women. And
so, too, she stood beneath the cross; sorrowful and glad at once, and
pondering on the mystery of the great goodness of God."

96 It is to these and similar utterances of Savonarola's, that the restraint,
the temperate and beautiful utterance of grief, in Michelangelo's "Pieta"
in St. Peter's, have been traced, and rightly traced, by earlier critics. But
Botticelli, too, whose temperament, so easily roused, was still more strongly
attracted by the great personality of the Dominican , could not shut his
ears to such urgent admonitions. In the only two subjects from the Passion
which he ever produced, both painted about 1500, he endeavoured to depict
the deep emotion felt by the men and women busied about the body of the
Redeemer, not by unrestrained outbursts of selfish grief, but by touching
evidences of tender solicitude and boundless affection for the Departed.
In the "Lamentation" in the Poldi-Pezzoli Gallery at Milan (Fig. 80),
which brings us, like the far more important picture at Munich, to the en
trance of the open tomb in the rock, Mary has fallen fainting into the arms
of the Beloved Disciple, himself agitated by bitter grief. Mary Magdalen,
calm and still, holds the feet which once upon a time she had anointed;
another of the holy women is engaged in wiping with loving hands the
blood-stained hair of the Victim , and a third is the only one who is in
capable of controlling her grief, and hides her face in her mantle as she
sobs. Thus all have forgotten themselves and the world in the depth of
their sorrow, and Joseph of Arimathea alone, who appears at some height
above the women in the open door of the sepulchre, holds up the crown
of thorns and the nails, and groans aloud.
The "Lamentation" at Munich (Fig. 81) is most closely related in
conception and in outward form to the picture at Milan, but the horizontal
composition, most artistically contrived, leaves room, in addition, for three
saints, Peter, Paul and Jerome, who stand a little apart and mourn their
Saviour in solemn reverence. The representation of the scene is far more
dramatic than before, the manifestation of grief more poignant ; the colours
are darker, and, owing to the extraordinary skill shown in the perspective,
the looker on seems to be taking part in the action, within the awful
darkness of the tomb, to a far greater degree than in the picture at Milan.
We admire the stern realism of the dead Christ, the noble resignation in
the face of his mother, who is well nigh swooning, and the finely expressed
grief and love of the men and women, who share equally in both emotions,
and express them with a greater or less degree of vehemence.
Botticelli's easel pictures can only be traced as far as the year 1 500;
they end with the "Adoration of the Magi" in London, signed and dated
by himself, in which he expressed so forcibly his enthusiasm for Savonarola.
There is another "Adoration" in the Uffizi, a picture disfigured bv crude
colouring in the seventeenth century, containing equally remarkable portraits
of Savonarola and Lorenzo de' Medici, near St. Joseph on the left; but,
even if we assume that this was painted subsequently to the other, one
picture was not enough to fill, even approximately, the long space of the
last ten years of a lifetime which had been spent in restless activity.
Moreover, Botticelli had only reached the age of sixty-three when he died,

Fig. 80. The Entombment. Museo Poldi-Pezzoli, Milan.

Steinmann, Botticelli.

98 at Florence, on May 17th, 1510; he was, therefore, only fifty-three when as
far as we know with certainty he finished his last picture, a work so
masterly in technique , so true in expression , so original in invention,
that it emphatically contradicts Vasari's romantic assertion that Botticelli
produced nothing whatever after he became an adherent of Savonarola.
What, then, was the occupation of the last decade of the artist's life ? That
it was a life of hard work to the very end, we may be sure, for the
number of his works bears irrefutable witness to his untiring industry.
Are we not justified in expecting new and precious works from his
practised hand, clear and refined utterances of a mature understanding, of
an inner life ever mobile and alert, ever growing in breadth and in depth !
Vasari, whose statements concerning the last years of Botticelli's life
are very unreliable, has, nevertheless, woven one piece of information into
his tangled web of truth and romance, by which we can trace both the
inward development and the active occupation of our artist to the end
of his life. "Being a man of profound thought", we are told, "he com
posed a commentary on part of Dante's poem, illustrated the Inferno, and
had it printed ; and since he spent much time on these things, and did no
other work, disorders without end ensued in his outward life."
A deep interest in the personality of Dante, a comprehensive knowledge
of the Divine Comedy, the contents of which were familiar to Florentine
artists, from Giotto to Michelangelo, are revealed now and then even in
the earlier works of Botticelli. He painted a portrait of Dante, now in an
English private collection, after Giotto's celebrated picture in the Bargello ;
he drew inspiration in painting the Madonna from the splendid hymn to
the Virgin in the thirty-third canto of the Paradiso, and adorned one of his
most sublime pictures of this subject with the oracular sentence :
"~Vergine madre, figlia del tuo figlio."
But there is no panel bearing the name of Botticelli which reveals so
clearly his study of Dante as his famous "Assumption of the Virgin",
produced before 1475 for the poet Matteo Palmieri. It is true that the
painting was done throughout by the hands of pupils, and must not be
attributed to Botticelli himself; but Vasari's statement that the master
carried out the painting with his own hands is so far correct , that
Botticelli himself designed the composition from information supplied by
his learned patron (Fig. 82). On a hill at the foot of the picture, from
which we enjoy a view extending over an immeasurable expanse of plain
to the mountains which surround it, the twelve apostles form an animated
group round Mary's open tomb, from which countless lilies raise their
white heads. Palmieri and his wife kneel in prayer at an equal distance
on either side. But over them the heavens are opened. In nine concentric
circles, exactly in the order of Dante's description of Paradise, appear
in thrice three ranks the heavenly hosts — la milizia santa — patriarchs,
prophets, apostles; evangelists, martyrs, confessors; doctors, virgins and

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angels ; the latter surrounding the throne of the Most High in ever narrowing
circles, "as the petals cluster round the calyx of a white rose'. Before
that throne the Virgin kneels in the crystalline heaven, where innumerable
cherubim sing the praises of the Almighty, and the elect of the company
of heaven, Peter and John on one side, Adam and Eve on the other, are
visible amid the angelic choirs, exactly as they appeared in Dante's vision.
Posterity, however, was so ill-disposed as to recognise another influence
than Dante's in this remarkable picture. Matteo Palmieri himself had
travelled through Paradise in a poem, modelled on Dante, which he en
titled: "La Citta di Vita", and had adopted an heretical opinion of Origen's
respecting the angels who remained neutral at the rebellion of Lucifer.
This heresy, it was thought, was also to be found in Botticelli's picture.
The chapel in San Pietro Maggiore was closed by order of the ecclesiastical
authorities, and was not opened to the public again for years afterwards.
The altarpiece, however, which had been much disfigured by additions, was
sold by the last scion of the Palmieri family and removed to England,
where it is now preserved in the National Gallery.
A kinder destiny ruled over Botticelli's illustrations to Dante than
over Michelangelo's. The latter perished in a shipwreck, but Botticelli's
monumental work , representing nearly the whole of the Divine Comedy
in pictures, has survived almost intact to the present day. This vast work
was undertaken for Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de' Medici. Its date , like
so many dates in the master's life, cannot be ascertained with precision.
It may have been begun soon after Botticelli's return from Rome — in
parts, perhaps, even earlier — but it was certainly not till the last years of
the artist's life that it was even so far completed as we see it at present.
It must have been his preoccupation with Dante that caused the master,
as he grew old , to forget the outer world ; and, though we know nothing
further about a commentary on Dante by Sandro , Vasari's assertion at
any rate bears witness to the diligent study which he gave to the greatest
poetical genius of Italy. It seems more than probable that the artist fell
into poverty and actual want, while he gave himself up to the serious
intellectual work which bore such splendid fruit in the illustrations to the
Divine Comedy, and he made repeatedly unsuccessful attempts to have
his designs , which won the highest admiration from his contemporaries,
engraved. There is, however, undoubtedly some exaggeration in Vasari's
account of his latter days , which makes the artist wholly dependent on
strangers for support. Botticelli's whole life, as a matter of fact, was spent
in such a narrow groove, and was so lacking in brilliant outward success,
that, when a biographer comes to describe it, he can give little more than
a mere enumeration of his works. And do not these works bear witness
better than any words to the important position held by the pupil ot
Fra Filippo and Verrocchio, the friend and contemporary of Leonardo,
the forerunner of Michelangelo, in the culture of the Quattrocento? His
art was a true mirror of every intellectual movement of that active period.

Fig. 82. The Assumption of the Virgin. National Gallery, London. (From a photograph by Braun, Clement & Co , Dornach and Paris.)

102
After recasting the popular traditions ot the Middle ages in his early
Madonnas, he appears as a painter at the court of Sixtus IV, penetrated
with the spirit of profound theological subtlety ; then , on returning to
Florence and entering the service of the brilliant Medici, he becomes an
enthusiastic herald of ideals which emulated classical antiquity, only to end
as an adherent of Savonarola, and to stifle, or else to pursue to its utter
most logical development, all that he had hitherto learned and attained.
And so, when his day was drawing to its close, and he took Dante in
his hand to seek for new founts which should offer the last draught of life
to his thirsty soul, he could not fail to find, in the immortal cantos which
tell of worlds beyond the grave, the blissful and deep satisfaction, the
great peace undisturbed by worldly cares , which he had sought for long
and anxiously, with ever diminishing hope, as he abandoned himself to
every influence , every tempting promise of the world around him. Let
us rejoice, then, that this symphony of a hidden life, hidden with all its
wealth of melody in an artist's soul , closed at length on such grand and
resonant chords.
The number of sheets of drawings by Botticelli relating to Dante's
sublime poem which are still preserved, is no less than ninety-six, and they
embrace the whole work with the exception of seven cantos of the Inferno,
II — VII and XIV, which are missing. Since 1881, eighty-eight of these sheets,
eighty-three of which contain drawings, have been in the Cabinet of En
gravings at Berlin ; they were formerly in the Hamilton Palace Library. Eight
drawings for the Inferno, the illustrations to Cantos I, IX, X, XII, XIII, XV
and XVI and a general diagram of Hell , are at present in the Vatican,
where they were till lately inserted anyhow in a volume of MSS., which
belonged to Christina, Queen of Sweden, though now they are treated with
due respect and preserved in a special portfolio. Each vellum leaf has
the text of a canto on the rough or "hairy" side and the drawing on the
smooth or "fleshy" side, and the arrangement enables the reader, when
the book is open, to look easily at text and illustration of the same canto
at once on two successive pages. All the drawings were sketched in with
silver-point and finished with the pen. One drawing in Berlin , and those
in the Vatican, were completed in body-colours — not perhaps, by Botticelli
himself — and it is, therefore, supposed that the original scheme was for the
whole to be carried out in colours in the style of earlier illustrations to Dante.
As we ascend from the Inferno to the Purgatorio, it is easy to trace
a constant development, a more profound grasp of the subject-matter,
greater delicacy and sureness of drawing, and greater perspicuitv in the
composition. Here too, we are inclined to suppose that the work extended
over a consecutive period of time; and if a task which demanded so
much actual study, such profound concentration of thought, was often
interrupted by other commissions which the busy artist ha'd to under
take, it may have been prolonged over many years. Nevertheless the
epical manner of narration remains the same ; a series of incidents

103
are represented side by side on a single surface, and the thread is spun
now rapidly, now in slower time, till the Paradiso is reached. Here,
however, there is clear indication that the original plan has been altered.
Botticelli's matured insight has led him to feel the inadequacy of a
descriptive method of representing things , which only a poet's sublime
imagination has ever beheld. He contents himself, therefore, with painting
a reflection , as it were, of the incomprehensible mysteries of God in the
ever changing countenances and gestures of Beatrice and Dante, whose
figures have suddenly increased to twice their former proportions. Those
mysteries themselves he dares not attempt to picture, and so he humbly

Fig. 83. Dante. Inferno XXXI.

subjects his art to the service of poetry, and has made the comprehension
of his drawing depend on an exact knowledge of the Divine Comedy.
We can , perhaps , draw further conclusions from such a procedure, and
recognise the will of the patron in the scrupulous conscientiousness with
which in the illustrations to the Inferno and Purgatorio the text is provided
with a sort of -commentary, scene by scene. That will cannot have asserted
itself any longer when Botticelli, in the Paradiso, abandoned any sort of
interpretation of the separate cantos. Here, moreover, a number of sheets
remained unfinished, and others were only slightly sketched in with the
silver-point. May it not, therefore, be assumed that the work was never
delivered to the patron who gave the commission, an artistic member of a
younger branch of the Medici, who died as early as 1 505 ; and that Botti-

104
celli had grown so fond of his task, that he pursued it on his own account
and dealt with it in his own way?
In that case the drawings for the Inferno and Purgatorio would have
been finished before 1503, in part, probably, much earlier, while the Paradiso
was not produced till after the death of Lorenzo di Pier Francesco. At
any rate, as it now lies before us, we can hardly suppose that it could
have satisfied a patron who expected, after all, that when a picture was
drawn it would throw some light on the text.
A general diagram, carried out in colours, showing the Inferno des-
scending in nine ever narrowing circles in the form of a funnel, is the
opening picture. Then follows the delightful illustration to the first canto.
We see Dante walking , solitary and pensive, in the dark forest , and see
the venerable figure of Virgil coming to help him , when he has lost his
way, and is menaced by the panther, the lion, and the she-wolf.
The old man with a long beard, in his curious oriental costume, a
long gown with a short cape over the shoulders, and a high hat trimmed
with fur, is now depicted in a truly masterly way as the well-informed
guide, the friend and consoler, the fatherly admonisher and teacher of
Dante, who is often despondent but ever eager for knowledge; and he
never leaves him until, in the 29th Canto of the Purgatorio, he has first
humbly resigned the office of guide to the Roman poet Statius , being in
capable himself, as a heathen , of explaining or contemplating the divine
mysteries of the Faith. Botticelli depicts all the terrors of Hell, the fierce
torments of the lost, the devilish joy of merciless fiends, with astonishing
command over the subject-matter, a power of delineation which knows no
limits, and an imagination which the poet himself could not surpass. What
an abundance of ideas, what fertility of invention, what skill in composition,
are displayed , for example , in the drawing to the ninth canto of the
"Inferno", in which, after Phlegyas has conveyred Virgil and Dante, much
against his will, across the Styx, the fallen angels deny them entrance to
the city of God's enemies. On the tower appear the Furies, girt about
with snakes, raging and holding up the Medusa's head towards the intruders,
while Virgil carefully protects the terrified Dante with both hands from the
sight of the monster. Lower down, an angel, whom we see again in the
background, moving with the speed of a hurricane through the fugitive
devils and lost souls, is driving the rebellious demons back into the tower,
and under his protection the adventurous travellers in the lower regions
make their way into the fortified town, where we see them stepping between
the red-hot tombs in which infidels and heretics are undergoing their awful
doom. The principal events of a canto are depicted like this in compact
abridgement on almost every leaf, and we admire everywhere the skilful
perspective, the inexhaustible imagination and anatomical knowledge which
Botticelli unfolds in representing countless human figures in every conceiv
able posture. To select one point, lastly, out of so many - what precision
and beauty of drawing is displayed in the six huge giants who keep guard

round the mouth of the well before the last circle, one of whom, on the
left, with a moustache and a chain round his neck, is clearly a reminiscence
of the dying gladiator in the Capitoline Museum (Fig. 83).
Antaeus , the only one who is not in chains , has grasped Virgil and
Dante with his right hand, and bending down, in bold foreshortening, he
lets them both down into the nethermost pit , where the traitors , in four
divisions, are fast bound in ice, and Satan himself, in the torments of hunger,
chews the damned in his mouth. How far Botticelli surpassed, in his drawings
to Dante, even the greatest masters of his time, may be seen by comparing

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- OOP Vw

life

WWM

* 3 ¦' ' 3 i 3

Fig. 84. Dante. Purgatorio I.

them with the grisaille frescoes, finished in 1502, in the chapel of San Brizio
in the Duomo at Orvieto, where Luca Signorelli has illustrated the first
eleven cantos of the "Purgatorio'.' in eleven small circular pictures. Signo
relli is obliged to content himself, if only on account of the limited space,
with selecting only one of the varying pictures of each canto, and that
one, detached from its context, is not always easy to interpret. He shows,
for example, as an illustration to the first canto, Dante kneeling before
Cato in a rocky landscape, whereas Botticelli, anxious to use his own know
ledge in order to make the comprehension of Dante easier to the beholder,
has lightly sketched a complete diagram of the Mount of Purification, which
rises according to the scheme adopted by the poet, out of a blue expanse
of sea exactly opposite to Jerusalem on the other side of the earth's

io6
surface (Fig. 84). All the thirty-three illustrations to the "Purgatorio" are
preserved, and all except the eighth, which is only touched in with silver-
point, are completely carried out with the pen. Thus we accompany the
poets step by step on the laborious ascent of the precipitous mountain,
where those who have been killed by violence, and those who have deferred
repentance too long, wait for admission to the gate of Purgatory. Perhaps
the most splendid of the subjects belonging to the first portion of the
"Purgatorio", are, first, the illustration to the 9th canto (Fig. 85) in which an
eagle carries Dante in a dream up to the walls which encircle Purgatory,
and an angel with a flaming sword writes the seyen P's on his brow as

Fig. 85. Dante. Purgatorio IX.

he kneels there; then the drawing for the twelfth section, the circle of the
proud, in which an angel offers himself as guide, and embraces the poet
with the same affection which the angels show to the Dominicans in the
"Adoration" of 1 500; and, lastly, the illustration to the 27th canto, in which
Virgil overcomes Dante's hesitation and induces him, at the angel's bidding,
to step through the flames in which the incontinent are doing penance,
and then , his sanctification accomplished , crowns him with laurel before
he leaves him to his own guidance. These designs are only surpassed
by the poetical charm of the concluding cantos, in which the poet's words
have been turned by the artist into facts, and in which Botticelli, while
adhering with scrupulous accuracy to the text of the poem, yet seems to
have given shape to the visions of his own mind.

io8 For the first and last time in the whole series of pictures which
illustrate the "Inferno" and the "Purgatorio", the drawing to the 30th canto
depicting the meeting of Dante and Beatrice, contains but one subject
in the whole extent of the vellum; and yet this sheet contains more
figures than any other in the series (Fig. 86). On the triumphal car of the
church, drawn by a gryphon, and having the symbols of the Four Evan
gelists at its four corners, Beatrice is enthroned, wearing a white veil, her
head crowned with an olive branch, and surrounded by countless angels
who scatter roses in the air. Seven heavenly messengers have hastened
on before with the seven candles of the Revelations; they are followed

Fig. 87. Dante. Paradiso I.

by four-and-twenty elders with books raised on high , all turning back to
wards the car of the church ; the three spiritual and the four profane virtues
dance along beside the wheels , and they are followed by the two princes
of the apostles, the four fathers of the church, and finally the Evangelist
St. John, "walking in sleep with countenance acute". Dante stands alone
with Statius on the other shore of the river Lethe ; the longed-for vision
of Beatrice has kindled anew the fervour of his old love, but, smitten with
the pangs of remorse, he hangs his head in shame, as his beloved recalls
to his memory with stern words of rebuke the sins of former days. It is
not till Beatrice herself has dipped him in the cleansing water of the river,
a scene most charmingly represented on the ne.xt leaf, and till the four
cardinal virtues have set him in their midst, that the poet loses the painful

no
recollection of his sins, and, sanctified and fortified by a second immersion,
is at length "pure and disposed to mount unto the stars"
In the very first illustration to the "Paradiso" Botticelli gives up the
attempt to make the picture an aid to the reader in understanding the text
of the Divine Comedy. He does not begin with a general diagram, as he
had done in the case of the "Inferno" and "Purgatorio", though Beatrice
herself gives an elaborate description of the plan in the first two cantos;
he contents himself with representing Dante and his guide as they soar up
to Heaven over the last circle of Purgatory, carried away by their yearning
for the bliss of Paradise (Fig. 87). Here, too, the drawing, with its noble
simplicity, possesses a mysterious fascination arising from spiritual depth.
With their shining eyes wide open and directed towards the sun, the two
companions float up through the trees, slender and almost bare of leaves,
as they would naturally be on the top of a mountain where they grow with
difficulty ; Beatrice leads the way, passing swiftly onwards, and drawing after
her the poet crowned with bay, who breathes for the first time, in rapture
mingled with awe, the pure celestial air.
Botticelli cannot altogether escape the reproach of monotony, seeing
that he contents himself, during the first twenty-eight cantos , with Dante
and Beatrice, travelling alone through the spheres of the seven planets
and of the fixed stars, as his principal theme. Did he feel crippled
in his power of giving shape to his ideas , when he had to reveal the
sacred mysteries of Paradise to mortal eyes? Was he at a loss how to
take hold of concrete, definite points in the various and often abstract
contents of the various cantos ? Were signs of the fatigue of old age, signs
of approaching death , beginning to appear, and was the master bent on
simplifying his task, in order to be able to complete it? In any case, the
continual freshness of invention, the infinite diversity of countenance and
gesture, in the simple group of Beatrice and Dante, reveal a study of the
sacred poem no less profound than appears in the most scrupulous ob
servance of the letter in the "Inferno" and "Purgatorio". Even" movement,
every change of countenance of the two characters has its justification in
some verse of the corresponding canto. Now they step on quietly side
by side, and Beatrice explains to her listening lover the changing marvels
which his eye beholds, the unfathomable mysteries which his intellect cannot
grasp. Now we see her fortifying him in doubt, consoling him in hesitation,
raising him when he falls, and restoring to his blinded eyes the power of
vision. With prophetical spirit she divines his questions before he utters
them; she corrects him with gentle rebuke, and at length, transported
herself by a divine longing, she animates the poet's heart, torn this way
and that by a thousand emotions , with the pure fire of her own ardent
love. What entrancing beauty of design, what elevation of feeling, are
revealed, for instance, in the illustration to the seventh canto, in which
lieatrice and Dante are seen in the sphere of Mercury, encircled by countless
spirits in the symbolical form of flames (Fig. SS). Here the doubting poet

Ill

Fig. 89. Dante. Paradiso VII.

stands with his head bowed in humility before her whose very name made
his great heart tremble in fear and woe ; and she , adorned with all the
charms of youth, instructs the thinker, himself grown old, on the motives
for the Crucifixion, the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection of the
dead, with gentle words and such a radiant smile "as would bring bliss
even in the fire of Hell ".
We can tell from the last drawings to the "Paradiso", which are all
unfinished and in part only slightly sketched, that Botticelli, keeping close
to the text of the cantos, had returned to the plan of compositions in the
grand style. The vellum leaves intended for the 31st and 33rd cantos have
remainded entirely blank; the composition for the 32nd is indicated in broad
lines , showing an immense cone of rock , on the summit of which Christ
and the Madonna are enthroned, and it is only the drawings to cantos 28 — 30
which allow us to recognise definitely the intention of the artist. The
illustration to the 28th, with its very numerous figures, is almost completely

112

finished, and calls, moreover, for special attention on account of a certain
interesting detail (Fig. 88). Dante and Beatrice appear in the highest
sphere of heaven, surrounded by the nine orders of angels, who stand at
the limits of created things, and hymn the omnipotence of the Most High
with everlasting songs of praise in the immediate presence of God. In
the lowest series of angels , whom Botticelli has adorned once more with
all the poetic beauty, all the enthusiasm and self-surrender of youthful
innocence which he alone could give to the messengers of God, there
appears on the left an angel holding up a tablet with the artist's name,
"Sandro di Mariano", inscribed upon it in minute characters. Was it the
master's intention to certify to posterity his authorship in the work, or
did he wish , with some presentiment of approaching death , thus to give
expression to his hope of being allowed hereafter to hymn the majesty
of God amidst the blessed company of the angels in Heaven? The un
certainty of the time at which the illustrations to Dante were produced —
a problem of which only a conjectural solution can be given — forbids us
to give any decisive answer to such questions.
There is much, indeed, that will for ever remain unknown in the modest
life of Sandro Botticelli, and the last years of his life, in particular, vanish
from our sight like far-off mountain summits on the misty horizon. In
1503 he pronounced an opinion, with certain other "elders" on the place
in which the "David" of the young Michelangelo was to be erected; and
in May, 15 10, he was laid to rest in the family vault of the Filipepi in the
Church of Ognissanti, in which the "St. Augustine" still tells of his fame.
The inventive Florentines spun a web of legends round the figure
of the charming artist — legends which clearly reflect the harmless escapades
of light-hearted youth, the active feats of a no less irresponsible manhood,
and, finally, the bitter experiences of a solitary old age. And yet Botticelli,
who owns, as an artist, one of the most marked individualities of the Re
naissance period, has remained, as a man, one of the great unknown, whose
creations alone, bearing, as they do, the stamp of genius, reveal to posterity
some aspects of his gifted nature. And we are very willing to let him
remain in a romantic twilight, which only fancy, not science, can ever hope
to illumine. "You would pluck out the heart of my mystery", says Hamlet to his
too inquisitive friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ; "there is much
music", he continues, "much music, excellent voice, in this little organ;
yet cannot you make it speak "

LIST OF PICTURES BY BOTTICELLI
DISCUSSED IN THE TEXT.

AltenburgBergamo.Berlin.

Dresden.Florence.

Frankfort'London.

Milan.Munich.

museum. Portrait of Caterina Sforza 
Morelli Gallery. Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici . .
Museum. St. Sebastian 
Madonna with St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist
Madonna with the Seven Angels bearing Tapers ....
Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici  ....
Venus .  . 
Gallery. Scenes from the Life of St. Zenobius ....
Uffizi. Fortitude . . . 
Judith with the Head of Holofernes ... 
Discovery of the Body of Holofernes  . .
The Magnificat  . ¦
Madonna and Child with Angels 
Adoration of the Magi (re-painted)  . .
Adoration of the Magi with portraits of the Medici ....
Birth of Venus  
The Calumny of Apelles . . .... 
The Annunciation . . . . ... . .
Corshd Gallery. Madonna ...  ...
Spedale degli Innocenli. Madonna .... . . ...
Santa Maria Nuova. Madonna with Angels 
Academy. Madonna enthroned with Saints (re-painted) . .
Coronation of the Virgin 
Madonna enthroned under a Baldachino ... . .
Primavera ....  ... ...
Pitti Palace. Virgin and Child with St. John 
Pallas taming a Centaur 
Ognissanti. St. Augustine
¦on-the-Main. Stddel InstiUrte.
National Gallery. Madonna .
The Nativity, dated 1500 .
Adoration of the Magi . .
Venus and Mars ....
Assumption of the Virgin .
Museo Poldi-Pezzoli. Madonna
Lamentation for Christ . .
Pinakothek. The Entombment

Page

Portrait of a Woman

7272 8
18
33 708593 5

16
35 68 68848993 9 9
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3478 2974 397227 366877

96

LIST OF PICTURES BY BOTTICELLI.

Naples. Museum. Madonna 
Paris. Louvre. Madonna and Child with St. John  • •
Frescoes from Villa Lemmi  
St. Petersburg. Hermitage. Adoration of the Magi . 
Rome. Gallery of Prince Chigi (lately removed from). Madonna with an Angel .
Gallery of Prince Pallavicini. The Outcast 
Madonna with Angels ....  •
Sistine Chapel. Portraits of the Popes  ¦ •
The Sacrifice of the Leper 
The Early Life of Moses 
The Punishment of Korah, Dathan and Abiram 
Turin. Pinacoteca. The Virgin suckling the Child . . 
Vienna. Academy. Madonna with Angels ... .... ....

Page

12
II
8668 H
913'
44 46 54
61 29
28

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS.

I. Early Life. The Madonnas .
II. Work in the Sistine Chapel .
III. In the Service of the Medici .
IV. Savonarola. Dante. The End

Page

3
39 67
93

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Vasari ed. Milanesi III, p. 309.
— ed. Lemonnier V, p. no.
Codice dell' Anonimo Gaddiano ed. C. de Fabriczy. [Arch. stor. Ital. Ser. V. Tom. XII.
1893, p. 70.]
Libro di Antonio Billi ed. ('. de Fabric/.}-. [Arch. stor. Ital. Ser. V. Tom. VII. 1891, p. 299.]
II codice Magliabechiano cl. XVII, 17 ed. Iv. Frey, Berlin 1S92
Albertini, Fr. — Memorie di molte statue et picture che sono nella inclyta cipta di Florentia
1510.

Berenson, B. — The Florentine pointers of the Renaissance — New York and London 1898,
p. 69.
Cartwright, J. — The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century —
London 1 90 1, p. 196.
Cavalcaselle e Crowe — Sturia della pittura in Italia VI, p. 203 — Firenze 1894.
FSrster, R. — Die Vi-rliiuimlung des Apelles in der Renaissance. [Jahrbuch der Kbnigl. Preuss.
Kunstsammlungen 1887. VIII, p. 38.]

BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Frizzorjj , G. — Arte italiana nella Galleria Nazionale di Londra. [Arch. stor. Ital. Ser. IV.
Tom. IV, p. 246; Tom. V, p. 45.]
Jacobsen, E. — Allegoria della primavera di Sandro Botticelli. [Arch. Stor. dell' Arte 1897.
II. Ser. HI, p. 321.]
Lippmann , Fr. — Sandro Botticellis Zeichnungen zu Dantes gbttlicher Combdie — Berlin 1887.
Meyer, J. — Zur Geschichte der Florentinischen Malerei des XV. Jahrhunderts. [Jahrbuch der
Konigl. Preuss. Kunstsammlungen 1890. XI, p. 3.]
Morelli-Lermolieff — Die Gallerien Borghese und Doria Panlili in Rom — Leipzig 1890, p. 105.
Miintz, E. — Les pr£curseurs de la Renaissance — Paris et Londres 1882, p. 139.
— — Les collections des Medicis au XV8 siecle. Appendice aux pr^curseurs de la Re
naissance — Paris et Londres 1888.
Pater, W. H. — Studies in the history of the Renaissance, p. 39 — 52. — London 1873.
Philippi, A. — Alessandro Botticelli. [Zeitschrift fiir bildende Kunst 1897. N. F. VIII, p. 185.]
Plunkett, Count C. N. — Sandro Botticelli — London 1900.
Richter, J. P. — Lectures on the National Gallery — London 1898.
Schmarsow, A. — -Festschrift zu Ehren des Kunsfhistorischen Institutes in Florenz, p. 181 —
Leipzig 1897.
Steinmann , E. — Sandro Botticellis Tempelscene zu Jerusalem in der Sixtinischen Kapelle.
[Repertorium fur Kunstwissenschaft XVIII. 1895, P- *•]
Supino, J. B. — Sandro Botticelli. — Firenze 1900.
Ulmann, H. — Sandro Botticelli — Miinchen 1893.
Venturi, A. — La primavera nelle arti rappresentative. [Nuova Antologia 1892, p. 46.]
— — Tesori d'arte inediti di Roma — Roma 1896.
Waagen, G. Fr. — Treasures of art in Great Britain — London 1854.
Warburg, A — Sandro Botticelli, Geburt der Venus und Fruhling — Hamburg und Leipzig 1893.

INDEX.

Alberti, Leon Battista, 90.
Albizzi, Giovanna degli, 86, 88.
Alexander VI, 38.
Angelico, Fra, 38.
Argyropulus 74
Arts, the Seven Liberal, 88.
Bartolommeo, Fra, 26.
Basle, 65, 66.
Bergamo, Gallery, 51, 72.
Berlin Museum, Cabinet of Engravings, 34, 102.
„ Picture Gallery, 3, 6, 18, 32,
33, 7°. 85.
Boccaccio, 89.
Borgognone, 51.
Botticelli, Birth and education, 4.
„ influenced by Verrocchio and Pollai-
uolo, 5, 8, n, 13 — 16.
,, signed works, 9, 96, 112.
,, commissions unexecuted, 24.
,, influenced by Savonarola, 26 — 38, 68,
93—98-

Botticelli, influenced by Dante, 34, 98.
,, Journey to Rome (1481), 19, 4°.
,, Works in the Sistine Chapel, 41 — 67.
„ Return to Florence (1483), 67.
,, Works for the Medici Family, 68—86.
,, ,, „ Tomabuoni Family, 74,
86—88.
,, Illustrations of Dante, 100 — 112.
„ Death and burial, 96, 98, 112.
,, Portraits of himself, 3.
Bramante, 42.
Buonvicini, Domenico, 38.
Campomorto, Battle of, 54.
Capello, Bianca, 6.
Christina, Queen of Sweden, 102.
Clement VII, 70.
Constantine, Arch of, 54.
Credi, Lorenzo di, 26.
Dante, 4, 34, 88, 98.
,, Illustrations to, 34, 100— 112.
,, Portrait of, 98.

INDEX.

Diamante, Fra, 44.
Dolci, Giovanni de', 41.
Dresden, Gallery, 85, 93.
Ficino, Marsilio, 74, 85.
Fiesole, 86.
„ Mino da, 41.
Filipepi, Alessandro, see Botticelli.
,, Mariano, 4.
Florence, Accademia, 16, 19, 31, 34.
Bargello, 41, 86, 98.
,, Brancacci Chapel, 3.
„ Corsini Palace, 9, 32.
,, Duomo, 24, 95.
,, Mercanzia, 5.
,, Ognissanti, 39, 40, 112.
,, Orsanmichele, 90.
,, Palazzo Pubblico, 24.
„ Pitti Palace, 29, 75.
,, Riccardi Palace, 74.
,, San Marco, 19.
,, San Pietro Maggiore, 100.
,, Santa Maria Maggiore, 8.
„ Santa Maria Novella, 68, 86, 89.
,, Santa Maria Nuova, 12.
,, Santo Spirito, 18, 19.
„ Spedale degli Innocenti, 9.
Uffizi Gallery, 5, 6, 9, 16, 19, 35,
68, 76, 88, 89,
Villa Careggi, 78.
„ Villa Lemmi, 24, 88.
Forli, Melozzo da, 88.
Ghiriandajo, 24, 39, 44, 86.
Giorgione, 85.
Giotto, 88, 98.
Julius II, 42, 66.
Leo X, 66.
Lippi, Filippino, 3, 68.
„ Filippo, 4, 9— II, 13, 15, 16, 19,
London, National Gallery, 27, 31, 36, 68,
96,
,, Private collections, 36, 93, 98.
Malatesta, Roberto, 54.
Marussi, Silvestro, 38.
Medici, Cosimo de', 68.
,, Giovanni de', 70.
„ Giuliano de', 70, 77, 82, 84.
,, Lorenzo de', 24, 65, 72 — 75, S6, 93,
,, Lorenzo di I'ier Francesco de', 100,
,, Piero de', 70.
Michelangelo, 8, 9, 26, 42, 54, 03, 9(1, 98,
Milan, Museo I'oldi-l'e/./.oli, II, 9(1.
Mirandola, Pico della, 24.

I°3.
104.

Munich, Alte Pinakothek, 96.
Naples, 88.
„ Museo Nazionale, 12, 14.
Orvieto, Frescoes by Signorelli at, 105.
Palmieri, Matteo, 98, 100.
Paris, the Louvre, II, 28, 88.
Pazzi, Conspiracy of the, 41, 72.
Perugino, 44, 61, 62.
Petersburg, St., 68.
Petrarch, 88.
Piero della Francesca, 88.
Piero di Cosimo, 55, 56.
Pinturicchio, 88.
Pisa, Archbishop of, 41.
Poliziano, 74, 80, 83.
Pollaiuolo, 5, 8.
Popes, Portraits of the, 44.
Pucci, Lucrezia, 89.
Raphael, 3, 8, 9, 29, 66, 88.
Riario, Girolamo, 52.
Robbia, Luca della, 26.
Rome, Borghese Palace, 78.
,, Borghese Villa, 32.
„ Capitoline Museum, 54, 105.
,, Chigi collection, 12. 14.
,, Pallavicini collection, 31, 91
„ Sistine Chapel, 3, 41 — 67.
„ St. Peter's, 42, SS, 96.
,, Vatican Library, 102.
Rossetti, D. G., S4.
Rovere, Giuliano della, 40.
Savonarola, 24— 2S, 31, 33, 35. 36, 3S. 93, 94,
96, 98.
Segni, Fabio, 89.
Sforza, Battista, SS.
Signorelli, 64, 105.
Sixtus II, 44.
Sixtus IV, 39—41, 46, 52, 65—67, 102.
Spoleto, 13, 19.
Stephanus Romanus, 44.
Titian, 7S.
Tomabuoni family, 74. 86.
,, Giovanni, So
,, Lorenzo, S6.
Turin, Cillery, 2S. 29.
Urbino, SS.
Vasari, 3 — 5, 38, 30. 44, 67, oS. 72, oS. 100.
Verrocchio, 5, 8, II, 13 — 16, So, 100.
Vienna, Academy, 28.
Vinci, Leonardo da, 8, oS, 100.
Yioli, Loren/.o, 24.
Virtues, the, 5, SS.
YoHcna, jacopo da, S4-
Zamometic, Aiuliea, OS, 66.

3 9002 00469 5202

l-t!