rediscovering Botticelli

Botticelli Reimagined: London exhibition explores Italian painter’s influence.

AN exhibition dedicated to Sandro Botticelli, which opened in London in early M arch, looks at how the 15th century Italian painter influenced artists and designers though the ages.

Botticelli Reimagined is the largest exhibition of Botticelli paintings and drawings ever held in Britain, according to London' s Victoria& Albert( V& A) museum.

The display features more than 50 Botticelli works and explores how others have reinterpreted the Florentine painter's art, from the Pre- Raphaelites to today.

Botticelli ( 1445- 1510) is famed today for his Venus paintings, particularly The Birth Of Venus, in which the blonde, nude goddess stands on a scallop shell. However his work was initially forgotten after his death.

"Botticelli fell, sank from sight for nearly 300 years. In the early 19th century he was rediscovered. The Pr e-Raphael it es of course fetishised him ," says Mark Evans, senior curator of painting sat the V& A.

"In the era of abstraction, Botticelli again receded into the shadows but, with pop art, he came outfighting and of course he's now one of the mostcelebrat- ed global phenomena in art." The V& As how is divided into three sections.

"Global, Modern, Contemporary" looks atthe influence of The Birth

Of Venus – which remains in Florence's Uffizi Gallery – and features works by artists Andy Warhol and Yin Xin, photographer David LaChapelle and outfits by Italian designer brand Dolce & Gabbana.

"Rediscovery" explores Botticelli's influence on the Pre-Raphaelites in the mid- 19th century with works by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris among others.

The final section, "Botticelli In His Own Time", displays the painter's own works, including The

Mystic Nativity and Pallas And The Centaur.

"M any artists have painted what I think you can call citational art, that uses famous past images as a starting point," says Evans.

"W e see this in the first rooms of the exhibition, where artists from far afield as Japan and Brazil use Botticelli's imagery to tell stories very much of their own."

Botticelli Reimagined runs till July 3. V is it: www.vam.ac.uk.

American artist Andy Warhol’s Sandro Botticelli, Birth Of Venus, 1484 at the Victoria and Albert museum in London.

Botticelli Reimagined will explore the variety of ways artists and designers from the Pre- raphaelites to the present have responded to the artistic legacy of sandro Botticelli.

Botticelli Reimagined is the largest exhibition of Botticelli paintings and drawings ever held in Britain. The show features more than 50 Botticelli works.