‘Perfect linearity’: why Botticelli’s drawing abilities remain one-of-a-kind
Throughout the Renaissance, drawings became an integral part of the massive paintings and frescoes that have long been associated with that period. Among other things, they were a way for artists to get a feel for how to arrange the space of a composition, and they also helped artists hone the incredibly lifelike poses that have become synonymous with masterworks from the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Tiziano Vecellio (better known as Titian) and Tintoretto. Drawings were even used in legally binding contracts to provide a reference point for the work that was being agreed to.
When it came to drawings, Sandro Botticelli was in a class of his own, with one expert even touting him as “the greatest artist of linear design that Europe has ever had”. Botticelli’s line became the basis for the dance-like aesthetic that permeates his output and that can be seen in masterworks like Birth of Venus and La Primavera. According to Italian Renaissance expert Furio Rinaldi, “Botticelli’s use of drawing goes to the core meaning of the word ‘choreography’ … With his drawings, Botticelli is writing the composition, drawing the dance.”
For San Francisco’s Legion of Honor museum, Rinaldi has curated an exciting new exhibition centering around Botticelli’s drawings. Featuring 27 of the artist’s drawings – including five newly attributed – and more than 60 works overall from dozens of lenders, it offers Bay Area audiences a rare opportunity to see one of the largest shows of the Italian master’s work ever attempted.
“It was an incredible effort that took more than three years to organize,” said Rinaldi during an interview in his office at the Legion of Honor. “In my mind there is something really incredible about Botticelli being in San Francisco, so far away from where he worked. For many it will probably be the only opportunity to see so many works by this great artist.”
As with many painters of the era, Botticelli relied on drawings throughout his creative process to help hone and shape forms that would eventually come together as a painting. What Botticelli Drawings attempts to show is how integral these sketches were to the unique qualities that made Botticelli stand out from his contemporaries, and that have made his artworks resonate for more than 500 years and be referenced in everything from The Simpsons to the cover of Lady Gaga’s 2013 album Artpop. “We’re really leaning into his mind and into his graphic articulations of his ideas,” said Rinaldi. “They’re so essential to the aesthetic that makes Botticelli so appealing, because the linearity of these sketches are really a reflection of his painting technique.” The works on display at the Legion of Honor are quite masterful. Here audiences will see renderings of the human form that appear so lifelike that they could very well walk up off of the page. As this exhibition demonstrates, these forms often seem as though in motion – whether jumping back in fear amid a fight, running to announce the incarnation of Jesus Christ or hefting high a decapitated head, the subjects of Botticelli’s drawing seem to be dancing, moving with a fluidity and lithe presence that makes these figures quite different from others. “I tried to really go beyond to the core of this attraction and magnetism,” said Rinaldi. “A lot of contemporary artists and dancers are inspired by Botticelli. And I felt that the common thread was the line, the perfect linearity of Botticelli’s composition.”
With Botticelli’s drawings centered in this exhibition, each of the show’s galleries also includes one finished painting to offer a point of synthesis for audiences. Works shown here include such major pieces as The Virgin and Child With the Young Saint John the Baptist and The Adoration of the Magi, including paintings that rarely if ever have traveled to the US. These paintings help audiences to get a sense of how Botticelli’s drawings were a part of the creative process that ultimately ended in a work on canvas. “Every room has a seminal painting,” said Rinaldi, “a significant work to help the audience anchor and recompose the ideas and the figures that they see scattered in the drawings.”
Staging a show of Botticelli’s drawings was a significant challenge that took over three years to complete. This was partly due to the fact that, although Botticelli is recognized as an innovator and master of the drawing, only a scant two dozen of his have survived until modern times. “There are very, very few drawings that have survived that can be attributed to Botticelli,” said Rinaldi. “If you think of Leonardo da Vinci, we have almost thousands of his drawings. For other artists, there may be hundreds. For Botticelli we have by my count no more than 30 sheets.” Because Botticelli died in poverty, his drawing workshop was not preserved and sustained as were those of many of his contemporaries, instead being sold off after his death. “If you think of Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo, there’s a slightly different situation where they all have their pupils continuing their workshop and preserving and using the drawings as a sort of visual patrimony of the artist’s ideas.”
One thing that stands out about Botticelli Drawings is the very sleek, minimalist presentation of the works. The Legion of Honor’s galleries have been pared back in a way that gives the show a very polished, contemporary feeling, almost as though it’s borrowing from the very clean, bright aesthetic of the Apple Store. “I wanted to put the audience in the best possible position to appreciate this work, so you will see a very sparse hang,” said Rinaldi. “Everything is just very clean and very modern. Even if the exhibition is firmly grounded in art historical research, I am trying to remove Botticelli from the art historical mythologies.” The result of Rinaldi’s aesthetic makes for an interesting, and certainly original, feeling.
Ultimately, Botticelli Drawings succeeds in presenting the artist in a different way, one that resonates and allows us to look at his work as though for the first time. It is a major show – a welcome chance to see pieces that rarely travel anywhere, let alone to the United States, and to have a deep look into the intimacy of the creative process of an artist who comes from a very different world than the one in which we live. “Renaissance Florence is so far away in time and place that people don’t even know what it means anymore,” said Rinaldi. “I think it’s time to turn the leaf and look at these artists with today’s eyes.”
Botticelli Drawings is showing at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco until 11 February 2024