ANITALIANMASTERPIECE
When it comes to producing lovers, Italy can be justly proud. It’s given us Romeo, Casanova and actors Rudolph Valentino and Marcello Mastroianni of La Dolce Vita fame.
But Sandro Botticelli? Well, pay a visit to the Florentine church where the Renaissance painter is buried and you will see his grave strewn with roses and love letters.
‘Dear Botticelli,’ begins one, ‘Can I call you Sandro? . . . You have captured the beauty of what divinity is.’ Another gushes: ‘From your heart to mine . . . across space and time for ever.’ Someone else has left a paintbrush for the afterlife.
Along with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, who died in 1510, ranks among the greatest Italian masters. An exhibition opening next Saturday at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Botticelli Reimagined, will bring together 50 of his masterpieces, many of them rarely seen in Britain.
Alongside will be works inspired by his legacy from artists and designers including Magritte, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and Dolce & Gabbana. Yet however stellar this Botticelli line-up, two of his most famous works will be missing. The Birth of Venus (c.1482-85) and La Primavera (c.1477-82) are on permanent display in Florence’s Uffizi gallery.
Go there now before crowds turn the city into a scrum. how refreshing it is to swan into the Uffizi and linger in its Botticelli room without being jostled. And when hunger sets in, you can pitch up at my favourite trattoria, Angiolino on Via del Porcellana, without booking.
The son of a tanner, Botticelli spent all his life in the city, leaving only to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
Born Alessandro Filipepi, he was known by his nickname (meaning little wine casks), although no one knows why. his prodigious talent earned him the patronage of the city’s ruling family, the Medicis.
exploring the maze of medieval streets, it’s easy to imagine the Florence he knew. his quarter, around the church of Ognissanti, is still one of artisans: turn into Via del Porcellana, where he had his workshop, and you can hear the hammering of framers and smell the tanned hides.
The heart of Florence has changed little in the past 600 years. By the time Botticelli was born circa 1445, Giotto’s bell tower was nearly 100 years old, and Brunelleschi’s magnificent dome for the cathedral, finished in 1434, was pulling in the Renaissance tourists.
TheRe’S a danger of cultural overload in this city. ‘Another altarpiece? Really?’ exclaims my husband as we duck into the churches of Santa Maria novella (more Botticelli) and Santa Croce (more Giotto). Do make time for the exquisite horne Museum, a recreation of a 15th-century palazzo near the Ponte Vecchio.
hubert horne was an english art historiam living in Florence who bequeathed his house and artworks to the state in 1916. no such luck with Botticelli’s house. exactly where it stood remains a mystery, as does much of his life. he never married, but was rumoured to have fallen in love with a married woman, Simonetta Vespucci.
A renowned beauty, she is thought to have inspired his depiction of women. When she died at 22, she was buried in her local church, Ognissanti. Botticelli was reportedly inconsolable and his dying wish was to be buried at her feet.
What happened then is now uncertain. While we know where he lies in Ognissanti, Simonetta’s grave was washed away in devastating floods in 1966. Perhaps Simonetta does indeed lie next to Sandro in the church, her bones magically rearranged by the swirling floodwaters. Separated in life, but united in death. All very Florentine.