Botticelli's Secret

The Lost Drawings and the Rediscovery of the Renaissance

Format: Hardback
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Some 500 years ago, Sandro Botticelli, a painter of humble origin, created work of unearthly beauty. An intimate associate of Florence’s unofficial rulers, the Medici, he was commissioned by a member of their family to execute a near-impossible project: to illustrate all 100 cantos of The Divine Comedy by the city’s greatest poet, Dante Alighieri. A powerful encounter between poet and artist, sacred and secular, earthly and evanescent, these drawings produced a wealth of stunning images but were never finished. Botticelli declined into poverty and obscurity, and his illustrations went missing for 400 years.

The nineteenth-century rediscovery of Botticelli’s Dante drawings brought scholars to their knees: this work embodied everything the Renaissance had come to mean. Today, Botticelli’s Primavera adorns household objects of every kind. This book is essential to explain not only how and why this artist became iconic, but why we need still need his work—and the spirit of the Renaissance—today.

  • A New Yorker Best Book of 2022
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Authors:
Luzzi, Joseph (Bard College)
Year Published:
2022
Country of Publication:
United States
Format:
Hardback
Illustrations Note:
16 pages of color illustrations
ISBN:
9781324004011
Number of Pages:
352
Publication Date:
25/11/2022
Publisher:
WW Norton & Co
Place of Publication:
New York
Language:
English
SKU:
9781324004011

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