Botticelli - (Renaissance Lives) by Ana DeBenedetti (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A revealing look at the commercial strategy and diverse output of this canonical Renaissance artist.

In this vivid account, Ana Debenedetti reexamines the life and work of Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli through a novel lens: his business acumen. Focusing on the organization of Botticelli's workshop and the commercial strategies he devised to make his way in Florence's very competitive art market, Debenedetti looks with fresh eyes at the remarkable career and output of this pivotal artist within the wider context of Florentine society and culture. Uniquely, Debenedetti evaluates Botticelli's celebrated works, like The Birth of Venus, alongside less familiar forms such as tapestry and embroidery, showing the breadth of the artist's oeuvre and his talent as a designer across media.

Review Quotes

"Debenedetti presents in compact format a capsule survey of Botticelli's entire career, from his first paintings in the 1460s to the intense and highly inventive late works of the 1490s and early 1500s... The study covers the shop's practices
in depth, including the use of drawings, replication of motifs and compositions, and collaboration between members of the shop on individual paintings. Contemporaneous Florentine philosophical debates are brought into play in the treatment of the artist's famous series of mythological paintings."-- "Choice"

"The great merit of this book is to recontextualize Botticelli's personality and oeuvre in his social and cultural milieu in a lively and captivating narrative, providing the reader with a detailed account of the latest scholarship on the subject with ease and clarity."--Alessandro Cecchi, author of "Botticelli"

About the Author

Ana Debenedetti is director of culture and exhibition at Culturespaces, Paris, and formerly a curator of paintings at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She has published on Renaissance art, philosophy, and poetry.