San Marino · 500th anniversary of the death of Sandro Botticelli

Sandro Botticelli was born around 1445 in Florenz as Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi. He presumably adopted his artist’s name from his family background. He trained in the workshop of Fra Filippo Lippi and later worked independently in Florenz. His patrons included ecclesiastical institutions and members of the Medici circle. In addition to religious paintings, he created depictions from ancient mythology. For a time, he also worked in Rome on frescoes for the Sistine Chapel (Sixtinische Kapelle). Botticelli died in 1510 in Florenz and was buried in the church of Ognissanti.

“The Spring”, usually known by its Italian title “Primavera”, was probably created in the late 1470s or early 1480s. The exact commission and intended interpretation have not been conclusively established. The painting is now in the Uffizi (Uffizien) in Florenz. In an orange grove, it brings together several figures from Greek and Roman mythology: Venus, Cupid, Mercury, the three Graces, as well as Zephyr, Chloris and Flora. The scene is not a simple illustration of a single ancient story. It combines various motifs associated, among other things, with spring, love, fertility and transformation.

The three Graces go back to ancient ideas of female deities associated with grace, festive joy and social harmony. Their traditional names are Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thalia. “Cheerfulness” corresponds to Euphrosyne. Botticelli depicts the three women in translucent garments and in a circular dancing movement. This section is particularly suitable as an independent image motif because the figures remain recognisable even outside the multi-part overall composition.

The choice of subject is connected with the round-numbered anniversary of Botticelli’s death and with his role in the Florentine Renaissance. For San Marino, the occasion also offered the opportunity to draw on a work from Italian art and cultural history without depicting a historical subject directly associated with San Marino.