Sandro Botticelli Paintings

About Sandro Botticelli

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli or simply Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, 1445 to 1510. He was a prominent figure in the Florentine artistic community, so Florence is where all of it happened, and Florence is still where most accounts begin. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered for a long time, and it was the late 19th century that fixed it: he was rediscovered by the Pre-Raphaelites, who stimulated a reappraisal of his work. Everything written since about his line and his beauty comes after that reappraisal, not before it, which is unusual for a name this large.

Two halves of the same hand are usually kept apart when people talk about him. The mythological paintings, The Birth of Venus and Primavera among them, are the ones that carry the name outside Italy, and the portrait of a young man is the third picture most people can place. This collection is the other half: eleven devotional titles, the Madonna and Child in several versions, a Mystical Nativity, the Agony in the Garden, a Lamentation, a saint's last communion, and one antique allegory. The same line runs through all of them. In a room they behave differently from the mythologies, since a panel of the Madonna and Child was made for a wall someone prayed at, at close range, and not for a hall you cross.

Series and periods

Eleven titles sort themselves into four groups, and the groups matter more here than the dates, which the record does not give for most of these panels. Each group links straight to the products inside it, and a title can sit in more than one of them.

• The Madonna and Child: the core of this collection, the mother and child and, in most of them, the young Baptist or an angel alongside. Six versions of one subject, each with a different company around the two figures, which is also the practical difference between them on a wall: the more company, the wider the picture wants to be, and the fewer faces, the smaller it can go without losing anything. Titles here: with Saint John and an Angel, with Two Angels and St. John the Baptist, surrounded by Five Angels, the two of them alone, The Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist.
• The life of Christ: the narrative panels, the birth at one end and the garden and the dead Christ at the other. These were made for devotion rather than for display, and they are small in scale next to the mythologies, which is part of why they read so well at close range in a house. Ordered as a group of three at one size, they run in that order along a wall. Titles here: The Mystical Nativity, The Agony in the Garden, Lamentation over the Dead Christ with Saints.
• Saints: the saints on their own, where the grace art history credits him with has to carry an old man's face instead of a young one. There is one of them here, it is the quietest title on the page, and it is the one that shows how much of his effect is drawing and how little of it is subject matter. Titles here: Last Communion of St Jerome.
• Allegory and the antique: the one picture here that comes out of the classical world rather than the Gospels. Its title names the Greek painter Apelles, it is the busiest thing in the collection, and it is the only one with an argument written into it. Titles here: Calumny of Apelles.

Most famous works

These are the Botticelli titles people ask for most, ordered by the traffic each one draws and by what actually sells. Each name opens its own page, where you choose the size and decide on a frame. Every one is painted after Botticelli to order, in oils, and no two hands read a brushstroke the same way.

• The Mystical Nativity: the title visitors open most here, the Nativity with a ring of angels above the stable and figures embracing below it. The linear grace his reputation rests on is easiest to see in that ring, and the picture reads like one tall shape rather than a scene spread sideways, so it suits a narrow wall or the space above a piece of furniture
• The Agony in the Garden: Christ on his knees in the garden with the disciples asleep behind. A small devotional panel rather than an altarpiece, one of the few night subjects in this group, and the quietest of the narrative titles to live with
• Calumny of Apelles: the allegory of slander, a procession of named figures dragging an innocent man in front of a seated king, under a title that names the Greek painter Apelles. It is the one antique subject here and the busiest composition in the collection, so it holds a large wall better than the devotional panels do
• The Virgin and Child with Saint John and an Angel: the mother and child with the young Baptist and one angel, four figures kept close together inside the frame and nothing behind them competing for attention, which makes it the simplest of the group to place
• The Virgin and Child with Two Angels and St. John the Baptist: the same subject with two angels instead of one, and the Baptist at the side as a child rather than as the man in the desert he becomes in later painting. Of the six versions this is the one with the most even balance across the frame
• The Virgin and Child surrounded by Five Angels: the fullest of the group, five angels ringed around the pair, the arrangement that reads best as a round panel and the one that carries a big wall on its own
• The Virgin and the Child: the two of them alone, with nothing else in the picture to look at. It is the one people order when they want the subject and not the company, it works at the smallest sizes we paint, and it is the easiest of the eleven to place in a finished room
• The Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist: the Madonna and Child with a young John beside them, the version titled as a Madonna rather than as a Virgin, and the closest of the panels to a portrait group, which is why it holds up next to photographs on the same wall
• Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist: another Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist, cropped tight to the three of them, so the faces sit larger in the frame than in the other versions
• Lamentation over the Dead Christ with Saints: the body of Christ held across the front of the picture with the saints gathered behind. The darkest subject in the collection, the one that most needs space around it on the wall, and the panel that changes most between a small size and a large one
• Last Communion of St Jerome: Jerome taking communion at the end of his life, propped up by the brothers of his house. A small and very quiet panel, the only picture here built around an old face, and the closest thing in this collection to a portrait study

Browse by subject

Botticelli's subjects run through other collections of ours, and each one is a different door into the same painter. Every original is museum property, so what you order here is a new canvas by our own artists, at the size you pick and not at the size the museum happens to own. The counts below are the number of titles in each of those collections today.

• Renaissance art: 650 works, He is called an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, and these panels come from the Florence of that period.
• Religious paintings: 3,084 canvases, the visual representation of religious ideas and their relationship with humans, with sacred art the part of it made for worship and religious practice. The Madonnas, the Nativity, the Agony in the Garden, the Lamentation and the communion of Jerome, which is almost everything in this collection, and the reason this page sits closer to the devotional collections than to the mythological ones.
• Angel paintings: 389 titles, One angel, two angels and five angels: the three panels counted by the company around the mother, which is the fastest way to tell them apart when you are choosing between them.
• Paintings of women: 9,375 pieces, The Virgin in every version of the subject, and the female figures who carry the Calumny allegory, where the accusers and the personifications are almost all women.
• Paintings of children: 2,170 paintings, The Christ Child and the young Baptist, painted as children and not as small adults, which is one of the things people come here for.
• Portrait paintings: 8,463 works, the genre whose intent is to represent a specific human subject, worked on commission for public and private persons or out of admiration for the sitter, and long kept as a state and family record. His portrait of a young man belongs to this genre, and the portrait is where his line reads clearest, since there is no story to look at and nothing to hide behind.

The full list of painters we reproduce in oil is on the artist index.

How each reproduction is painted

Nothing here is stock. When you order, an artist paints that title in oil on canvas in the size you picked, layer by layer, and you see a photograph of the finished painting and approve it before it leaves the studio. A Botticelli is line before color, so the drawing has to be right before any paint goes on, and our artists build these panels in that order. The line is the thing being reproduced, and it is the first thing a print flattens. Use the same size across two panels if you plan to hang them as a pair, and hang them a little high, the way a devotional picture was meant to be met. On a warm wall these read better than on cold white, which is worth knowing before you pick a room. A pair of the smaller devotional panels at the same size reads as a set, and the two Madonna and Child versions with the Baptist are the obvious pair for that, since the composition turns the same way in both. Seven sizes are available and the frame is optional, so the same picture can be a small study by a desk or the one thing on a wall. Shipping is free worldwide and returns stay open for 90 days.

Frequently asked questions

Which Botticelli painting is the most famous?

The Birth of Venus and Primavera are the two that carry his name in art history, and neither is part of this collection. Of the eleven titles here, The Mystical Nativity is the one visitors open most, with the Calumny of Apelles and the Agony in the Garden behind it.

Who was Sandro Botticelli?

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli, an Italian painter who lived from 1445 to 1510 and was a prominent figure in the Florentine artistic community. Florence is where the pictures were made, and at the time he was one of the names that city was known by. The short name is the one that stuck, and almost nobody uses the family name Filipepi today.

Why is Botticelli called an Early Renaissance painter?

Because that is how art history places him. His paintings have been seen to represent the linear grace of late Italian Gothic and some Early Renaissance painting, even though they date from the latter half of the Italian Renaissance period. Every account has to handle that small contradiction, and most handle it by talking about the line rather than about the date.

Why was he forgotten and then rediscovered?

His posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, when the Pre-Raphaelites rediscovered him and stimulated a reappraisal of his work. That happened later than it did for most painters of his standing, and everything written about his beauty since then sits on the far side of it. It is also why he reads as a modern taste rather than an old one.

What is the Calumny of Apelles?

An allegory of slander, named in its title for the Greek painter Apelles. A procession of named figures drags an innocent man in front of a seated king, and it is the only antique subject among the eleven titles in this collection. If you want one picture here with a story you can read left to right, this is that picture.

Which Botticelli should I start with?

If you want the picture people recognize here, take The Mystical Nativity. If you want the mother and child, take the panel with five angels for a full wall, or the pair on their own for a small one. If you want something with an argument in it, take the Calumny. Any of them can be ordered at a size that suits the room, which is the one thing a museum cannot offer, and every order is photographed and approved before it ships.

Are these original Sandro Botticelli paintings?

No. Each one is a new painting, made by hand in oil on canvas after Botticelli's composition. It is a reproduction, not a print, and not the original canvas.

What sizes and frames can I order?

Every Botticelli reproduction here comes in seven sizes, with an optional frame. You see a photo of the finished oil painting and approve it before it ships, worldwide shipping is free, and returns stay open for 90 days.