Editing Sandro Botticelli (section)

==Religious paintings after Rome==
Botticelli returned from Rome in 1482 with a reputation considerably enhanced by his work there. As with his secular paintings, many religious commissions are larger and no doubt more expensive than before.<ref>Lightbown, 180.</ref> Altogether more datable works by Botticelli come from the 1480s than any other decade,<ref name="auto3">Dempsey.</ref> and most of these are religious. By the mid-1480s, many leading Florentine artists had left the city, some never to return. The rising star [[Leonardo da Vinci]], who scoffed at Botticelli's landscapes,<ref>Hartt, 329. According to Leonardo, Botticelli anticipated the method of some 18th century [[watercolour]]ists by claiming that a landscape could be begun by throwing a sponge loaded with paint at the panel.</ref> left in 1481 for [[Milan]], the Pollaiolo brothers in 1484 for Rome, and [[Andrea del Verrocchio]] in 1485 for [[Venice]].<ref name="auto4">Ettlingers, 11.</ref>

The remaining leaders of Florentine painting, Botticelli, [[Domenico Ghirlandaio]] and [[Filippino Lippi]], worked on a major fresco cycle with [[Perugino]], for [[Lorenzo the Magnificent]]'s villa at Spedalletto near [[Volterra]].<ref name="auto4"/> Botticelli painted many Madonnas, covered in a section below, and [[altarpiece]]s and frescos in Florentine churches. In 1491 he served on a committee to decide upon a façade for the [[Cathedral of Florence]], receiving the next year three payments for a design for a scheme, eventually abortive, to put [[mosaic]]s on some interior roof vaults in the cathedral.<ref>Lightbown, 211–213.</ref>

===''Bardi Altarpiece''===
[[File:Sandro Botticelli - Madonna with Saints - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|The ''Bardi Altarpiece'', 1484–85, 185&nbsp;×&nbsp;180&nbsp;cm, [[Gemäldegalerie]], Berlin]]The first major church commission after Rome was the '''''Bardi Altarpiece''''', finished and framed by February 1485,<ref>Lightbown, 182.</ref> and now in Berlin. The frame was by no less a figure than [[Giuliano da Sangallo]], who was just becoming Lorenzo il Magnifico's favourite architect. An enthroned Madonna and (rather large) Child sit on an elaborately-carved raised stone bench in a garden, with plants and flowers behind them closing off all but small patches of sky, to give a version of the ''[[hortus conclusus]]'' or closed garden, a very traditional setting for the Virgin Mary. Saints [[John the Baptist]] and an unusually elderly [[John the Evangelist]] stand in the foreground. Small and inconspicuous [[banderole]]s or ribbons carrying biblical verses elucidate the rather complex theological meaning of the work, for which Botticelli must have had a clerical advisor, but do not intrude on a simpler appreciation of the painting and its lovingly detailed rendering, which Vasari praised.<ref>Lightbown, 180–185; Ettlingers, 72–74.</ref> It is somewhat typical of Botticelli's relaxed approach to strict perspective that the top ledge of the bench is seen from above, but the vases with lilies on it from below.<ref>Legouix, 38.</ref>

The donor, from the leading [[Bardi family]], had returned to Florence from over twenty years as a banker and wool merchant in London, where he was known as "John de Barde",<ref>Lightbown, 180; Ettlingers, 73.</ref> and aspects of the painting may reflect north European and even English art and popular devotional trends.<ref>Lightbown, 184.</ref> There may have been other panels in the altarpiece, which are now missing.<ref>Ettlingers, 73.</ref>

[[File:Botticelli, pala di san barnaba 01.jpg|thumb|''San Barnaba Altarpiece'', c. 1487, Uffizi, 268&nbsp;×&nbsp;280&nbsp;cm, Uffizi, Florence]]

===''San Barnaba Altarpiece''===
A larger and more crowded altarpiece is the '''''San Barnaba Altarpiece''''' of about 1487, now in the Uffizi, where elements of Botticelli's emotional late style begin to appear. Here the setting is a palatial heavenly interior in the latest style, showing Botticelli taking a new degree of interest in architecture, possibly influenced by Sangallo. The Virgin and Child are raised high on a throne, at the same level as four angels carrying the [[instruments of the Passion]]. Six saints stand in line below the throne. Several figures have rather large heads, and the infant Jesus is again very large. While the faces of the Virgin, child and angels have the linear beauty of his tondos, the saints are given varied and intense expressions. Four small and rather simple ''[[predella]]'' panels survive; there were probably originally seven.<ref>Lightbown, 187–190; Legouix, 31, 42.</ref>

===Other works===
With the phase of painting large secular works probably over by the late 1480s, Botticelli painted several altarpieces, and this appears to have been a peak period for his workshop's production of Madonnas. Botticelli's largest altarpiece, the ''San Marco Altarpiece'' (378&nbsp;×&nbsp;258&nbsp;cm, Uffizi), is the only one to remain with its full ''predella'', of five panels. In the air above four saints, the ''[[Coronation of the Virgin]]'' is taking place in a heavenly zone of gold and bright colours that recall his earlier works, with encircling angels dancing and throwing flowers.<ref>Lightbown, 198–200; Legouix, 42–44.</ref>

In contrast, the ''[[Cestello Annunciation]]'' (1489–90, Uffizi) forms a natural grouping with other late paintings, especially two of the [[Lamentation of Christ]] that share its sombre background colouring, and the rather exaggerated expressiveness of the bending poses of the figures. It does have an unusually detailed landscape, still in dark colours, seen through the window, which seems to draw on north European models, perhaps from prints.<ref>Lightbown, 194–198; Legouix, 103.</ref> 
[[File:Sandro Botticelli 016.jpg|thumb|''[[Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Botticelli)|Lamentation of Christ]]'', early 1490s, [[Alte Pinakothek]], Munich]]

Of the two ''Lamentations'', [[Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Botticelli, Milan)|one]] is in an unusual vertical format, because, like his 1474 ''Saint Sebastian'', it was painted for the side of a pillar in the Church of [[Santa Maria Maggiore, Florence]]; it is now in Milan. [[Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Botticelli, Munich)|The other, horizontal, one]] was painted for a chapel on the corner of Botticelli's street; it is now in Munich. In both the crowded, intertwined figures around the dead Christ take up nearly all the picture space, with only bare rock behind. The [[Swoon of the Virgin|Virgin has swooned]], and the other figures form a scrum to support her and Christ.<ref>Lightbown, 207–209; Legouix, 107, 109.</ref> The Munich painting has three less involved saints with attributes (somewhat oddly including [[Saint Peter]], usually regarded as in [[Jerusalem]] on the day, but not present at this scene), and gives the figures (except Christ) flat halos shown in perspective, which from now on Botticelli often uses. Both probably date from 1490 to 1495.<ref>Lightbown dates the Munich picture to 1490–92, and the Milan one to c. 1495.</ref>

Early records mentioned, without describing it, an altarpiece by Botticelli for the Convertite, an institution for ex-prostitutes, and various surviving unprovenanced works were proposed as candidates. It is now generally accepted that a painting in the [[Courtauld Gallery]] in London is the ''[[Pala delle Convertite]]'', dating to about 1491–93. Its subject, unusual for an altarpiece, is the [[Holy Trinity]], with Christ on the cross, supported from behind by God the Father. Angels surround the Trinity, which is flanked by two saints, with [[Book of Tobit|Tobias and the Angel]] on a far smaller scale right in the foreground. This was probably a [[votive offering|votive]] addition, perhaps requested by the original donor. The four predella scenes, showing the life of [[Mary Magdalen]], then taken as a reformed prostitute herself, are in the [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]].<ref>Lightbown, 202–207.</ref>

After about 1493 or 1495 Botticelli seems to have painted no more large religious paintings, though production of Madonnas probably continued. The smaller narrative religious scenes of the last years are covered below.
 
<gallery widths="200" heights="200">
File:Botticelli, annunciazione di cestello 02.jpg|''[[Cestello Annunciation]]'', {{circa|1489–90}}, 150&nbsp;×&nbsp;156&nbsp;cm, Uffizi, Florence
File:Sandro Botticelli 015.jpg|[[Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Botticelli, Milan)|''Lamentation over the Dead Christ'']], {{circa|1490–95}}, 107&nbsp;×&nbsp;71&nbsp;cm, [[Museo Poldi Pezzoli]], Milan
File:Botticelli Trinity.jpg|''[[Pala delle Convertite]]'', {{circa|1491–93}}, 215&nbsp;×&nbsp;192&nbsp;cm, [[Courtauld Gallery]], London
</gallery>