Editing Sandro Botticelli (section)

===''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]]