Botticelli

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 re-contextualise 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, art historian, director of the Casa Buonarroti Foundation and author of 'Botticelli' (2005) *