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Botticelli, itinerary of a child prodigy: last wishes

2021-10-19T04:22:42.823Z


WEBSERIES 9/9 - Le Figaro Hors-Série devotes an exceptional number to the painter of Spring. The painter dies and leaves an Adoration of the Magi, homage to Vinci, unfinished. Before three centuries of oblivion.


Botticelli's old age was the peaceful story of a carefree end.

Vasari made a pure legend of it: “

He won a lot of money but he lost everything, either through recklessness or negligence.

Finally he stopped painting and, having grown old, he could no longer walk without crutches because he no longer stood up straight.

He died crippled and decrepit.

Legends die hard, and this one is the toughest.

Sandro had only one dream, to find his place with Apelles in the pantheon of human memory.

He ended up badly at the club of accursed artists.

Read alsoBotticelli, itinerary of a child prodigy: at the origin of genius

However, until his death, he never stopped painting. Neither has he experienced an eclipse. In 1503, Ugolino Verino still celebrated his name: “

Nec Zeuxi inferior pictura Sander habetur / Ille licet volucres pictis deluserit uvis.

"("

And as for painting, we hold Alessandro as equal to Zeuxis, yet so virtuoso / That by painting grapes he deceived the birds.

») The painter still regularly contributes to the expenses of the company of Saint-Luc, the guild of painters of Florence. On January 25, 1504, he was also one of those consulted in order to decide the future location of Michelangelo's David. He has obviously not abandoned his brushes. That's right, however, he's getting fewer orders. And above all, none is of great magnitude. Tastes have changed a lot with the turn of the century. Fans are no longer looking for ambitious mythological panels. Botticelli copes with it very well. He knows he is getting old, and then he has become very pious. His metamorphosed style adapts wonderfully to the modest format of devotional works, now the bulk of his studio's production.Sandro reveals all his talents as a miniaturist and his intact genius of composition.

In

The Last Communion of Saint Jerome

, he thus engages in a veritable theatrical staging. The decor in the background, of extreme simplicity, shifts all the attention to the central group, to the reverence of the monks for the old hermit, to the veneration of the saint for the God he receives in the host. Everything fits in this dying body, tense in a final effort to kneel one last time. Undeniably, where he loses in plastic beauty, Sandro gains in emotion. This style of recent years is not without denials. The characters of Botticelli, with their violent gestures, often disharmonious, are of those which for Alberti "

imitate the movements of the histrions, with the contempt of any dignity of painting

". In fact, in the

History of Lucretia

and the

History of Virginia

, they emerge like so many expressionist puppets in an antique setting of unreal symmetry. As if the painter, recovered from his certainties, took some distance from the Albertian credo of his beginnings.

Despite these deliberate archaisms, the painter is not resistant to any novelty. Although more at ease with tempera, he tries his hand at painting in oils, he is interested in engraving. Finally, he reconnects with Leonardo. Under his influence, he dares to realize a last dream, a final

Adoration of the Magi

, with a Holy Family surrounded by a stormy crowd, in an extravagant setting of gigantic rocks. A vibrant tribute to Vinci and his landscapes that he didn't care about when he was young.


Sandro will not complete this work. He died slowly one day in 1510. He was to experience three centuries of oblivion. He sought immortality in the promises of Neoplatonism, in the mirage of fame, in the hopes of a resurrection. He looked for sixty-five years. He cherished Florence, every day of his life. She gave it back to him. He showed himself to be faithful, carefree, tormented, facetious. He has changed, he has aged, without ever letting the spark of genius die out in him. At the end of his life, he surely left alone. He had nothing to regret. And if, like Achilles, he had had to choose between a short but glorious life and a long but dull life, Botticelli would have answered, there is no doubt: "

I know what I want: the long life, and glory.

"

Botticelli, all the beauty in the world, € 12.90 on Figaro Store

Cover of the Figaro Hors-Série dedicated to Botticelli La Belle Simonetta, Botticelli, 1485 (Städel Museum)

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-10-19

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