Florentine flair

Aside from Venice and most recently Paris, Florence is one my favourite cities in the world. Unfortunately, I have never spent more than a day in it. In the last couple of times I've been to Florence, it was always for the day. And each time, I'd somehow end up at Sta. Maria del Fiore but never go up the third largest dome in the world. Instead, I'd make a bee line for the stationary shop near Piazza Signoria. I'd also never visit the Uffizi Gallery or walk in the Ponte Vecchio. So when I surfed into a BBC documentary that was sort of about Florence, I was all eyes and ears. It was really a documentary about Sandro Botticelli, one of the lesser known Italian artists of his time. Unfortunately, I caught the tail end of the show which focused on his Primavera. After the Medicis lost their power and influence in Florence, the painting was hung in one of their villas in Italy where it stayed for 4 centuries. When the last Medici died, it was donated to the City but was kept in storage for a super duper long time. It was only until the museum thought of honoring Florence's artists by decorating a hall with their work when the painting was finally hung for all the world to see. Pre-raphaelites studied it and made a big issue out of it that it was finally noticed by the artsy fartsy.

Botticelli's other work include:

The Madonna of the Magnificat, 1480

Adoration of the Magi, c 1475 The Calumny of Apelles, c 1490 Birth of Venus, c 1483

Just like other Italian renaissance artists, he died poor - his style of painting was ignored when another kind of style became the fad.