2023-05-14 11:54:00
Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) was “among the most authentic interpreters of the culture of his era, reflecting the profound changes of the society in which he lived, in Florence dominated first by Lorenzo the Magnificent in a period of happy cultural flowering, then by Fra’ Girolamo Savonarola in years of troubled religious reformism. For this reason he became the ‘symbol’ painter of the Renaissance, with its splendors and its anxieties”. Thus the art historian Cristina Acidini, superintendent from 2006 to 2014 of the Polo Museale of the city of Florence and today president of the Academy of Design Arts and of the Opera di Santa Croce, summarizes the figure and the work of the great painter, author of masterpieces such as “La Venere” and “La Primavera”.
The occasion is the presentation of the new volume on Botticelli which enriches the prestigious art series of the Menarini Group, created in 1956 to celebrate the beauty of our country through the great masters of Italian painting.
Indeed, after sixty years, Sandro Botticelli is back in the Menarini Group’s art series with an unpublished monograph signed by Acidini herself presented today, in Florence, in the Apollo Salon of Palazzo Pucci, in the presence, among others, the president of the Tuscany Region, Eugenio Giani, and the board of Menarini itself. “This extraordinary artist returns to the Menarini series – Acidini explained – with a second monograph that takes into account the innovations that have emerged over the past sixty years, thanks to the new documents found and new interpretations, especially regarding his most evocative and mysterious paintings. Furthermore, the scientific investigations coinciding with the restorations of many of his works have enriched the knowledge of his refined and versatile painting”.
Successful artist, sensitive interpreter of the culture of his day and author of extraordinarily current works, Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, known by the stage name of Sandro Botticelli, was “a master of beauty: with his ‘Veneris’ he unknowingly established a canon of perfection that is very close to that of today – highlighted Professor Cristina Acidini – But he was also a mysterious and restless figure: despite his timeless fame, his paintings still hide mysteries that are difficult to reveal” .
The monograph takes us back to Florence in the second half of the fifteenth century, to the dye works of Mariano Filipepi, Botticelli’s father. It is there that the young Sandro, probably fascinated by the colors used every day in the family workshop, approaches the study of the arts. The few available testimonies present him as a man inclined to irony, sarcasm and mockery, in the full Florentine spirit of the time.
A soul tormented by a restless temperament, he flatly refused to marry, but declared his eternal love for Florence, which he never abandoned, except for a few short business trips. With acute sensibility of man and artist, he records the change of his city, from the carnival triumphs of Lorenzo de’ Medici to the penitential processions of Savonarola. As an artist, he has the unique ability to adapt to the changes of his era, also staging tormented figures with darker colors, such as the Lamentation over the Dead Christ or the Altarpiece of the Convertites, very far from the harmony and grace of the Birth of Venus it’s spring. “And precisely these two works, with their innumerable variations and reinventions, make Botticelli still today an extremely popular artist, but no less interesting subject of study for this”, pointed out Acidini.
In fact, there are many controversies on the chronology and interpretation of many Botticelli paintings, including the most famous. Restorations and sophisticated diagnostic investigations, in fact, constantly bring new elements to the surface that generate ideas for debate among specialists in the sector. And all this has been transfused with scientific rigor and brilliant writing by Cristina Acidini in the new monograph of Botticelli.
“The Menarini art collection aims to promote the great Italian artists and make them known to the youngest too – said Lucia and Alberto Giovanni Aleotti, shareholders and members of the Board of Menarini – Discovering Botticelli with his anxieties behind the marvel of his most beautiful paintings known makes this artist very close to contemporary feeling”.
Over the years, the artistic vocation of the Menarini Group has grown and evolved with the multimedia project Menarini Pills of Art. These are short video pills in which industry experts tell anecdotes and curiosities about the works featured in the Menarini volumes. Around 700 videos have been published so far, for a total of tens of millions of views, available on the Menarini YouTube channel in 8 languages. Within the channel, updated monthly with new content, videos of Botticelli’s most famous works have recently been published, as well as Leonardo’s Adoration of the Magi, Mantegna’s Madonna delle Cave and Caravaggio’s Bacchus.
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