BOTTICELLI'S SECRET

Tracing the fate of remarkable 15th-century drawings.

In 1475, the artist Sandro Botticelli (circa 1445-1510) was at the height of his prominence, proclaimed “Master of Painting, one of Florence’s highest artistic honors.” Soon, he undertook two important projects: to illustrate each of the 100 cantos in Dante’s Divine Comedy, one set for a deluxe edition intended for mass production and another, commissioned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici—Botticelli’s most influential patron and a cousin of Lorenzo il Magnifico— for a private, hand-lettered volume. Luzzi, a professor of comparative literature, brings his extensive knowledge of Dante and Italian history to a richly detailed investigation of the creation, reception, and afterlife of Botticelli’s second project: drawings that informed an understanding of the fertile, contradictory period that came to be known as the Renaissance. The Dante drawings went unfinished for more than a decade while Botticelli worked on other projects, including three frescoes in the Sistine Chapel and The Birth of Venus. In 1494, however, Lorenzo apparently rushed the artist to fulfill the commission, probably to offer the volume as a gift to the French king, Charles VIII, who had just marched into Florence and with whom Lorenzo hoped to ingratiate himself. Luzzi recounts the sad trajectory of Botticelli’s last years and his diminished posthumous reputation until a renewed interest in Dante in the late 18th century and a celebration of the Renaissance by pre-Raphaelites and prominent art critics in the 19th century led to “the Victorian cult of Botticelli.” After migrating through Europe, the drawings, not seen for some 400 years, ended up in England, where they were bought by an astute German art historian. Precariously surviving World War II in a salt mine and divided during the Cold War, in 2000, “all 92 extant Dante illustrations by Botticelli appear[ed] together for the first time at exhibitions in Rome, Berlin, and London.” The book includes photos, a timeline, and a list of “key terms.”

A fresh perspective on an iconic artist and his time.