BOTTICELLI, SANDRO

born 1445, Florence died May 17, 1510, Florence The Birth of Venus, oil on canvas by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1485; in the original name Alessandro Di Mariano Filipepi one of the greatest painters of the Florentine Renaissance. His The Birth of Venus and Primavera are often said to epitomize for modern viewers the spirit of the Renaissance. Additional reading The principal monographic studies are Hermann Ulmann, Sandro Botticelli (1893), in German; Herbert P. Horne, Alessandro Filipepi, Commonly Called Sandro Botticelli, Painter of Florence (1908, reprinted as Botticelli, Painter of Florence, 1980); Jacques Mesnil, Botticelli (1938), in French; and Ronald Lightbown, Sandro Botticelli, 2 vol. (1978), comprising a critical biography and a complete catalog, with a 2nd ed. of vol. 1, Sandro Botticelli: Life and Works (1989). Ronald W. Lightbown