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Botticelli's Secret

The Lost Drawings and the Rediscovery of the Renaissance

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Botticelli's Secret

Written by: Joseph Luzzi
Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
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About this listen

A true historical “detective story” full of insight about how we look at art―and the artists and eras that produced it.

Some 500 years ago, Sandro Botticelli, a painter of humble origin, created work of unearthly beauty. An intimate associate of Florence’s unofficial rulers, the Medici, he was commissioned by a member of their family to execute a near-impossible project: to illustrate all 100 cantos of The Divine Comedy by the city’s greatest poet, Dante Alighieri. A powerful encounter between poet and artist, sacred and secular, earthly and evanescent, these drawings produced a wealth of stunning images but were never finished. Botticelli declined into poverty and obscurity, and his illustrations went missing for 400 years.

The nineteenth-century rediscovery of Botticelli’s Dante drawings brought scholars to their knees: this work embodied everything the Renaissance had come to mean. Today, Botticelli’s Primavera adorns household objects of every kind. This book is essential to explain not only how and why this artist became iconic, but why we need still need his work―and the spirit of the Renaissance―today.

©2022 Joseph Luzzi (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing Arts & Entertainment Europe Renaissance Italy Visual Art

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Profile Image for Roberta W

FANTASTIC

This was absolutely fantastic. First, I had no idea that Botticelli had been dismissed by many as not a talent, and it wasn’t until his works were seen with new eyes 100 or so years ago, that he received acclaim.
I was intrigued to learn more about Dante’s life, his creation of The Divine Comedy, and ultimate exile from Florence… fitting context for the commission Botticelli received to illustrate the work. An immense series was created, then lost, then found, then disappeared into Germany, then to be rediscovered in the salt mine by the Monuments Men, and finally protected.
Lots on the Renaissance. An excellent listen!

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