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The
beauty of Spring
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Would
you buy a painting from someone called Sandro Filipepi?
What if you weren't even sure what it meant? If
your answer is (understandably) no, then you've
just turned down Botticelli's masterpiece Primavera.
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 Flat,
almost two-dimensional and all that odd mixture
of seemingly unconnected figures . . . Botticelli's
ÎPrimavera' (aka ÎThe Allegory of Spring') mustn't
have made much of an impression on Duke Cosimo
de' Medici who commissioned it in 1478. Litle
did he know . . .
Budding young artist Sandro Filipepi had just finished
his apprenticeship with Andrea (Verrocchio)
and Leonardo (Da Vinci) and was determined
(as only Italians can be) to leave his mark on the
Florence art scene of the time. And leave it he
did when he painted Primavera at the age
of 33, ignoring many of 'latest trends' including
one that was there to stay - perspective.
Volumes have been written about the actual subject
of Botticelli's (the nickname "little
barrel" was either inherited from his elder brother
or the goldsmith to whom he was frst apprenticed)
painting. Many say it is a celebration of neoplatonism.
Others argue that it is a veiled metaphor of his
patron's, the minor poet Lorenzo dei Medici, blossoming
as an artist. While some say it is a visual rendition
of Apuleius' classic fable of the Golden Ass. Or
maybe it was just a (helluva successful) exercise
in painting. Answers on a postcard please . . .
When Botticelli was chosen, amng other artists,
to paint the walls of the Sistine Chapel in the
Vatican he left behind all these unanswered questions
along with the sublime beauty of the painting
itself. His image of Spring is chaste, yet possibly
pregnant. Her left arm is put of proportion and
her shoulders rounded. Yet the detail of the painting
- from the flowers, to the fruit and the pale light
shining through the trees -leave no doubt that indeed
we are in the presence of Spring. Find out for yourselves
as the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
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| by
MARCELLO
PARMEGGIANI |
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Jan.
10th, 2002
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THE SURVIVOR'S 
