A mesage to a Medici, unseen for 500 years has been found. It reveals the true purpose of Botticelli's Primavera, while opening a window on the cryptic world of the Renaissance Pagan Revival

An interpretation of Botticelli's painting which relates it closely to works of poetry by Lorenzo, Politian and Pulci. The author suggests how the idea of love as portrayed by Botticelli incorporates the actual cultural renovation imagined and sponsored by

In this interdisciplinary study, Sandro Botticelli's famous Renaissance masterpiece Primavera is analyzed iconographically to demonstrate the possibility that it represents a deliberate and considered attempt on the part of the artist to set forth in artistic terms a Neoplatonic quadripartite «programme» provided by Marsilio Ficino. Beneath the surface inspirations of myth, poetry and legend represented in terms of easily recognizable gods and goddesses, there appears to be an allegorical framework on which the artistic programme was built. This innovate research of the Primavera will make a contribution not only to the field of Italian Renaissance art history, but also to the fields of comparative literature, philosopy, history and religion.

The recent exhibitions dedicated to Botticelli around the world show, more than ever, the significant and continued debate about the artist. Botticelli Past and Present engages with this debate. The book comprises four thematic parts, spanning four centuries of Botticelli’s artistic fame and reception from the fifteenth century. Each part comprises a number of essays and includes a short introduction which positions them within the wider scholarly literature on Botticelli. The parts are organised chronologically beginning with discussion of the artist and his working practice in his own time, moving onto the progressive rediscovery of his work from the late eighteenth to the turn of the twentieth century, through to his enduring impact on contemporary art and design. Expertly written by researchers and eminent art historians and richly illustrated throughout, the broad range of essays in this book make a valuable contribution to Botticelli studies.

Botticelli’s Muse peels back layers of history to tell a fictionalized version of the life of Sandro Botticelli, his conflicts with the Medici family of Florence, and the woman at the heart of his paintings. In 1477, Botticelli is suddenly fired by his prestigious patron and friend Lorenzo de’ Medici. In the villa of his irritating new patron, the artist’s creative well runs dry—until the day he sees Floriana, a Jewish weaver imprisoned in his sister’s convent. But events threaten to keep his unlikely muse out of reach. So begins a tale of one of the art world’s most beloved paintings, La Primavera, as Sandro, a confirmed bachelor, and Floriana, a headstrong artist in her own right, enter into a turbulent relationship.

If we have to point to one artist who represents the Uffizi Galleries, certainly Botticelli prevails even over Michelangelo. In this way the Director of the Uffizi, Eike Schmidt, introduces the reading of this book. Quotations and gadgets derived from his works show Botticelli's popularity with general public. But above all, the great table of Primavera, icon of the imagination and undisputed symbol of the Renaissance, stands out. The book we are now presenting, however, uses the flowers and plants of the meadow on which the famous scene takes place as the key to interpreting the work and its meanings, and brings out a world of meanings and suggestions that lightly introduce us to the deepest heart of that extraordinary period that goes by the name, precisely, of Renaissance.

Did the Florentine philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) influence the art of his time? This book starts with an exploration of Ficino’s views on the imagination and discusses whether, how and why these ideas may have been received in Italian Renaissance works of art.

Examines the life and work of the Italian painter of the early Renaissance, describing and giving examples of his art.