Botticelli by Paulina Mendoza

Botticelli

Alessandro

Botticelli 1444/45 - 1510

Madonna of the Pomegranate

Reproduction Madonna of the Pomegranate, 2013/14 Paulina Mendoza Tempera on panel 113 cm diameter or 44.4 inches Mexico City

Information Biography History Artwork details

Alessandro Botticelli Biography

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli (c. 1445 – May 17, 1510), was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He belonged to the Florentine School under the patronage of Lorenzo de’ Medici, a movement that Giorgio Vasari would characterize less than a hundred years later as a “golden age”, a thought, suitably enough, he expressed at the head of his Vita of Botticelli. Botticelli’s posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century; since then his work has been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting. Among his best-known works are The Birth of Venus and Primavera. He was born in the city of Florence in a house in the Via Nuova, Borg’Ognissanti to Mariano di Vanni d’Amedeo Filipepi and his wife Smeralda. Vasari reported that his brother Antonio initially trained him as a goldsmith. There are very few details of Botticelli’s life, but it is known that he became an apprentice when he was about fourteen years old, which would indicate that he received a fuller education than other Renaissance artists. Probably by 1462 he was apprenticed to Fra Filippo Lippi; many of his early works have been attributed to the elder master, and attributions continue to be uncertain. Influenced also by the monumentality of Masaccio’s painting, it was from Lippi that Botticelli learned a more intimate and detailed manner. As recently discovered, during this time, Botticelli could have traveled to Hungary, participating in the creation of a fresco in Esztergom, ordered in the workshop of Filippo Lippi by János Vitéz, then archbishop of Hungary. By 1470, Botticelli had his own workshop. Even at this early date, his work was characterized by a conception of the figure as if seen in low relief, drawn with clear contours, and minimizing strong contrasts of light and shadow which would indicate fully modeled forms.

Madonna of the Pomegranate Artwork Details and History • • • • •

Title: Madonna of the Pomegranate Author: Sandro Botticelli Technique: Tempera on panel Measures: 143,5 cm diameter or 56.5 inches Location: Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy

The Virgin of the Pomegranate (in Italian, Madonna della Mellagrana or Madonna con il Bambino e sei angelo, this is Virgen with boy and six angels) is a painting realized by the renascence Italian painter Sandro Botticelli. Is an image made of egg tempera on panel. Is a circle canvas of 56.5 inches or 143.5 cm. It was painted in 1487, as a commission for a very prestigious institution, The Magistrate Chamber for the Old Palace. Actually it is conserved in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. This piece has all the classic attributes of the Virgin: the roses, the lilies; here the Boy and the mother hold an open pomegranate, symbol of the spiritual plenitude; also symbol of abundance and fertility, in Christian iconography the pomegranate represents Jesus Christ Passion, with the numerous seeds that mean the suffering of Jesus. A comparison between the Magnificat Virgin (painted earlier by Botticelli) and the Virgin of the Pomegranate reveals that the artist has arranged in this last painting, the angels symmetrically avoiding the complicated composition he planned for the first Virgin. Also the angels present various attitudes and expressions, their physiognomies are sculptural. The Baby Jesus, whose hand raises blessing, remains safe in Mary’s arms, but the sad and melancholic expression of the mother and the boy pretends to remind the viewer the torments that will fill Jesus suffering. The Virgin Mary’s face is very similar from the Venus in the Born on Venus. Biographers and critics refer he used the same model for both paintings. The angels are worshiping Mary with roses garlands and lilies representing the rosemary that Catholics actually pray. The beginning of this prayer is embroidered in gold thread, on the stole of an angel; AVE MARIA GRAZIA PLENA (Hail Mary full of grace). In this Madonna, as the various ones in a large series that Botticelli painted, we can observe a serious model; pensive, thoughtful, absorbed by her own beauty and sadness acting always with a great seriousness and mettle. His Madonna reflects more and intellectual relationship with his son, rather than an affectionate one. Is without a doubt one of Botticelli masterpieces.

Paulina Mendoza She was born the 18th of February of 1989 in Mexico City. She entered in 2008 The Arts and Design Faculty of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and obtained her Bachelor degree in Visual Communication and Design, specializing in illustration. Her special interest in engraving and painting got her into an academic interchange to the Fine Arts Faculty of the Polytechnic University in Valencia, Spain. While her time abroad she studied and became pupil of the recognized Spanish painter Rafael Calduch, whom encouraged her into abstract painting. Between September 2012 and March

2013 she painted and sold several paintings to private collections in Spain, Switzerland, Germany, France and Mexico. At her return she was aware of the importance of learning the proper and ancient techniques and materials, which pointed her into enter the workshop of the painter Luis Nishizawa at The Arts and Design Faculty. And since April 2013 she threw herself into the painting of the reproduction of the Madonna of the Pomegranate from Sandro Botticelli. Actually she lives in Mexico City and works as a freelance designer and painter.

Alessandro

Botticelli 1444/45 - 1510

Madonna of the Pomegranate