Botticelli's Secret

August 29, 2022
Bard College literature professor Luzzi (In a Dark Wood) recounts in this vivid chronicle the history of Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli’s illustrations depicting Dante’s Divine Comedy. Commissioned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, the 92 extant drawings serve as “visual proof of how the Renaissance period broke with the spiritual doctrine of its medieval past,” according to Luzzi, who also notes that because Botticelli completed only one illustration (The Map of Hell) in full color and intricate detail, the remaining unfinished drawings offer a “window” into the artist’s creative process. Luzzi’s rich narrative delves into the biographies of Dante and Botticelli, the tumultuous Florentine culture that inspired them, and the period of Enlightenment-era obsolescence endured by both men before their rediscovery in the 19th century. Along the way, Luzzi also tracks how the illustrations disappeared after Botticelli’s death in 1510, reemerged in the 17th century, and were bought by the director of the print collection at the Royal Museum of Berlin from a profligate Scottish nobleman in 1882. Transferred to a Nazi bunker in the waning days of WWII, the drawings narrowly avoided a fire that destroyed hundreds of priceless artworks. Richly detailed and fluidly written, this is a master class in art history. Illus.