Botticelli

Botticelli (family name Filipepi), SANDRO or ALESSANDRO, an Italian painter and engraver, was born at Florence in 1437, and studied under Filippo Lippi; and subsequently visited Rome, where he executed several important works for Sixtus IV. His chief works were at Florence. They were a Venus attired by the Graces, and a Venus Anadyomene; also an Assumption of the Virgin, in St. Pietro Maggiore, painted for St. Matteo Palmieri, and now in England. It contains a multitude of figures in the heavens, the apostles around the tomb from which the Virgin has ascended, and the figures of Palmieri and his wife kneeling. Botticelli died in 1515. See Spooner, Biog. Hist. of the Fine Arts, s.v.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.