Life and career
Botticelli worked for religious and private patrons in fifteenth-century Florence. He developed a distinctive linear language that could serve sacred narratives, portraits and classical myth. The Uffizi gives his life dates as 1445–1510; older catalogue conventions sometimes differ. His later religious pictures should be studied alongside, rather than overshadowed by, the famous mythologies.
Works across a career
Selected examples, not a complete catalogue. Read date ranges and attributions before inferring a career sequence.
- 01
1470–1475
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Reference entry · image not reproduced1470–1475
Adoration of the Magi
- Material / technique
- Tempera grassa on wood
- Attribution / role
- Museum attribution
- Collection / source
- Uffizi Galleries
- 02
c. 1485
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Reference entry · image not reproducedc. 1485
The Birth of Venus
- Material / technique
- Tempera on canvas
- Attribution / role
- Museum attribution
- Collection / source
- Uffizi Galleries
- 03
c. 1490
c. 1490
Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist
- Material / technique
- tempera and oil on wood
- Attribution / role
- Museum attribution
- Collection / source
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
Museum catalogue note
The perfectly round form, called a tondo, became popular during the 1440s, especially in Florence. Made for domestic settings instead of churches, the circular format challenged the artist to create a harmonious, balanced composition within this more difficult shape. The attribution has been a matter of debate. Botticelli often collaborated with students, including Filippino Lippi, who would himself become a significant painter. Few specialists have doubted that Botticelli executed the central passages: the delicate modeling of the faces, the graceful poses, the figures’ profound interiority, and the diaphanous veil are the artist’s hallmarks. However, someone else in Botticelli’s studio probably painted Mary’s blue garment, also the most heavily restored part of the painting.
Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0
Compare materials, style and colour
The 1470–75 Adoration places contemporary identities inside a sacred narrative; The Birth of Venus gives line and idealised bodies a mythological role; the later tondo returns to intimate devotion. Compare wood and canvas supports, tempera-based surfaces and the organisation of contour. Subject matter alone does not prove a sudden personal conversion.
Material
What can this material do? Distinguish a design, an original object and a later impression or cast.
Style
Compare viewpoint, edges, composition and marks. Which choices persist, and which change?
Colour
Compare palette, contrast and light. Consider the support, printing, surface treatment and ageing.
Sources and further reading
Original educational interpretation; catalogue descriptions are separately credited. Each study links to its source. Reference entries without images are not added to the comparison timeline.