18 February 2021
The School of Translation and Foreign Languages (STFL) conducted an online talk entitled ‘Sandro Botticelli: A Master of Italian Renaissance’ on 18 February 2021.
Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) was one of the most accomplished painters in the Renaissance period. He expressed humanist thinking in his paintings, which have inspired numerous artists and advanced the development of Renaissance art.
In the talk, Dr Daniela Cecutti, Lecturer of the STFL, took participants back to the era of Sandro Botticelli and introduced many of his classic paintings, including Adoration of the Magi, Spring, The Birth of Venus and St Augustine in His Study.
Botticelli used Adoration of the Magi as the theme and painted for his patron, the House of Medici. He portrayed Medici’s family members as the Magi to highlight the power of their family. Botticelli also painted himself at the corner of the painting which shows his close tie with the Medici family.
Botticelli used symbolic and allegorical methods to illustrate the mythological theme Spring, which is one of his most famous work. The mythical figures in the painting and the flowers on the grass in the garden show the beauty and elegance of spring, and Venus and the Three Graces represent chastity, beauty, and love, manifesting the important status of human in humanism.
