LITMIR.BIZ

      The training of the apprentice right on the scaffolding in the cathedral was thus very swift. At the age of twenty-three, Botticelli was already known throughout his native town for the excellence of his work. He had very quickly completed the apprenticeship of a very laborious discipline, the minutest details of which were presented half a century later in the inquisitive Libra dell’ Arte by Cennino Cennini. But in the course of the Quattrocento, a novice to the art would work thirteen or fourteen years under the eyes and at the service of a master. He would begin by sweeping the workshop and watching the brasero, and eventually he would do some sketches. For six years, he would then dedicate himself to mixing colours in the bottega, making the skin glues, preparing the canvasses. Finally, for another six years, and still doing drawings every day, even on holidays, he would dip his brush in the colour and try his hand at a golden drapery, at a fresco, at the shading of the figures, at the tones of the fabrics which changed according to how they met light and shadow, at the transparency of water, at architectures, at the fleeting layers of the landscapes, at picturesque flora and fauna, at figures of messengers and greyhounds, at slender cypress trees, or pine trees with rounded cupolas, at the virginal candour of lilies, at bay trees embroidered with bright red flowers, at meadows spattered with anemones, hyacinth, and buttercups. Only then would the boy, the ragazzo, become maestro, and Florence would have one new master among the ranks of its painters. But in order to make a living while waiting for his lordly and ecclesiastic clientele, the young man would practice another small trade, in the evenings after the workshop closed. Antonio Pollaiolo returned to the goldsmith’s workshop, twisted the filigrees, inserted gems, and cooked up silver enamels. Botticelli, the more inventive one, created new chemicals and dyed fabrics and flags in colours that would withstand sunlight and the unrelenting Florentine rain.

      Botticelli, however, did not content himself with the lofty art lessons that Saint Stephen and the Baptist imparted to him in the Cathedral of Prato. In the Florentine sculptors’ and painters’ workshops of the time, the sheer power of invention, the curiosity for beautiful works was so lively and mutual emulation so intense, that a novice received, even without knowing it, a broad variety of instruction and could claim to have three or four teachers. The artwork of his young fellow apprentices also pushed him to imitate, in this insecure phase when the artist, inquieto, still trying to find his own original style, likes to follow the masters’ footsteps.

      Fra’ Filippo Lippi was called to Santa Maria dell’Assunta in Spoleto in 1467, where it seems his pupil did not follow him. He did not hesitate to allow the young Botticelli to take wing on his own. He had, in fact, taught him the technique of his art, the manoeuvres, his concept of personal liberty, this serenity of inspiration that was spiced with a natural cheerfulness in this genial monk. Vasari tells us that “Fra’ Filippo liked to be among merry people and always lived with joy.” Botticelli held on to his master’s serenity for a long time. But as far as cheerfulness is concerned, there is hardly a trace of it in his work, or in his life. The artist was to live the destiny of the lyrical soul, carried towards the more sublime, sapphire-blue regions by enthusiasm and dreams, and hurled back onto earth by the miseries of his time, a destiny of bitterness and disillusion, of anxiety about the future, of life doomed to end in sadness.

      20. Minerva, c. 1480–1490.

      Black pencil, pen and ink, bistre, ceruse and some light brown watercolour on white paper partially primed in pink, cross-ruled in black pencil and perforated on one side along the outlines of the figures, 22.2 × 13.9 cm.

      Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

      21. Abundance or Autumn, c. 1475–1482.

      Drawing, 31.7 × 25.2 cm.

      The British Museum, London.

      For some years, after his initiation at the Cathedral of Prato, Botticelli was touched by very varied influences. Paolo Uccello and Andrea del Castagno, who along with Masaccio were among the best painters of the first half of the Quattrocento, left rather noticeable marks on his work. In fact, Uccello inspired him to find subtle perspectives and create deep landscapes. To Andrea del Castagno, this violent realist of untamed imagination, Botticelli owed the almost fierce precision of the postures, and maybe the coarseness of certain figures. His familiarity with the great goldsmith-painters of his time, the Pollaiolo brothers and Verrocchio, was even more fertile. All three of them were a few years older than he. They instilled in him the perfection of detail, the diligence of the design, the harmonious weighing of the ensemble, of the bright range of opaline colours, and the seriousness of the execution, qualities not dominant in Filippo Lippi, but which were going to be the charm of Botticelli’s masterpieces.

      To all these models mentioned by Florentine art historians,

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