Primavera

The Primavera is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, c. 1482. It is housed in Uffizi Gallery of Florence. In 1551, Vasari wrote that the picture which according to him announced the arrival of spring (Primavera in Italian) was in the Medici villa in Castello, near villa de Petraia. In 1477, the estate was acquired by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, who was a second cousin of Lorenzo the Magnificent. This is why i... more

The Primavera is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, c. 1482. It is housed in Uffizi Gallery of Florence. In 1551, Vasari wrote that the picture which according to him announced the arrival of spring (Primavera in Italian) was in the Medici villa in Castello, near villa de Petraia. In 1477, the estate was acquired by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, who was a second cousin of Lorenzo the Magnificent. This is why it was long assumed that the Primavera, as the painting continues to be called, was painted for the fourteen-year-old Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco when the villa was bought. An inventory dating from 1499, which was not discovered until 1975, lists the property of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco and his brother Giovanni and states that in the 15th century the Primavera had been displayed in Florence's city palace. The painting decorated an anteroom attached to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco's chambers. Such large-format paintings were not unusual in the private... less