Sandro Botticelli, original name Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, was one of the greatest painters of the Florentine Reneissance. His The Birth of Venus and Primavera are often said to epitomize for modern viewers the spirit of the Renaissance.
In 1460 Botticelli began training with Fra Filippo Lippi, one of the greatest painters of the Renaissance. Botticelli's first works followed the current version of the popular style in Florence used by artists such as Andrea del Verrocchio. This style placed great importance on the human figure rather than on space. Botticelli's major early works are Fortitude (1470) and St. Sebastian (1474).
Botticelli continued using this early style after 1480 (the Birth is perhaps as late as 1485), but a new style soon emerged in frescoes (paintings done on moist plaster with water-based colors) such as St. Augustine (1480) in the Church of the Ognissanti, Florence; and the Annunciation (1481) for San Martino, Florence.
After 1490 Botticelli concentrated on paintings with many small figures, so that the entire picture surface seemed more alive.
Botticelli became crippled in his later years and failed to receive painting assignments. He may have continued to work on his set of drawings (never finished) illustrating Dante's (1265–1321) Divine Comedy. By about 1504, when the young Raphael (1483–1520) came to Florence to observe the new styles of Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) and Michelangelo (1475–1564), Botticelli's art must have seemed old-fashioned, although it had been widely copied in the 1490s.