Eugene - Lane Spollen - Under the Guise of Spring

© Eugene Lane-Spollen 2014 and 2020

First published in 2014 by

Shepheard-Walwyn (Publishers) Ltd

107 Parkway House, Sheen Lane,

London SW14 8LS

www.shepheard-walwyn.co.uk

Reprinted with additional material 2020

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-85683-296-3

Typeset by Alacrity, Chesterfield, Sandford, Somerset

Printed and bound through

s|s|media limited, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

How the Discovery Came About

Part IOVERVIEW

1Introduction

2Interpretations

3A Very Private Location

Part IIESSENTIAL BACKGROUND

4The Medici – Violent Politics and Sublime Aspirations

5Botticelli – Painter and Mystagogue

6Classical Rebirth

Part IIITHE VISUAL LANGUAGE OF BOTTICELLI’S ENIGMA

7Early Observations Leading to this Enquiry

8A Madonna called Venus

9The Esoteric Graces

10Cupid and the Bride

11A Medici as Mercury

12Changing Natures

13Botticelli’s Concealed Device

Reading La Primavera

Concluding Remarks

Appendices

1The Botanicals

2Location and Dating

3Poetry to Inspire a Painter

4An Important Letter

5Ficino – Tutor to the Painting’s Owner

Bibliography

Index

For Maura Lane

List of Illustrations

Botticelli, Primavera

The Laocoön, Vatican, Rome, first century BC or first century AD.

Benozzo Gozzoli, The Journey of the Magi to Bethlehem, Palazzo Medici-Ricardi, Florence, 1459-61.

La Primavera outline showing four groups of figures.

Bedroom in a Florentine Renaissance Palazzo.

Political map of the Italian peninsula in the fifteenth century.

Giorgio Vasari, Lorenzo de’Medici, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1534.

Domenico Ghirlandaio, Annunciation to Zacharias (detail), Santa Maria Novella, 1483-6.

Botticelli, Giuliano de’Medici, National Gallery, Washington, 1476-7.

Leonardo da Vinci’s sketch of Bernardo Baroncelli, 1478.

Botticelli, Pallas and the Centaur, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1482.

Family tree showing the two branches of the Medici.

Botticelli, The Adoration of the Magi (self-portrait detail).

Botticelli, Fortitude, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1470.

Botticelli, The Adoration of the Magi, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1475.

Botticelli, St Augustine in his Study, Church of Ognissanti, Florence, 1480.

Botticelli, Madonna del Libro, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, c.1481.

Botticelli, Madonna del Magnificat, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1480-1.

Botticelli, Conturbation of the Laws of Moses, Sistine Chapel, Rome, 1481. 60-1

Botticelli, Lamentation over the Dead Christ (detail), Alte Pinakothek, Munich, 1490-2.

Botticelli, The Mystic Nativity (detail), National Gallery, London, 1501

Botticelli, Portrait of a man holding the medal of Cosimo de’Mecici, c.1475-9.

Botticelli, Portrait of a Woman, Städelsches Kunsinstitut, Frankfurt, early to mid-1480s.

Botticelli, Portrait of a Woman, Gemaldegalerie, Staatliche Museen, Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, early to mid-1480s.

Siena Cathedral floor, detail of Hermes and Moses, c.1486.

La Primavera detail of Mercury’s head.

La Primavera detail of the central figure, Venus.

Filippo Lippi, Coronation of the Virgin (detail), Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1466-9.

Domenico Ghirlandaio, Coronation of the Virgin, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1483.

Botticelli, Virgin and Child with an Angel, Ospedale degli Innocenti, Florence, 1465-7.

Primo Mobile playing card, Tarocchi of Mantegna.

Botticelli’s drawing from Dante’s Divine Comedy: Paradiso, Canto XXVI, Florence, 1481.

Christ as the Good Shepherd, Catacomb of Priscilla..

Rose window, Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence.

Botticelli, Madonna of the Pomegranate, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1487.

Window-like shapes in La Primavera compared to the window in Palazzo di parte guelfa, Florence.

Botticelli, Madonna and Child with Two Angels, Art Institute of Chicago, Max and Leola Epstein Collection, 1493.

La Primavera detail of the Graces’ hands.

Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence and the arm and hand structure of Botticelli’s Graces.

Botticelli, The Trials of Christ (detail), Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1481-2.

La Primavera detail of Flora. © Scala Florence

Botticelli, Birth of Venus, enlarged cornflower motif.

Botticelli, Birth of Venus (detail), Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1481-82.

Pinturiccio, Isis of Egypt with Hermes Trismegistus and Moses, Borgia apartments, Vatican, Rome.

Botticelli, Venus and Mars, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1483.

Botticelli, Birth of Venus, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1481-2.

La Primavera detail of Venus.

Botticelli, St Barnabas altarpiece (detail), Uffizi Gallery, Florence, c.1488.

The Innkeeper, woodcut by Jacobus de Cessolis, Libri di Giiocho delli Scacchi, Florence, 1493.

Botticelli, Lorenzo Tornabuoni presented by Grammar to Prudentia and the Other Liberal Arts (detail), Louvre, Paris, 1486.

La Primavera detail of flames on Venus’ bodice trim.

Christ depicted as Apollo, St Peters, Vatican, Rome, third century AD.

Botticelli, The Temptations of Moses, Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome, 1481-2, and detail of the two daughters of Jethro. © Scala Florence

Santa Maria Novella, Florence.

La Primavera detail of Venus’ pendant.

Mosaic from the Genesis cycle, Monreale Cathedral, Sicily.

La Primavera detail of the Three Graces.

Medal of Pico della Mirandola

The Three Graces (Pompeian fresco), Museo Nazionale, Naples

La Primavera detail o flower paggern

La Primavera detail of Cupid.

La Primavera, showing the path of Cupid’s arrow.

La Primavera detail of Mercury.

Relief of Hermes from the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, British Museum, London.

Hermes as Divine Amator.

Engraving of Hermes-Mercurius under cloud, Pierre Mussard, Historia Deorum fatidicorum, Venice, 1675.

Hermes slaying Argos, Borgia Apartments, Vatican, Rome.

La Primavera detail of Mercury’s sword.

Filippino Lippi, Adoration of the Magi (detail), 1496.

Spring by Virgil Solis of Nuremburg (1514-62), Warburg Institute, University of London.

La Primavera detail of Mercury’s caduceus. © Scala Florence

The Celestial Ladder, Raymond Lull, Da Nova Logica, 1512.

Ludivico Mazzolino, detail from Holy Family with St Nicholas of Tolentino, National Gallery, London, 1515.

La Primavera detail of Mercury’s head. © Scala Florence

Botticelli, The Calumny of Appeles, and detail of Truth, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1494. © Scala Florence

Raphael, Scuola di Atene (The School of Athens), and detail of Plato, Apostolic Palace, Vatican, c.1509.

Botticelli, Dante’s Divine Comedy: Paradiso XXVI (detail).

La Primavera detail of Flora, Chloris and Zephyr.