An exhibition of Botticelli’s works recently opened at the Jacquemart-André Museum, in the presence of the Italian Ambassador to Paris, Teresa Castaldo. Also present at the inauguration were the Director of the Louvre, the Conservator of the Vatican Library and representatives of the lender museums of the over forty works on display.
In the case of Italy, the lending museums include the Vatican Museums, the Uffizi Gallery, the Galleria Sabauda, the Galleria dell’Accademia and the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, among others. The exhibition also features two of the 92 pencil drawings made by Botticelli to illustrate the “Divine Comedy”, which are now kept in the Vatican Library.
The exhibition has been organised under the patronage of the Italian Embassy in Paris and will be open until 24 January 2022, offering visitors a chronological and thematic overview of Botticelli’s style, investigating his figure as an artist, but also his lesser-known side as an entrepreneur and master.
“Botticelli and his workshop,” Ambassador Castaldo said at the opening ceremony, “are a true Renaissance laboratory of painting. This exhibition provides a clear testimony of the typically Italian ability to combine artistic production and craftsmanship, creativity and technique, culture and training. Botticelli is a prime example of that union of “business courage, creativity and culture” that President Mattarella recalled is one of the most important tools for revitalizing and relaunching our Country at this juncture in time”.
The exhibition – the curator, Ana Debenedetti, reminded us – will allow the public to enter Botticelli’s multi-purpose workshop, to admire his ability to involve the many talents he welcomed there (some of whom are identified by name for the first time) to create not only paintings, but also tapestries and vestments, and to investigate the influence on his style of the historical developments taking place in his times, in particular the influence of Savonarola.
