by Jon Lackman | 2 October 2006 | Books, Renaissance
Roland H. Wiegenstein reviews Hans Körner’s Botticelli biography (discussed earlier here). The painter’s career is seen in the context of the new demand for and “mass production” of images of Mary owing to the Devotio Moderna (the Virgin being an important mediator between divine and human), and the status of the Medici as against the old noble families and the chivalrous ideal. Körner is notably cautious in treating the meaning of the notoriously mysterious “Spring” and “Venus,” and finally in limning the artist’s own character.
