Botticelli's
La Primavera
, his Venus, his lovely pensive Madonnas are favorites all over the world. Less well-known are his illustrations for Dante, his stark painting of
The Outcast
, and others after he came under the influence of Savonarola.
Elizabeth Ripley's biography on one of the greatest Florentine painters gives us a picture of the Renaissance. The Medici, Pope Sixtus, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Charles VIII of France, and, above all, the fanatic Savonarola appear, as they touch the life of the artist. We see the Renaissance through the eyes of a man who lived in its midst and we sense the turbulence of the period in the author's vivid text.