Sandro Botticelli

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Italian Role of Painting in Renaissance
Introduction
Art, culture, and religions are closely connected to each other and will in many cases influence one another. During the Italian revolution, the depiction of the relationship was more evident in the artistic front. Though most artists were attached to royal families and were more loyal to given towns, their paintings were more or religious. During the Renaissance, fundamental changes occurred that shifted the classical values of art into realism views. Sandro Botticelli with his key paintings including Primavera played key roles in the development of the Renaissance art.
Key principles of Renaissance art in Italy
The first country in Europe to be accredited with the earliest forms of European Renaissance was Italy. Renaissance is a time where the society records fundamental changes in the order of philosophy, religion, art, economics and the general understanding of life concepts. The Italian Renaissance, called, Rinascimento in Italian began in the first decades of the 14th century towards the end of the 16th century. It is a time when most social aspects get transformative understanding in various models and aspects. Specifically, the Italian Renaissance can be grouped into four timelines including the Proto-Renaissance, early Renaissance, and the high renaissance. Later, the changes in the mannerisms formed the most advanced renaissance on Italy. Artists like Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510) who painted Primavera (c.

1478) contributed significantly to the Italian Renaissance (Killinger 204). The development of Renaissance at the time was largely influenced by the artistic work that was used to portray different social values thus gaining a perspective understanding that defined the new social variants leading to the renaissance. During the time of the Italian Renaissance, artists were either attached to the royal rulers, the public courts, or particular towns (Jardine 17-21). Most of the paintings were thus confined to the institutions or the families to which they were attached. The major theme of the paintings was largely religious with the accounts of biblical contexts that were common in Italy, including the accounts of Moses. However, the renaissance presented the artists with a different approach to arts as well as they became less attached to the courts, royal families, and towns and started focusing on the general life values. According to Welch, art took the form of realism, breaking away from the classical values that were initially very popular with most people (78). Sandro Botticelli as a participant in the early Renaissance developed paintings with transitive themes that span religion, environment, and economy. His paints of The Birth of Venus (c.1480) and the other one that was later referred to as Primavera (c.1478) showed focus on realism than classical views on the social paints. Killinger noted that this marked the transition period between the early European cultures and the medieval period when Europe got a lot of attention to the integrated cultural values (203-6). For instance, Primavera paint depicted a new down in the environment presenting a blossoming spring, a concept that many analyses have attributed to the changes in the new social order marking the beginning of the Italian and European Renaissance.
The Value of the Primavera Paints in the Development of Renaissance in Italy
The Primavera depicted realism in the painting, breaking away from the traditional classical values that artists focused on in the development of cultural understanding in Italy. It was done by Sandro, who like other artists of the time, was loyal to the town of Florentine and was also attached to the Lorenzo, his ruling cousin. The painting thus depicts a change in much social order including the theme (Snow-Smith 95). It shows a group of six ladies and two gentlemen with a cupid on their top. The setting is within a blossoming garden that is full of a variety of flowers and trees. Many scholars have attached different meanings to the painting, with others giving religious connotations and some scholars giving the paint a social value. Moreover, the paint can also poetically show the deep meaning of environmental change where flowers blossom at the beginning of spring. The complexities and the dynamic meanings that can be derived from the art shows that its rich value in meaning can be achieved in different Renaissance periods. To the early Renaissance, the painting will show more of religious views, possibly alluding to the Garden of Eden since their core focus was on the religious values in the painting. However, the medieval artists believe that the paint combines religious and environmental values with the mannerism renaissance believing that the paint would show an illustration of social setting with show people in love at a party.
The context understanding of the paint can also give a different dimension of the meaning. Early interpreters of the art believed that it was commissioned by the ruling Lorenzo for the wedding of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici of Florentine, his cousin. However, some theorists believe that it was first commissioned as a gift to celebrate the birth of his nephew who would one day become a pope, but he later changed his mind. The context, therefore, depicts love and social relationships, though the paint was done by a person who was overly religious. This shows that the painting has a transitive meaning from the early Renaissance, through the late Renaissance periods.
Conclusion
The Italian Renaissance was a very important period for the rebirth of the European art, religion and culture. The contributions of artists like Sandro Botticelli with numerous paintings that reflected the changes in the new social requirements were very important values that the society considered transitive.

Works Cited
Jardine, Lisa, and Jerry Brotton. Global Interests: Renaissance Art between East and West. Reaktion Books, 2005.
Killinger, Charles L. The history of Italy. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002.
Snow-Smith, Joanne. The Primavera of Sandro Botticelli: a Neoplatonism interpretation. Vol. 5. Peter Lang Pub Incorporated, 1993.
Welch, Evelyn S. Art in Renaissance Italy, 1350-1500. Vol. 99. Oxford University Press, USA, 2000.

Appendix

Sandro Botticelli : Primavera (1478)