Sandro Botticelli

One of the most esteemed artists in early Renaissance Italy, Sandro Botticelli worked under the patronage of the Medici family, for whom he created his celebrated masterpieces Primavera (c. 1480) and The Birth of Venus (c. 1485). The painter was somewhat of an outsider to the artistic movements of his time, focusing on graceful use of line and color rather than three-dimensionality and perspective. This caused his reputation to suffer in the period following his death, though his work is widely celebrated today.