`` The story that he burnt his own paintings on pagan themes in the notorious `` Bonfire of the Vanities '' is not told by Vasari , who nevertheless asserts that of the sect of Savonarola `` he was so ardent a partisan that he was thereby induced to desert his painting , and , having no income to live on , fell into very great distress .
Botticelli burned his own paintings on pagan themes in the notorious `` Bonfire of the Vanities '' .