page_title: Francesco Botticini
section_title: The Rucellai Altarpiece
hierarchical_section_title: Francesco Botticini / Works / The Rucellai Altarpiece
caption_attribution_description: English: Painting by Francesco Botticini
context_page_description: Francesco di Giovanni Botticini, commonly referred to as Francesco Botticini, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He was born in Florence, where remained active until his death in 1498. He was probably apprenticed first to his father, Giovanni di Domenico, and then to Neri di Bicci, in whose workshop he is recorded from 22 October 1459 until 24 July 1460. Although there are few documented works by Botticini, art historians have assembled a considerable corpus of works attributed to him. His best known works are the Assumption of the Virgin painted for Matteo Palmieri in 1475-1478 for San Pier Maggiore, Florence; the Tabernacle of Saint Sebastian and Tabernacle of the Sacrament, both at the Museo della Collegiata in Empoli; and the Madonna Child in Glory with Saints Mary Magdalen and Bernard, formerly at Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, Florence, and now at the Louvre.
context_section_description: Toward the end of his career, Botticini completed a large altarpiece for the Rucellai chapel in the church of San Girolamo, Fiesole. Now at the National Gallery in London, this work depicts Saint Jerome in the center surrounded by the Pope Damasus, Saint Eusebius, Saint Paula and Saint Eustochium; six angels appear above and a group of donors kneel below. The painting is unusual for including Saint Jerome within his own frame, creating a sort of picture-within-a-picture. Critic Charles Darwent described the painting as, "By giving his picture-within-a-picture of St Jerome its own gilt farm, the artist (Botticini) sets up a sequence of overlapping realities. The framed image exists as a separate artwork for us, the viewer, but also for the painted saints who seem to study it: even holy martyrs, it says, can be moved by the power of art." In other words, Botticini combined three different realities within one altarpiece: the reality of St. Jerome, of the saints studying him, and of the kneeling donors.
caption: Francesco Botticini, Madonna and Child
exif: {}