Sandro Botticelli

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, known as Sandro Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, when he was rediscovered by the Pre-Raphaelites who stimulated a reappraisal of his work. Since then, his paintings have been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting.
In addition to the mythological subjects for which he is best known today, Botticelli painted a wide range of religious subjects and also some portraits. His best-known works are The Birth of Venus and Primavera, both in the Uffizi in Florence. Botticelli lived all his life in the same neighbourhood of Florence; his only significant times elsewhere were the months he spent painting in Pisa in 1474 and the Sistine Chapel in Rome in 1481–82.
Only one of Botticelli's paintings, the Mystic Nativity is inscribed with a date, but others can be dated with varying degrees of certainty on the basis of archival records, so the development of his style can be traced with some confidence. He was an independent master for all the 1470s, which saw his reputation soar.