Botticelli Reimagined

Interesting exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at the work and legacy of Botticelli.

I liked the approach of starting with contemporary works although it did need you to have a good knowledge of the work of the artist. I loved the video by Bill Viola called “Going Forth by Day” which referenced a cassonne. It was a long format with people walking through a wood entering at one end of the screen and exiting at the other. A very calming work. I also loved the Dolce and Gabbana suit and dress using a print based on the Birth of Venus.

There was a good room looking at the influence of Botticelli on the Pre-Raphaelites including a Burne-Jones picture which had been owned by Yves Saint Laurent. I liked the fact that there were gaps in the display in this room which let you glimpse the works in the final section which were the real Botticelli’s.

It was a good idea to keep the real works to the end as they upstage everything that went before. It’s a shame that some of the great works aren’t there as they can’t travel but there was a good selection. It gave a good view of how the studio mass produced some of the subjects. Having done a workshop on his Venus and Mars picture the weekend before I was fascinated to see portraits of Simonetta Vespuci and Juliano de Medici and two of the Venus studies from Turin and Berlin. Also nice to see the wonderfully strange Pentecost Altarpiece from Birmingham and the Mystic Nativity back from loan to Berlin.

Closed on 3 July 2016.

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