Sandro Botticelli (1444-1510)

The Uffizi Gallery in Florence has taken legal action against the fashion house for selling clothing decorated with Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. The painting appears on scarves, skirts and tops as part of the label’s “Le Musée” capsule collection which also uses works by Michelangelo.

The Madonna and Child is a 15th-century oil on canvas attributed to a follower of Filippino Lippi, an Italian Renaissance painter and mentee of Sandro Botticelli. The Italian-born woman (who had no idea of the painting’s significance) inherited it from her father 30 years ago. The money will go her care. (ARTnews)

The major new revelation in the exhibition "Botticelli, Artist and Designer" at the Musée Jacquemart-André - a student of the master is undeniably the "Master of Gothic Buildings," whose tondo in the Musée Jacquemart-André was recently restored.

A 19th-century count brought together thousands of rare artworks and objets d’art in his home. The wunderkammer or cabinet of curiousity has been open to the public since his death but attracts few visitors despite its rich collection. 

Botticelli’s Man of Sorrows is due to be auctioned this month with a guarantee of $40 million. Now, technical analysis upon the work in preparation for the sale has revealed that a Madonna and Child composition lies beneath the layers of paint.

Harmas, which has been in the same collection for almost 100 years, plays on references and superimpositions. This image of an imaginary world is emblematic of Francis Picabia’s “Transparences”, a period that lasted only a few years.

Once belonging to the famous Francis Cook collection, this recently restored painting reveals all the talent of a major Milanese Renaissance artist known to have been close to Leonardo da Vinci.

Despite the pandemic, the auction market has not collapsed, and the first quarter of 2021 even broke records: a euphoria now confirmed by the traditional May sales in New York. And a revolution is probably taking shape at the same time…

The gallery, previously renowned for its cramped and underlit conditions, will reopen at Somerset House on November 19, complete with new floors, ticketing desks, a café and shop. The collection spans centuries, countries and movements, exhibiting Botticelli, Brueghel, Rubens, Goya, Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Cy Twombly.

A new President and a whole load of inauguration memes. Bernie Sanders’ nonchalant stance and knitted mittens proved popular – with edits of the Vermont Senator appearing in everything from Botticelli's Birth of Venus to Hamilton screengrabs – as did Biden's oversized bible and Lady Gaga's Hunger Games-esque outfit.