News - October 17, 2008

New research discoveries highlight SUF conference Herbert Horne’s Botticelli: The Scholar and the Painter

“People often ask, ‘is there still anything new to say about Botticelli?’” said SU Florence Professor Jonathan Nelson during his presentation at the conference Herbert Horne’s Botticelli: The Scholar and the Painter, organized by Harvard University’s Villa I Tatti, the Fondazione Herbert P. Horne, and Syracuse University in Florence to commemorate the centennial of Horne’s revered monograph on the artist Sandro Botticelli. Five papers, all containing new research on Botticelli, were presented at SU Florence during the second day of the conference and showed that, in a wide range of topics, there are new questions and new answers. Of the five papers, four were presented by SUF professors.

Nelson, renowned for his work on both Botticelli and Filippino Lippi, raised the question of authorship—namely, does a work commissioned to Botticelli, and designed by Botticelli, but executed by Filippino belong in a monograph on Botticelli? In his paper “What is a ‘Botticelli’ or a ‘Filippino’? Problems of Authorship in Renaissance Art” Nelson discussed particular works by Botticelli and Filippino Lippi.

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SUF Professor Rab Hatfield proposed, in his paper “Some Misidentified Figures in Botticelli’s Works,” that three key figures in Botticelli’s Primavera have been misidentified for centuries as the Graces, and are actually the Hours. Of his groundbreaking proposal, Hatfield explained that it was like swinging for the fences—you either hit a home run, or strike out. It was clear from the applause following his paper that Hatfield had achieved the former.

SUF Director—and current I Tatti fellow—Barbara Deimling presented the paper “Who Tames the Centaur? The Identification of Botticelli’s Heroine.” Deimling’s precise examination of the female figure and her attributes in Botticelli’s Camilla and the Centaur would seem to demonstrate that the female figure is indeed Camilla and not Minerva, as previous scholars had argued. Deimling further suggested that it was commissioned as a wedding present for the bride of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici, with Camilla representing a model for the bride, as she was a figure in mythology who exemplified virtuous, chaste behavior.

Cristina Acidini, the Superintendent of the Polo Museale Fiorentino and chair of the afternoon session, noted that Botticelli’s major works continue to excite scholars. New work was presented yet again during the afternoon session by Louis Waldman, Director at I Tatti, in his paper “Botticelli’s Unknown Patrons: New Discoveries from the Florentine Archives.” Waldman looked especially at Botticelli’s Pentecost and used both the artwork and the 1505 contract for the piece—the only known contract for a Botticelli work—which Waldman himself discovered. His presentation was a powerful reminder that Botticelli’s later workshops should not be ignored as they present a new aspect of Botticelli rarely seen.

SUF Professor Antonella Francini presented the final paper of the day, entitled “Horne and an English ‘fable’ for Botticelli.” Francini combined art and literature as she explored Horne’s unpublished but highly significant poem “A Fable for a Portrait by Botticelli.” Although Horne wrote dozens of poems, this particular piece, discovered by Francini, is the only known poem the scholar wrote about Botticelli. She presented Horne’s work as a poem about a model in search of his portrait and a portrait in search of his model. Francini went on to propose that the single poem was not just about a portrait by Botticelli, but also a portrait of the artist, making it into a “poetical jest.” Francini took her analysis further, suggesting that there was a final portrait to be found among Herbert Horne’s words: namely, a self-portrait.

In the audience, members of the SUF community sat side by side with members of the general public, as well as greatly respected scholars. That they all closely followed the presentations was clear in their enthusiastic participation in the question-and-answer sessions, with questions that illustrated that the presentations made them ponder the new and exciting information. Local and national press highlighted the conference, with much emphasis on the fact that so much new research was presented.

The new research presented in the conference will be the subject of the next book in SUF's The Villa Rossa Series.