Sandro Botticelli, born Alessandro Mariano Filipepi, was the son of a tanner. He was born in Florence around 1445 and showed a talent for painting at a very early age. Botticelli was first apprenticed under a goldsmith named Sandro, from whom it is believed he derived his nickname. At the age of sixteen, he served an apprenticeship with the painter Fra Filippo Lippi Durant, 1953. From Lippi he learned to create the effect of transparency, to draw outlines, and to give his pictures fluidity and harmony. He also worked with painter and engraver Antonio del Pollaiuolo, from whom he gained...
d'Este that Botticelli should be invited to complement Mantegna's contribution to her Studiolo, and tow years later he was among those who were called upon to decide on the placing of Michelangelo's "David" in Florence.

After 1500, there are no paintings from Botticelli's hand. He was only fifty-six, and still might have had some art left in him, but he yielded place to Leonardo and Michelangelo, and lapsed into morose poverty. Sandro Botticelli died in 1510 after painting "Scenes from the Life of the Virgin," The Last Actions of St. Zanobi," and "Mystic Nativity" a few years earlier. .