BOTTICINI, FRANCESCO

FRANCESCO BOTTICINI. — Painter, born in Florence in 1446, died there in 1497. Scholars, basing their conclusions on the only documented work (the altarpiece for the collegiate church of Empoli, 1484–91), have reconstructed the artist’s personality, attributing to him works in which the influences of Lippi, Verrocchio, A. del Castagno, Cosimo Rosselli, Pollaiuolo, or Botticelli succeed one another or coexist, and have concluded by describing him as “eclectic.” Botticini, however, possesses a delicate grace of his own (St. Sebastian, in the Uffizi, formerly in the Cinotti collection; panels with the Madonna adoring the Child), and a pleasantly narrative style (Hercules’ Banquet, in the Empoli altarpiece) reminiscent of Ghirlandaio, which may explain the traditional attribution of a first apprenticeship under Neri di Bicci.