By Francesca Lungarotti
Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi) was born in 1445 and this March will mark his 580thbirthday. Botticelli’s works are known throughout the world and make Florence a temple of his greatness.
Sandro Botticelli was one of the most esteemed painters and designers among the artists of the Renaissance. Under the patronage of the De’ Medici family, he was active in Florence during the flowering of the Renaissance trend towards recovering lost medical and anatomical knowledge of ancient times through the dissection of cadavers.
Botticelli’s Madonna of the Pomegranate. Credit: World History Archive/Universal Images Group 
Portrait of a young man , painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
Virgin and Child, The Madonna of the Book, painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
Botticelli’s Spring or the Pirmavera. Credit: Ivy Close Images/Universal Images Group 
The Annunciation by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
Profile portrait of a young woman, probably Simonetta, painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
The Calumny of Apelles by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
Judith with the Head of Holofernes, painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
Madonna Adoring the Child with Five Angels by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
Madonna and Child with Angels, painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
Mary with the Child and Singing Angels, painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
The Mystical Nativity, painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci as Nymph, painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
The Adoration of the Christ Child, painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
The Adoration of the Magi, painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist, painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
The Coronation Of The Virgin, painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
Virgin and Child with an Angel, painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
The Lamentation over the Dead Christ (1500), painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
Virgin Adoring the Child, painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
The Madonna and Child with the infant Saint John the Baptist, painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
Venus and Mars, painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510). Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group
Botticelli creatively hid the image of a pair of lungs in his masterpiece, The Primavera/The Spring. He incorporated anatomical images of the lung in another of his major paintings, The Birth of Venus. Both canvases were probably an allegorical celebration of the cycle of life originally generated by the Wind or Divine Breath but also a precise and accurate anatomical representation. The Madonna of the Pomegranate also incorporates a hidden image of the heart and cardiac anatomy within it. The design of the inside of the fruit with the clearly visible arils, separated by thin membranes, seems to faithfully reproduce the anatomical scheme of the heart.
Botticelli’s works epitomize the greatness of the Renaissance period and its continuous and fascinating exchange between nature, art and science.
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Sources:
https://academic.oup.com/icvts/article/28/4/619/5219001
Science inside a pomegranate – The Perfect Law
Concealed lung anatomy in Botticelli’s masterpieces The Primavera and The Birth of Venus – PMC
Sandro Botticelli | Biography, Paintings, Birth of Venus, Primavera, & Facts | Britannica