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| | Sandro Boticelli (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21) |
 | | While scholars have not yet conclusively deciphered these paintings, their slender elegant figures, which form abstract linear patterns bathed in soft golden light, may depict Venus as a symbol of both pagan and Christian love. |
 | | In the 1490s, when the Medici were expelled from Florence and the fanatic Dominican monk Girolamo Savonarola preached austerity and reform, Botticelli experienced a religious crisis. |
 | | His subsequent works, such as the PietĂ (early 1490s, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan) and especially the Mystic Nativity (1490s, National Gallery, London) and Mystic Crucifixion (1496?, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts), reflect an intense religious devotion. |
| artistbios.everestwebworks.com /Boticelli.html (325 words) |
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