Description: ART - Sandro Botticelli: "The Calumny of Apelles" - Florence, ITALY: The Calumny of Apelles is a panel painting in tempera by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. Based on the description of a lost ancient painting by Apelles, the work was completed in about 1494–95, and is now in the Uffizi, Florence. The content of Apelles' painting, as described by Lucian, became popular in Renaissance Italy, and Botticelli was neither the first nor last Italian Renaissance artist to depict it. Leon Battista Alberti had praised it and recommended it as a subject for artists to recreate in his highly influential De pictura of 1435, and there were four translations of Lucian's Greek into Latin or Italian during the 15th century. The figures are either personifications of vices or virtues, or in the case of the king and victim, of the roles of the powerful and the powerless. From left to right, they represent (with alternative names): Truth, nude and pointing upwards to Heaven; Repentance in black; Perfidy (Conspiracy) in red and yellow, over the innocent half-naked victim on the floor, who is being pulled forward by the hair by Calumny (Slander), in white and blue and holding a flaming torch. Fraud, behind, arranges Calumny's hair. Rancour (Envy), a bearded and hooded man in black, holds his hand towards the king's eyes to obscure their view. On the throne, the king has the donkey's ears of King Midas, and Ignorance on his far side and Suspicion on the near side grasp these as they speak into them. The king extends his hand towards Calumny, but his eyes look down so that he cannot see the scene. These identifications are clear from Lucian's description of a painting by Apelles, a Greek painter of the Hellenistic Period. Though Apelles' works have not survived, Lucian recorded details of one in his On Calumny. This Divided Back Era (1907-15) postcard is in good condition. No. 5189.
Price: 8.5 USD
Location: Brooklyn, New York
End Time: 2025-01-30T02:39:17.000Z
Shipping Cost: 0 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 14 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Unit of Sale: Single Unit
Artist: Sandro Botticelli
Size: Standard (5.5x3.5 in)
Material: Paper
City: Florence
Original/Licensed Reprint: Original
Brand/Publisher: Unbranded
Subject: "The Calumny of Apelles"
Continent: Europe
Type: Printed (Lithograph)
Era: Divided Back (1907-1915)
Theme: Art, Uffizi Gallery, Universities
Country: Italy
Region: Tuscany
Features: Panoramic
Country/Region of Manufacture: Italy
Postage Condition: Unposted
