Painter, born Florence, Italy, March 1, 1445; died there, May 17, 1510. His first master in art was Filippo Lippi whose influence is apparent in his earlier work, as in the so-called Chigi Madonna of the Gardner collection in Boston. From the Pollajuoli brothers he learned anatomy. Under the patronage of the Medici he produced many of his best-known paintings, among them "Spring" (Academy of Florence) and "The Birth of Venus" (Uffizi Gallery). Invited to Rome by Sixtus IV to assist in decorating the Sistine Chapel, he executed three frescos, "History of Moses," "The Temptation of Christ," and "The Destruction of Core, Dathan, and Abiron," besides five portraits of the popes. In 1483 he painted his masterpiece "The Magnificat," now in the Uffizi, the finest of the tondi, or circular pictures of the Madonna and Child, originated by him. In his late years he designed about 90 illustrations for the "Divina Commedia." The Academy of Florence has his "Madonna and Child with Angels and Saints," and a beautiful "Coronation of the Virgin." Other well-known paintings are "The Calumny of Apelles," "Pallas and the Centaur," "Saint Augustine," and "The Last Communion of Saint Jerome."
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