CHAPTER X.
The Uffizi III: Botticelli A painter apart--Sandro Filipepi--Artists' names--Piero de' Medici--The "Adoration of the Magi"-- The "Judith" pictures--Lucrezia Tornabuoni, Lorenzo and Giuliano's mother--The Tournaments--The "Birth of Venus" and the "Primavera"-- Simonetta--A new star--Sacred pictures--Savonarola and "The Calumny"-- The National Gallery--Botticelli's old age and death.
We come next to the Sala di Botticelli, and such is the position held by this painter in the affection of visitors to Florence, and such the wealth of works from his hand that the Uffizi possesses, that I feel that a single chapter may well be devoted to his genius, more particularly as many of his pictures were so closely associated with Piero de' Medici and Lorenzo de' Medici.

We see Botticelli here at his most varied.

The Accademia also is very rich in his work, having above all the "Primavera," and in this chapter I shall glance at the Accademia pictures too, returning to them when we reach that gallery in due course.

Among the great Florentine masters Botticelli stands apart by reason not only of the sensitive wistful delicacy of his work, but for the profound interest of his personality.

He is not essentially more beautiful than his friend Filippino Lippi or--occasionally--than Fra Lippo Lippi his master; but he is always deeper.