"Now about Botticelli," he added. A little rustle of expectancy swept
through the group of listeners. Bettina drew nearer Barbara and clasped
her hand; and all settled themselves anew with an especial air of
interest. "I see you, like most other people, care more for him. He is
immensely popular at present. It is quite the fashion to admire him.
But, strangely enough, only a few years ago little was known or cared
about his work, and his name is not even mentioned by some writers on
art. He was first a goldsmith like Ghirlandajo, then afterward became a
pupil of Fra Filippo Lippi, father of the Filippino Lippi who finished
Masaccio's frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel. Botticelli wrought an
immense service to painting by widening greatly the field of subjects
hitherto assigned to it, which had been confined to Bible incidents.
Others, contemporary with him, were beginning to depart slightly from
these subjects in response to the desires of the pleasure-loving
Florentines of that day; but Botticelli was the first to come
deliberately forth and make art minister to the pleasure and education
of the secular as well as the religious world. By nature he loved myths,
fables, and allegories, and freely introduced them into his pictures. He
painted Venuses, Cupids, and nymphs just as willingly as Madonnas and
saints.

"I hope you will read diligently about him. The story of how his
pictures, and those of other artists who were influenced by him, led to
the protest which Savonarola (who lived at the same time) made against
the 'corrupting influence of profane pictures' and his demand that
bonfires should be made of them is most interesting. Botticelli
devotedly contributed a large number of his paintings to the burning
piles."

"But he painted religious pictures also, did he not?" queried Barbara.