Artistic, Religious, and Cultural Relations between Italy and the Iberian Peninsula in the Last Decades of the 15th Century

Alexandre Vico Martori

Sandro Botticelli and workshop, Oration in the Garden (c. 1500), Capilla Real de Granada, Granada (photograph: Alexandre Vico) — Sandro Botticelli and workshop, *Oration in the Garden* (c. 1500), Capilla Real de Granada, Granada (photograph: Alexandre Vico)

Sandro Botticelli and workshop, *Oration in the Garden* (c. 1500), Capilla Real de Granada, Granada (photograph: Alexandre Vico)

Supervised by Professor Gerardo Boto Varela, this project investigates the acquisition, donation, and reception of the Florentine work Oration in the Garden attributed to Botticelli. It is a fascinating painting for so many reasons: it is the only painting by Botticelli that was exported during his lifetime; the iconography of the painting is inspired by engravings found in Savonarola’s writings; and most importantly, the details of its arrival at the court of Queen Isabella of Castile still remain unknown.
Probably created for private devotion, this small work shows a marked Gothic character, archaic and far removed from the Florentine master’s earlier pictorial production. It is undoubtedly a clear reflection of the apocalyptic fury of the Dominican friar’s sermons, while manifesting a religious afflatus akin to the spiritual current of Nordic devotio moderna and those then in vogue in Castile.
In addition to investigating the impact and reception of Italian painting in Spain, this project also aims to analyze transformations and innovations at the level of artistic materiality. In particular, it is interested in how in different environments the original objectuality of a work is reinterpreted and how it fulfils new functions and creates new meanings.