Botticelli at the Legion of Honor

For those of us who can't make it to Florence for Christmas this year, there is a lovely Botticelli exhibit at the Legion of Honor for the next two months.

The show is called Botticelli Drawings, and its concept is to take a closer look at the preparatory drawings for some of Boticelli's famous paintings. (Pictured is Head of a Woman in Near Profile Looking Down to the Left, 1470)

I'm not very interested in art scholarship and was afraid the show would be a lot of text and rough drawings, but the happy surprise is that there are over a dozen remarkable paintings, including a few that have never traveled out of Italy before. (Pictured is The Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist, 1470

And what paintings, including one depicting the Angel Gabriel shooting holy rays at the Virgin Mary. (Pictured is The Annunciation,1485-1493)

Also delightful is that there are no dying or dead Jesus paintings in the bunch. His only appearances are as a holy child. (Pictured is Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Six Singing Angels, 1490)

It seems that the Italian Renaissance painter's posthumous reputation was fairly non-existent until the 19th century, when the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood championed his work over the prevailing orthodoxy that Raphael was the model of artistic perfection. (Pictured is Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Six Singing Angels, detail, 1490)

The paintings are large and you are allowed to get surprisingly close to them. Botticelli's final painting is included, subtitled Mystic Nativity, and it's mystic indeed. (Pictured is The Nativity of Christ (Mystic Nativity), top half detail, 1501).

The exhibit will be at the Legion through February 11, and it's highly recommended. (Pictured is The Nativity of Christ (Mystic Nativity), bottom half detail, 1501).