Sandro Botticelli was recognized in his lifetime as one of the most esteemed painters in Italy, producing sumptuous mythological paintings for the ruling Medici family with his characteristic graceful linear and decorative surface treatment. Trained initially as a goldsmith before a lengthy period of study with the painter Fra Filippo Lippi, Botticelli rose to enjoy the patronage of the leading families of Florence, painting religious and allegorical subjects during the reign of Lorenzo de’ Medici and the dark days of Girolamo Savonarola’s bonfire of the vanities. Upon the death of his teacher, Fra Filippo Lippi, Botticelli took charge of his son, Filippino Lippi, seeing to his education as a painter.