Celebrates one of the greatest and most beloved painters of the Early Renaissance with luxurious, large-format images

Sandro Botticelli, one of the greatest painters of the Italian High Renaissance, enjoyed the patronage of the greatest Florentine families. He spent most of his career in the humanist circle of the Medici, for whom he painted such masterpieces as Primavera and Venus and Mars, works that combine a decorative use of line with Classical elements in harmonious and supple compositions.

This sumptuously produced volume features an updated, full-colour selection of the artist's works made for the original 1937 edition by Ludwig Goldscheider, co-founder of Phaidon Press. The original essay by Lionello Venturi is accompanied by a new introduction from Renaissance specialist Alessandro Cecchi, putting Botticelli and his school into a contemporary context. Elegant design, fine papers and tipped-on image plates make this a true collector's edition.

William Gaunt (1900-80) was a British artist and art historian and author of many books and articles on nineteenth-century art.

Colin B. Bailey is a specialist in Impressionist painting and Director of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, where he is based. He is the author of numerous studies of Renoir and his contemporaries.