FILIPE'PI, SANDRO or ALESSANDRO, commonly called Botti celli, from the name of a goldsmith to whom he was apprenticed, was born at Florence in 1437. He studied painting under Filippo Lippi, and became one of the first painters of his time, though his chief excellence was in his invention and expression. He painted many pictures for the churches of Florence, some of which are still prs served, and are now in the gallery of the Florentine Academy. He painted a small picture for the church of Santa Maria Novella, repre senting the adoration of the kings, in which the kings were portraits of Como, Julian, and Cosmo's son, Giovanni Medici. This was one of Sandro's masterpieces, and was, in the early part of this century, in the possession of Mr. Young Ottley, the author of the ' Inquiry into the early History of Painting.' Sandro painted also for Sixtus IV., in the Capella Sistine, at Rome, three pictures from the history of Moses and the Israelites—his largest and best works. After the completion of these works he returned to Florence, neglected painting, and gave himself up to Savonarola, and to Dante'a Inferno,' which he illustrated, and he attempted himself to engrave his designs; it is not known exactly how many he engraved, but those attributed to him are miserably oxecuted; they are however scarce, and fetch very high prices. Nineteen altogether were engraved
for an edition of Dante published by Nicolo di Lorenzo at Florence in 1481, but they were nearly all engraved by Baldini from Sandro's designs. [Mu:0m, Biscsno.) Sandro, after his connection with Savonarola, neglected his worldly concerns to such a degree that he would probably have starved had it not been for tho bounty of Lorenzo de Medici; • he survived Savenarola many years, and died at Florence in 1515. Filipepi was one of the last of the old Italian or quattro-cento school of painting, which passed away at the appearance of the grand works of great cinquecentisti, Da Vinci, Michel Angelo, and Raffaelle.
(Vasari, Vite de' Pittori, &c. ; Lanai, Scoria Pittorica, &c.; Rumohr, italienische Porschangen ; Ottley, History of Engraving.)