The Birth of Venus to Botticelli's Florentine contemporary, and Lorenzo di Medici's court poet, Angelo Poliziano. The iconography of "The Birth of Venus" is similar to a description of a relief of the event in Poliziano's poem the "Stanze per la giostra", commemorating a Medici joust in 1475, which may also have influenced Botticelli, although there are many differences. For example Poliziano talks of multiple Horae and zephyrs. Older writers, following Horne, posited that "his patron Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco asked him to paint a subject illustrating the lines", and that remains a possibility, though one difficult to maintain so confidently today. Another poem by
Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Botticelli, Milan) Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Botticelli, Milan) The Lamentation over the Dead Christ with Saints is a painting of the "Lamentation of Christ" by the Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli, dated between 1490-1495. The painting was originally kept in Santa Maria Maggiore, Florence. It is currently housed in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli of Milan. The painting is one of two versions of "The Lamentation" by Botticelli. "The Lamentation over Dead Christ", circa 1492, is currently housed in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. The painting depicts the lamentation (expression of great sorrow or deep sadness) over Christ’s death. The Virgin Mary