The Birth of Venus even surpassing him. Giving added support to this interpretation of Botticelli as a born-again Apelles is the fact that that very claim was voiced in 1488 by Ugolino Verino in a poem entitled "On Giving Praise to the History of Florence." While Botticelli might well have been celebrated as a revivified Apelles, his "Birth of Venus" also testified to the special nature of Florence's chief citizen, Lorenzo de' Medici. Although it now seems that the painting was executed for another member of the Medici family, it likely was intended to celebrate and flatter its head, Lorenzo de' Medici. Tradition associates
Virgin and Child with the Infant St. John the Baptist (Botticelli) wealthy English merchant Thomas Blayds in Liverpool. Later, the work was sold to Lord Wigan, Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, thus remaining in England. On October 2 of 1947, the work was acquired by the São Paulo Museum of Art with funds donated by Mrs. Sinha Junqueira, businesswoman and patron from Ribeirão Preto. Virgin and Child with the Infant St. John the Baptist (Botticelli) The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist is a tempera painting on wood executed by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli and his studio (Bartolomeo di Giovanni or Raffaelino di'Carli). The tondo,