Our adventures today take us to the Botticelli exhibit at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. It’s 45 minute drive from our house across two bridges, The Richmond-San Rafael and the Golden Gate. We had the windshield wipers going most of the way with wet drizzly weather. The towers of the Golden Gate Bridge were lost in fog. I was thinking it would make a wonderful moody photo, but something for the mind’s eye, since I was driving.
Botticelli was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance (1445 – 1510). Born as Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi he was better known as Sandro Botticelli.
The exhibit is all about drawings. I was surprised to learn that these drawings were studies in preparation for creating larger finished pieces. Needless to say, the drawings are exquisite, using a variety of media on specially prepared paper, not simply sketches that a modern-day artist might make. Some of the drawings were created by other artists working in Botticelli’s workshop, or other artists of the time such as Fra Filippo Lippi.
We picked up our reserved headsets when we entered the museum, and the guided tour was quite educational. Many of the drawings were created using tempera, a medium that consists of egg yolk mixed with pigment. This is a very fast drying media which requires application with many thin layers. We spent an hour and a half in the exhibit taking our time. After viewing the exhibit, we headed to the museum cafe, where we shared the Classic Onion Soup Gratince and the Roasted Beet Salad. Quite delicious and pricey, although we were not surprised with the price given the location.
Upon exiting the museum we were met with rays of sun and blue sky. We stopped to admire Auguste Rodin’s sculpture The Thinker and then took a walk around Lands End to get a view of the Golden Gate Bridge. More photos are available in an online gallery.
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