V&A’s Botticelli Reimagined has too many desperate pretenders

Botticelli Reimagined

V&A Museum, until 3 July

Botticelli and Treasures from the Hamilton Collection

Courtauld Gallery, until 15 May

When Tom Birkin, hero of J.L. Carr’s novel A Month in the Country, wakes from sleeping in the sun, it is to a vision: the vicar’s wife Alice Keach in a wide-brimmed straw hat, a rose tucked into the ribbon. ‘Her neck was uncovered to the bosom and, immediately, I was reminded of Botticelli — not his Venus — the Primavera.

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TaggedBotticelli, Courtauld Gallery, Dante, Divine comedy, Exhibitions, Illustration, J.L. Carr, Lady Gaga, Medicis, Painting, Pallas, Renaissance, V&a, Venus, visual art, Warhol, William Morris

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V&A's Botticelli Reimagined has too many desperate pretenders

None of Botticelli's imitators come close to matching his ease and divine grace. But the Renaissance master is at his best at the Courtauld, illustrating Dante, loosed from loveliness

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