Sandro Botticelli, his career seriously derailed by the Medici family's expulsion from Florence in 1494 and the virtual theocracy subsequently established by the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, paints the “Death of Lucrezia” in about 1499.

The masterpieces Primavera (circa 1482) and The Birth of Venus (circa 1485) will both be seen by Vasari at the villa of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici at Castello in the mid-sixteenth century, and until recently, it was assumed that both works were painted specifically for the villa.

Recent scholarship suggests otherwise: the Primavera was painted for Lorenzo's townhouse in Florence, and The Birth of Venus was commissioned by someone else for a different site.

Both had been installed at Castello by 1499.

In these works, the influence of Gothic realism is tempered by Botticelli's study of the antique.

The complex meanings of these paintings continue to receive widespread scholarly attention, mainly focusing on the poetry and philosophy of humanists who were the artist's contemporaries.

The works do not illustrate particular texts; rather, each relies upon several texts for its significance.