The Man of Sorrows

Sandro Botticelli's Man of Sorrows, painted around 1500, belongs to the deeply devotional phase of his late career, when he turned away from the mythological subjects that had made his fame. Under the influence of the Dominican friar Savonarola's apocalyptic preaching, Botticelli's late religious works became more emotionally intense and austere. The tempera medium required careful preparation on a gessoed panel and a disciplined layering technique that produced precise, durable surfaces suited to the intricate detail expected of devotional painting.

The painting exhibits the taut linear style and restrained palette of Botticelli's late period, with an emphasis on expressive contour and spiritual intensity that marks a sharp departure from the lyrical grace of his earlier mythological works.