The outcast
Sandro Botticelli·1480
Historical Context
The Outcast from circa 1480 depicts a scene whose precise subject has been debated by scholars. The image of an expelled or rejected figure resonated with the Florentine experience of exile and political ostracism that periodically disrupted the city's social fabric during the Renaissance Oil on canvas, increasingly preferred over panel in the sixteenth century, offered greater flexibility for large-scale compositions The work is now in the collection of Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi.
Technical Analysis
The solitary figure is rendered with Botticelli's characteristic linear precision, the emotional state of rejection or exile conveyed through posture, gesture, and the relationship between the figure and the surrounding architectural setting.
