Description
A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts is a fresco Sandro Botticelli painted around 1483–1486 for the Villa Lemmi near Florence: Grammar leads a young man in a long robe by the hand towards a half circle of seated women who personify the liberal arts. The original, transferred to canvas, measures 237 x 269 cm and belongs to the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Our painter hand-paints it for you in oil on canvas in 6 sizes from 65 x 60 to 190 x 160 cm or made to measure, with the losses of the old fresco as the photo shows them. Before it leaves us, we send you a photograph of your finished copy.
| Title: | A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts |
| Other titles: | Giovane introdotto tra le Arti liberali (Italian title) · Lorenzo Tornabuoni Presented by Grammar to Prudentia and the other Liberal Arts |
| Painter: | Sandro Botticelli (c. 1445–1510) |
| Year painted: | c. 1483–1486 |
| Original size: | 237 cm x 269 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Fresco transferred to canvas |
| Painting style: | Early Renaissance |
| Located at: | Musée du Louvre, Paris, France |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted in oil on canvas, 6 sizes or made to measure |
A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts – Sandro Botticelli
What does the Liberal Arts fresco show?
The scene takes place on a green lawn in front of a dark grove of slender trunks. On the right a stone pilaster closes the space; cracked plaster frames the top and sides.
On the left stands a young man with long curls and a red cap. His long robe shifts from rosy red to a bluish tone. A young woman in a pale dress and an orange-red cloak holds his hand and leads him towards the group.
To the right, women in green, red, yellow, violet and blue sit in a half circle, each with an object of her own. One in a yellow mantle holds a small dark scorpion; another at the right edge carries a large set square. At the top right an older woman in a red cloak and white veil raises her hand towards the newcomer.
At the lower left a small curly-haired child peeps out. Two large patches of bare plaster, where the paint is lost, break up the lower half.
What does the scene mean?
Grammar guides the young man, perhaps Lorenzo Tornabuoni, into the company of the Seven Liberal Arts. Prudentia presides over the gathering, which also takes in Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy and Music, each known by what she holds.
In antiquity the liberal arts stood for the learning proper to a freeborn citizen, so the fresco speaks of the young man’s broad education. Arithmetic stretches out her hand to greet him, a fitting gesture for the son of a banking family, who was probably schooled above all in numbers.
The objects help you read the group: Logic grips the scorpion, Geometry the set square, Astronomy an armillary sphere and Music a small portable organ.
Why is the fresco so well known?
It belongs to a small Villa Lemmi cycle that is now split up: two frescoes are in the Louvre, and a third, very fragmentary one is still in the villa, says the Italian article.
The patron, Giovanni Tornabuoni, was an uncle of Lorenzo de’ Medici and head of the Roman branch of the Medici Bank. The decoration was probably ordered for the 1486 wedding of his son Lorenzo to Giovanna degli Albizzi, so the young man and the young woman of the second fresco are often taken for the couple.
The wide gaps in the plaster are part of its story too. The English Wikipedia article, written in English, gives more on the work and its figures.
Where can you see the original today?
The original is in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. It once decorated a wall of the Villa Lemmi, a country house near Florence owned by Giovanni Tornabuoni.
Both wall paintings were found in the 19th century under a coat of whitewash, taken off the wall and transferred to canvas. They reached the Louvre in 1882.
Its companion is the fresco Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman, in which Venus and the Graces bring presents to a young woman usually identified as Giovanna degli Albizzi.
Sandro Botticelli, born Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi around 1445 to a Florentine tanner, trained under Filippo Lippi, died in 1510 and lies in the church of Ognissanti.
A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts or another Botticelli?
This is a picture for lovers of quiet scenes told through gestures and objects. Almost square, only a little wider than tall, it sits well above a sofa or in a home office.
If you prefer a lush mythological grove, choose Primavera. For a scene of love and rest there is Venus and Mars, and for a sharper allegory against an antique backdrop, Calumny of Apelles.
More famous Botticelli paintings, from Madonnas to portraits and mythologies, are gathered on the Sandro Botticelli page, each one painted to order.
How do we hand-paint this fresco?
Botticelli’s original is not an oil painting but a fresco: the colours went onto fresh wall plaster, and the work was later detached and transferred to canvas. It measures 237 x 269 cm. Our oil painting reproduction is hand-painted in oil on canvas, layer by layer, and like every canvas painting we make it travels rolled, stretched on a stretcher bar or framed.
The painter first lays out the figures, then the dark grove, the green lawn and the broad areas of red, yellow, green and violet drapery.
Because the original is damaged, we paint its losses as well: the pale patches of bare plaster, the cracks and the border of old wall. So it looks like the fresco in the Louvre today. Faces, hair, attributes and fine folds come last, with a thin brush.
Which size for which wall?
In short: small sizes for a home office or hallway, middle ones above a chest of drawers or bed, the largest for a big wall above the sofa.
A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts is painted in 6 sizes (width x height): 65 x 60, 75 x 65, 100 x 85, 130 x 110, 150 x 126 and 190 x 160 cm. The original measures 269 x 237 cm (width x height), so every one of our sizes is smaller; even the largest reaches only about seven tenths of the fresco.
At 65 x 60 or 75 x 65 cm it suits a bookcase, a desk or a narrow wall. As a painting for the living room it comes into its own from 130 x 110 cm, when faces and objects read from across the room.
Can I order another size, and which frame suits it?
Yes. For a different proportion we keep every figure whole and adjust only the grove, lawn or plaster border, so the Sandro Botticelli reproduction still shows the entire scene. Send your measurements through the custom size form and we reply with price and delivery time. You may also ask for a version without the empty patches of plaster.
Our workshop in Slovenia stretches and frames the painting. The moulding is picked in our 3D app, while a view of the painting on your own wall is a separate service. The warm reds and yellows of the fresco suit a slim gilded or natural wood frame that leaves the cracked border visible.
When does your Liberal Arts painting arrive?
A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts is ready for dispatch 15 to 45 working days after you confirm the order. Once it is finished we send you a photograph and, if you wish, change something before it is packed.
The parcel travels within Slovenia and to other EU countries without customs duty, and our returns policy applies to every order.
A scene about learning makes a fine gift for a graduation, a new job or a wedding. If you do not know the recipient’s wall, give a gift voucher and let them pick the painting and the size.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the original fresco hang?
In the Musée du Louvre in Paris, where it arrived in 1882 from the Villa Lemmi near Florence.
Who is the young man in the fresco?
Perhaps Lorenzo Tornabuoni, son of the patron Giovanni, who married Giovanna degli Albizzi in 1486.
Is this a print or a photograph?
No. It is a hand-painted copy: our painter brushes in every face, every fold and every crack.
How big is the fresco in the Louvre?
237 x 269 cm (height x width); all of our sizes are smaller.
Can I have the painting without the damage?
You are welcome to ask us for such a version as a custom order.
How long does painting take, and how does it reach me?
Allow 15 to 45 working days before it ships, rolled in a tube, stretched or framed.
Is it suitable for a study or a library?
Yes. The theme of learning and the calm greens and reds sit well with bookshelves and wooden furniture.
What do the women in the half circle stand for?
They are the liberal arts in person, led by Prudentia, each with her attribute, such as Logic with the scorpion.
- Subject: Grammar leads a young man into the circle of the liberal arts, presided over by Prudentia; below, two large patches of lost plaster.
- Original: a fresco from around 1483–1486, transferred to canvas, 237 x 269 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
- Our painting: hand-painted in oil on canvas in 6 sizes from 65 x 60 to 190 x 160 cm or made to measure.
- Good to know: companion of the Venus and the Graces fresco from the same villa; both were found under whitewash.
