Madonna col Bambino e due angeli

1460

Gold-beating in the family: his first training

In 1460 Botticelli's father gave up tanning and became a gold-beater with his other son, Antonio; the trade would probably have brought the family into contact with artists. According to Vasari, Sandro himself was first trained as a goldsmith.

c. 1461 – 1467

Apprentice to Filippo Lippi

Around 1461–62 Botticelli became an apprentice of Fra Filippo Lippi, one of the leading Florentine painters and a favourite of the Medici; from him he learned to make intimate compositions of beautiful, melancholic figures drawn with clear contours. He probably left Lippi's workshop by April 1467, when Lippi went to work in Spoleto.

1464

The house on Via Nuova

In 1464 his father bought a house on the Via Nuova (now Via del Porcellana), where Sandro lived from 1470, if not earlier, until his death. He also worked there, even though his brothers Giovanni and Simone lived in it too — a rather unusual practice for a painter.

1464–1467

Frescoes in Prato Cathedral

From 1464 to 1467 Botticelli worked together with his teacher and other pupils in Prato on the frescoes of the Stories of Saint Stephen and Saint John the Baptist in the cathedral's main chapel.

1470

His own workshop

By 1469 Botticelli was already working on his own, in his own house. After Filippo Lippi died in Spoleto on 9 October 1469, he opened a workshop of his own in 1470, not far from the Church of All Saints.

1470

The nickname “Botticelli” becomes a name

The nickname Botticelli (“little barrel”) derives from that of Sandro's brother Giovanni; a document of 1470 already calls the painter “Sandro Mariano Botticelli”.