''A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts'', also known as ''Lorenzo Tornabuoni Presented by Grammar to Prudentia and the other Liberal Arts'' or ''Lorenzo Tornabuoni Being Introduced to the Liberal Arts'' ( it, Giovane Introdotto tra le Arti Liberali), is a painting by the Italian

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

painter

Sandro Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian Renaissance painting, Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th cent ...

, circa 1483–1486. The painting and its companion piece, ''Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman'', originally decorated Villa Lemmi, a country villa near

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

owned by Giovanni Tornabuoni, uncle of

Lorenzo de' Medici Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492) was an Italian statesman, banker, ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic and the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Also known as Lorenzo ...

and head of the Roman branch of the

Medici The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mu ...

Bank. They were probably commissioned for the 1486 wedding of Giovanni's son Lorenzo to Giovanna of the

Albizzi The Albizzi family () was a Florentine family originally based in Arezzo, who were rivals of the Medici and Alberti families. They were at the centre of Florentine oligarchy from 1382, in the reaction that followed the Ciompi revolt, to the ris ...

family, and are therefore thought to depict the two. ''A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts'' depicts a young man, perhaps Lorenzo Tornabuoni, led by a personification of

Grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes domain ...

into a circle of allegorical figures representing the

Seven Liberal Arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...

. Presided over by

Prudentia Prudence ( la, prudentia, contracted from meaning "seeing ahead, sagacity") is the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason. It is classically considered to be a virtue, and in particular one of the four Cardinal virtue ...

, the circle also includes Rhetoric,

Logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premise ...

, Arithmetic,

Geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ...

Astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

and

Music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

, each recognizable by means of various attributes. In antiquity, the liberal arts denoted the education worthy of a free person and the painting therefore testifies to the young man's broad education. The figure of Arithmetic is seen holding its hand out in greeting to the young man. Tornabuoni, a scion to a banking family, would have probably had an education focused on numbers. Both paintings were discovered at Villa Lemmi in 1873 under a coat of whitewash and removed from their original location. They are now in the

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, Paris.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts 1480s paintings Paintings by Sandro Botticelli Paintings in the Louvre by Italian artists Portraits by Sandro Botticelli 15th-century allegorical paintings Allegorical paintings by Italian artists * Fresco paintings in France

See also

References