Though Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510) is one of the greatest of the Renaissance masters, little is known about his life and workshop activity. In the early 1460s, Botticelli was apprenticed to Fra Filippo Lippi, where he learned much about composition. After Botticelli left Lippi, around 1467, he grew into the vigorous naturalism that defined his work. Gathered from the world’s greatest museums, 40 Botticelli masterpieces are presented here in chronological order, a vision of the artist’s development from early promise to glorious fulfillment. —E.C.