After Botticelli 3 1994

Brice Marden created this print, titled *After Botticelli 3*, using etching. Marden, working in a late-modernist context, engages here with the Renaissance. Botticelli's art, celebrated for its idealised forms, served a cultural elite in Florence. Marden’s revisiting of Botticelli through abstraction introduces a new vernacular, one that invites questions about access and interpretation within art history itself. In what ways do artists mediate our connections to the past? The stark black lines on a white ground here create a sense of immediacy, contrasting with the slow, layered techniques of Renaissance painting. It's as if Marden seeks to distill Botticelli’s detailed allegories into pure, emotive line, asking us to consider what remains when the figure is stripped away. This print prompts us to explore how our understanding of beauty evolves across time and artistic expression, where the simplicity of form can speak volumes about cultural heritage.