The large number of visitors permitted in the tight exhibition space at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris means that it's hard, without pushing or being pushed, to view many of the Botticellis on show until 22 February. The artist's most famous works (the Birth of Venus, the Primavera and the Madonna of the Magnificat) are not included and there isn't a single altarpiece, but half a dozen of his greatest paintings are here. After pondering some early, damaged paintings of the Madonna and Child you meet the great Saint Augustine - a fresco from the Church of the Ognissanti in Florence - with his wonderfully expressive oversized hand below his half-perplexed, half-enraptured face with its boldly painted lights on the knotted brow and the exclamatory strokes of white in his grey beard. The whole figure seems to be locked perspectivally into his cell full of books, which we understand as the furniture of his mind.

LRB 20 November 2003 | PDF Download