Troy is a third possession of Muscovy. Fernando Botero: “The Famous Pusan Creator Religion: Religious Figures

Comments on date of birth:

Place of birth:

Bene Vagienna, Italy

Religion: Religious figures

Society: Public figures

Art: Writers

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Type of activity:

Writer, religious and social activist

Botero, Giovanni (c. 1544, Bene Vagienna, Italy - 1617) - Italian Jesuit, church leader, political writer and moralist. Even in his youth, he joined the Jesuit order (Compagnia di Gesù), studied at Jesuit colleges in Palermo, Rome, Amelia and Macerata. In 1565 he was invited to France, where he taught rhetoric. Four years later he returned to Italy, lived in Milan, Padua, again in Milan and finally in Turin. From 1581 he was the secretary of Carlo Borromeo, whom he served until the latter's death in 1584, and after his death he was the secretary of his young nephew Federico (1564-1631), the future cardinal and archbishop of Milan and a great scientist. From the second half of the 80s until the end of the 90s he lived in Rome and during this Roman period of his life he created his main works: "Delle cause della grandezza e magnificenza delle città" (1588), "State good" (« Della region di stato» , 1589, in 10 books; about the political tasks of the Catholic Monarch; Philip II of Spain ordered the translation of this work into Spanish), “Messages about different countries of the world and sovereigns” ("Relazioni universali", publ. 1591-1596). In 1599, Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, invited him to the court in Turin as tutor to his sons Philip Emmanuel, Vittorio Amedeo and Emmanuel Philibert. From this time until his death, Botero was closely associated with the House of Savoy. In 1603-1606. he accompanied his pupils during their long journey to Spain. During his mentoring period, for the edification of young princes, he wrote a series of biographies of famous people ( « I prencipi» , 1600) and Catholic rulers of Europe ( « Prencipi christiani» , in 2 parts, 1601 and 1603). For his many years of faithful service to the House of Savoy, Botero was granted the abbey of San Michele della Chiusa (in 1604), and later he was appointed Councilor and First Secretary of Savoy. Other writings: "De regia sapientia"(Milan, 1583), Aggiunte alla Ragion di Stato(Venetia, 1598; addition to "Ragion di Stato"), "Relazione della repubblica veneziana"(Venice, 1605), "I capitani"(Turin, 1607), « Memorable sayings famous people» ("Detti memorabili di personaggi illustri", Turin, 1608), "La primavera" (1607), "Rime spirituali" (1609), "Carmina selecta"(1615). Botero's political theory, which he outlined in his book The Public Good, is directed against Machiavellianism.

Giovanni Botero(Italian: Giovanni Botero; 1533, Bene Vagienna, Piedmont, Italy - June 23, 1617, Turin) - Italian political writer, specialist in the field of political geography, lawyer, traveler, Counter-Reformation figure, Jesuit (from 1581).

Biography

Born into a poor family. Thanks to his uncle, the Jesuit Giovenale Botero, in 1559 he entered the Jesuit college in Palermo. A year after the death of his uncle, he continued his studies at the Roman College.

In 1560-1569 he studied and then taught rhetoric at the Jesuit colleges in Amelia and Macerata.

In 1565, Botero was sent to teach philosophy and rhetoric at the Jesuit colleges in France, in particular in Billaume and Paris. Due to the Huguenot Wars and after he showed himself too zealously in anti-Spanish protest, he was recalled from France.

From 1569 to 1580 - he lectured at the collegiums of Milan, Genoa and Turin, then again in Milan.

In 1574 he was ordained a priest.

In December 1580, due to loosely interpreted doctrinal teachings, Botero was summoned for questioning by the papacy and expelled from the Jesuit order. For some time he served as vicar in Luino. In 1582 he received a theological education at the University of Pavia.

Subsequently, in 1582-1584, he was surrounded by the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, and was a member of the congregation founded by this cardinal. Carlo Borromeo introduced his minister to the church administration, which was in close contact with the nobility of northern Italy.

In 1585, on behalf of the Duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel I, made a diplomatic trip to France. After its completion, he moved to Milan. There he became the tutor of the young Count Federico Borromeo, nephew of Carlo Borromeo. In September 1586, accompanying his pupil, he left for Rome.

In 1587-1598 he was Federico Borromeo's secretary when he became a cardinal. In this capacity, he carried out a number of diplomatic trips to various Italian states.

In 1599 Botero returned to the Savoy dynasty, where he remained tutor to the three sons of Charles Emmanuel II.

He spent 1603-1606 at the Spanish court, where he was sent by the Duke of Savoy. Visited Madrid, Barcelona, Burgos, Valencia, Aranjuez and Tordesillas.

As secretary and adviser to Cardinal Federico Borromeo, D. Botero was a participant in four conclaves. This helped him in writing the treatise “The Office of the Cardinal” (“Dell’ufficio del Cardinale”) (1599) on the mechanisms of exercising power.

Since 1610, he gradually stopped participating in political activities, took up literary activities, and wrote treatises.

Proceedings

D. Botero is the author of the influential work “State Welfare” (“Della ragion di Stato”, 1589), which reflected a new point of view on princely power and in which he was the first to introduce the concept of “state interest”, where he argued that princely power must in one form or another be consistent with the needs of the subjects, and that princes must make every effort to win the love and respect of the people. The idea of such justice arose in Botero's mind as a result of familiarization with Thomist thought, based on the ideas of Thomas Aquinas and with natural law, prevalent in the Jesuit college system, which was strongly influenced by the Dominican theologian Francisco de Vitoria and the scholastic philosopher Domingo de Soto. In this work, Botero opposed the immoral political philosophy associated with Machiavelli's The Prince. Botero was thus a forerunner of the ideas of later liberal philosophers such as John Locke and Adam Smith.

In 1588, he first published Delle cause della grandezza delle citt, a work that anticipated the works of Thomas Malthus.

Botero’s greatest fame and popularity came from the historical geographical work “Universal Relations” (“Relazioni Universali”), which, in fact, was a description of the entire then known world. Written between 1591 and 1595, the four parts were published as one book in 1596. It went through many reprints and translations. Its Polish translations in 1609 and 1613 became more popular than Marcin Bielski's Chronicle of the World. In the descriptions of countries, I tried to critically analyze data on the population and its distribution. In his theoretical ideas about population, Botero proceeded from the broad ability of the population to reproduce, which, in his opinion, was restrained by epidemics, wars and famine. He attached great importance to the colonies and the possibility of the outflow of population to them. Based on information gleaned from messages from ambassadors, missionaries and other travelers, Botero compiled a brief description of the Muscovite state and its population at the end of the 16th century.

Literature

Demographic encyclopedic dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Editor-in-Chief D.I. Valentey. 1985.

1 2 data.bnf.fr: open data platform - 2011.
1 2 3 German National Library, Berlin State Library, Bavarian State Library, etc. Record #118942824 // General regulatory control - 2012-2016.

JESUIT POLITICAL
THOUGHT
The Society of Jesus and the State, c. 1540–1630
HARRO HOPFL
cambridge university press 2004

A most interesting work devoted to a wide range of problems of political theory discussed by the Jesuit fathers of the 16th-17th centuries.

One of the most interesting topics in it is the polemic between the Jesuits and Machiavelli.
The starting point of this debate was the discussion and rethinking of the concept of “state interest”
The term “state interest” (reason of state and analogues in other languages) was actively used during the creation of the order. The origin of the term is Italian; where there is an analogue of stato in the local language, it takes root faster (Holland, England, France), where it does not (in Germany) - later, in the 17th century.
The first person to use the term in the title of a book was J. Botero (1589).
The term “state interests” is strongly associated at this time with Machiavelli and “Machiavellianism.” Machiavelli invented his own “-ism” at the same time (moreover, simultaneously and independently of each other in different countries - V.M.). Another synonym from this series is “politician” (politique, politicus, politico) - one who practices Machiavellian approaches and is guided by the “interests of the state.”
All these words are pejorative; they denote political duplicity, the desire for power and glory without regard to moral and religious norms.
Very quickly, all these name-calling begins to be used to criticize the Jesuits. By the beginning of the 17th century, Jesuit Machiavellianism is a cliché used by the enemies of the order, both among Catholics and Protestants. The monument to this phenomenon is “Monita secreta”. This collection of bad advice for the top leadership of the order describes the goal of the Jesuits in a completely “Machiavellian” spirit: in the name of the prosperity of the order, to gain influence over sovereigns and governments and make everyone else love or fear him.

The phrase "public interest" has been used to describe situations in which ordinary moral, religious and legal conventions and restrictions do not apply or should not be taken into account. Traditionally, foreign policy was considered as the sphere of application of this concept of “state interest”.

Naturally, anti-Machiavellianism became an element of the official rhetoric of the Order. This was started by Antonio Possevino (1533-1611, the same one) in his Bibliotheca selecta (bibliography of key texts for the purposes of the Counter-Reformation, 1593) and Ratio studiorum (program of Jesuit education, 1599). Accordingly, the concept of “state interest” became the object of discredit. The exposed texts used were “The Prince” and “Anti-Machiavelli”, written by Innocent Gentillet (Vienne, 1532 circa – Ginevra, 23 August 1588); the last text was especially valuable for criticism, because in it, “Machiavellianism” was stripped of its specific atheistic features and presented in the form of a doctrine devoid of scandal.

As regards not the term, but its content, “state interest” was not so unconditionally condemned. It was used to describe reality, of which it was indeed an element, but not as a means to justify any actions. It was recognized at the general level that the ruler must have adequate ideas about how the political world works; and these ideas are given by experience.
In addition, "state interest" was a concept that was used by absolute monarchs, and the Jesuits wholeheartedly supported them. In principle, such supporters of realpolitik as Machiavelli and Guicciardini did not believe that the ruler must be immoral, irreligious, etc., and politics should be a morality-free zone. Jesuits who received the highest consent to write about sensitive issues, as a rule, themselves held leadership positions in the order, were confessors of sovereigns and knew that politics was an area in which difficult choices had to be made. The Jesuits were generally not inclined to impose unbearable burdens on the conscience of their interlocutors, especially when it came to sovereigns on whom the well-being of the Respublica Christiana depended. Thus, in terms of content, the concept of “state interest” did not contain anything unacceptable for the Jesuits.
In fact, the obstacle to its adoption was solely the question of religious tolerance, which was often justified precisely by considerations of the interests of the state.

The apologia for the doctrine of state interests began with G. Botero (about whom the leadership of the order could not decide whether he should be punished or rewarded). Botero's book Della ragion di stato was published 20 times during his lifetime alone.
Botero proceeded from the fact that the sovereign needed to know what methods of maintaining and strengthening the state (regardless of their moral merits - V.M.) generally exist.
The main task, from Botero’s point of view, is the preservation and expansion of the state; This problem is solved by keeping subjects in obedience. In order to achieve this goal, the sovereign must have certain qualities: justice in its various aspects (umanita, cortesia, clemenza), prudence, courage, but, above all, reputation. All of the above qualities create a reputation for the sovereign. Along with them, it is useful for the sovereign to produce on his subjects the impression of a certain godlikeness; To do this, in particular, you should keep your intentions secret so that their implementation is unexpected for your subjects. The sovereign should not pursue innovations, but since the crowd loves innovations, great undertakings, both civil and military, will create a good reputation for him. (Associations with Machiavelli’s train of thought here are, indeed, so obvious that there is no need to comment on them - V.M.) Among other things, the sovereign must contribute to the emergence of interest (interesse) of his subjects in his state and government, especially if we are talking about newly acquired subjects.
Botero does not differ from Machiavelli in essence: they have the same understanding of the purpose of government: the preservation and expansion of the state, and they look the same at the means: maintaining reputation.
The only subject where Botero cannot coincide with Machiavelli is his attitude towards heresy, because Machiavelli does not yet discuss this issue. (This is not entirely true: Machiavelli speaks of the need to support civil religion and suppress ridicule of it, etc. - let us remember the famous story about the chicken-keepers and the general who ignored their predictions. So the direction in which Machiavelli argues is, in principle, correlated with Botero’s reasoning – V.M.)
Botero acts as an opponent of religious tolerance. True religion must be the only civil religion. No concessions are allowed for apostates. You should respond to heresies flexibly and not immediately resort to repression, but try to convert the heretics. This approach will not work with Calvinists and (sic) Muslims because they are not reformable. Such opponents should not be treated on ceremony: they should be deprived of the opportunity to speak publicly, have access to the printing press and finances; they should be closely monitored as much as possible with the help of agents embedded in their ranks, their leaders should be pitted against each other, and international contacts should not be allowed to be established. If it is not possible to act from a position of strength, it is necessary to fully or partially satisfy their demands, but not stop the struggle and resume it at the first opportunity; the king in such a situation should join the strongest faction in the internal struggle. Those who, like politicians, call for religious tolerance in the name of the interests of the state are simply crazy, since tolerance can only lead to more chaos, as it happened in France. People's readiness for violence should be directed outward, for example, against the Turks; Machiavelli, by the way, did not write anything about them, and this is another point in the accusation against him.

Thus, while maintaining anti-Machiavellian rhetoric, Botero in fact reconciles with him and fully identifies with the approach to understanding the state interest: it consists in achieving the preservation and expansion of the state. The divergence of their positions is that Machiavelli ad hoc argues that the pursuit of state interest requires the abandonment of moral restrictions, and Botero also ad hoc - that it does not.

Fernando Botero is the most recognizable Latin American artist; his works are immediately recognized even by a person who is far from the art of the 20th century, but has at least once seen at least one of his works.

Fernando Botero (photo)

Botero portrays exclusively fat people; everyone is fat - people, horses, dogs, even apples. Influential art critic Roberta Smith disparagingly called them “rubber blow-up dolls.”

“With forms and volumes, I try to influence people’s feelings and sensuality,” the artist justifies himself, “meaning by sensuality not only voluptuousness and eroticism.”

Of course, we are familiar with the buxom beauties of Rubens and Kustodiev. This is a classic, it is a priori beauty and a pronounced individuality. With Botero, everything is different. If the artist positioned himself as a caricaturist or parodist, everything would be clear. St. Petersburg Mitkas, who work in approximately the same technique, do not pretend to be the main artists on the planet. While preparing this material, I tried to answer the question for myself: what prompted the artist to make, in general, a physiological deformity with his style, the highlight of his handwriting. The version of one of the authors of the article, that this happened by accident when the artist depicted a giant musical instrument in a still life, does not sound convincing. I did not find an answer to my question, I was only convinced that Botero’s painting and sculpture in the world is recognized too seriously, as they say, “for a lot of money.” The author takes advantage of this by releasing a huge number of works, all the time returning to the same plots and themes. Because of this, the “growth of the master” is not visible in his paintings; if you do not know the years of creation of many of the works, then the paintings painted with a difference of 10-15 years look like works made in the same year. To show you this, I used a huge amount of Botero's work in the post. But first, let's get to know the artist himself.

Fernando Botero
Fernando Botero

Fernando Botero Self-Portrait
Fernando Botero Self-Portrait with Flag

Colombian artist, master of painting in the grotesque-traditionalist direction, close to “naive art.” On his colorful canvases, kitsch and folk color coexist with the Italian Renaissance and colonial baroque.

Fernando Botero was born in the city of Medellin (Colombia), known in the world for its drug cartel, in the family of a businessman. His family lost their fortune, and his father died when the future artist was still very young. He attended the school of the Jesuit Order.
His childhood dream was to become a bullfighter. In 1944 he was sent to a matador school for several months (recording these impressions in his first drawings dedicated to bullfighting).

F. Botero Fight 1988

F. Botero Four dwarf bullfighters 1988

F. Botero Torrero 1991
F. Botero Picador 2002

F. Botero Corrida 1991

F. Botero Pica 1997

However, at the age of 15, he surprised his entire family with the news that he intended to become an artist, which did not fit into the rules of his conservative family, where art could be a hobby, but not a profession. Arriving in Bogota (1951), he met local avant-garde artists who were inspired by Mexican revolutionary art.

Botero, as an illustrator, gradually achieved that his drawings on various topics were used to illustrate articles in the newspaper El Colombiano. But then he decided to leave for Europe in search of new knowledge.
Traveled to Spain (1952). This was his first trip outside his homeland. He reached Spain by ship. Already in Madrid, he enrolled in the art school of San Fernando and was shocked by the paintings of D. Velazquez and F. Goya.
In his work there are numerous reminiscences of Velazquez and Goya.

F. Botero Self-portrait in a Velazquez costume 1986 Beyeler Gallery, Zurich

After some time, he came to Florence, where he studied at the Academy of San Marco (1953–1954) with Professor Bernard Berenson. There he became acquainted with Italian Renaissance art.
Later, in 1952, he returned to his homeland and organized his first opening day at the Leo Mathis Gallery. But, in general, the young artist did not stand out much among hundreds of his talented compatriots. His paintings were so diverse that visitors initially thought it was an exhibition of several artists. The range of artists who influenced his early paintings ranged from Paul Gauguin to the Mexican painters Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. True, the young self-taught man from a town in the Andes had never seen the original works of these artists, as well as others. His acquaintance with painting was limited to reproductions from books.
Also in 1952, he took part in the National Art Salon competition, where he took second place with his work “By the Sea”. In 1956 he visited Mexico.

He developed his characteristic style in the second half of the 1950s. Until 1955, his main subjects were ordinary men and horses; at that time he had not yet discovered either “fat women” or monumental sculptures, to which he owes his worldwide fame. They “came” as if by accident, when one day in Bogota, in his “Still Life with Mandolin,” the instrument suddenly acquired unprecedented dimensions. And from that moment on, Botero found his theme. I couldn’t find a mandolin, so I imagine the same one, but with a guitar and another still life.

F. Botero Guitar On a chair
F. Botero Still life with watermelon

Elements of the Italian and Spanish Renaissance-Baroque, as well as Latin American Baroque, coupled with iso-folklore and kitsch in the spirit of “naive art” and even features of primitivism, formed a bizarre fusion in Botero’s work.
Objects and figures appear in his paintings and graphics as emphatically lush, smugly swollen, in sleepy peace - this magical trance is reminiscent of the provincial-stagnant and at the same time “magical” atmosphere of the stories of H. L. Borges and the novels of G. G. Marquez .

F. Botero Lovers 1968

F. Botero Male model in the studio 1972
F. Botero Maiden 1974

CYCLE "STREET"

F. Botero Street 1965
F. Botero Street 1979

F. Botero Street 2000

In no other subject do Botero manifest three-dimensional forms as aggressively as in nude female images; no other motif of his artistic world remains so long in the memory as these heavy figures with exaggeratedly full hips and legs. They are the ones that evoke the strongest feelings in the viewer: from rejection to admiration.

F. Botero Letter 1976

F.Botero Beach

F. Botero Seated woman 1976
F. Botero In the bedroom 1984

F. Botero Bather
F. Botero In the bathroom 1989

F. Botero At the window 1990
F. Botero Seated woman 1997

Despite the fact that Botero most often turns to genre portraiture, the theme of crime, military conflicts and bullying also appears in his work.
The gentle humor characteristic of his art is sometimes replaced by satire - anti-clerical, for example, Dead Bishops (1965, Gallery of Modern Art, Munich) or aimed at Latin American military dictatorships, such as Official Portrait of a Military Junta (1971, private collection, New York). I couldn’t find these paintings, but the reproductions presented below reflect the given theme.

F.Botero I'm Walking in the Hills 1977
F. Botero Cardinal 1998

FROM THE CYCLES "MILITARY DICTATORSHIP" AND "MAFIA"

F. Botero Untitled 1978

F.Botero Death of Pablo Escobar

In the late 90s, Botero painted a series of paintings addressing the ruthlessness and cruelty of warring drug gangs (remember that Colombia is a country where even the entrance to a haberdashery store is guarded by a powerful spotted handsome man with a gun).

FROM THE "MAFIA" SERIES

F. Botero Massacre of the Innocents 1999

F. Botero Massacre in Colombia 2000

F. Botero Hunter 1999
F.Botero Widow 1997

F. Botero Demonstration 2000
F. Botero Consolation 2000

Botero did not ignore the highest authorities of Colombia, addressing this topic three times. I am personally interested in the fate of these paintings and the opinion of those portrayed about the artist’s work.

F. Botero President 1987
F. Botero First Lady 2000

F. Botero President 1989
F. Botero First Lady 1989

Botero always responds to what is happening in the world. He recently created a series of paintings that tell about the abuse of the American military against prisoners in the Iraqi Abu Ghraib prison. The Abu Ghraib series, according to Botero, continues the theme of cruelty and violence in the world. Below are some works from this series.

But let's return to the artist's biography!
In 1964, Botero married Gloria Sea, who subsequently bore him three children. Later they moved to Mexico, where they experienced great financial difficulties. It is appropriate here to place the artist’s works dedicated to love and family.

F. Botero Love 1982

F. Botero Nap 1982

F. Botero Family 1989
F. Botero Couple 1995

F.Botero Family 1996
F. Botero Colombian family 1999

F. Botero Picnic 1999

F. Botero Love couple

This was followed by a divorce, and then the artist moved to New York, sometimes visiting Paris. The money quickly ran out, and his English skills left much to be desired. Then the artist remembered his “European” experience and began, as then, to rewrite great works, which he then sold to visitors to museums and galleries.
Some of his works are more free in their writing style, but in any case the plots go back to classical, well-known images, although they invariably acquire a parodic character. I specifically place the originals with Botero’s paintings so that you can feel the difference.

F. Botero Mona Lisa 1977
Leonardo da Vinci Mona Lisa 1503-05

F. Botero Mademoiselle Rivière Ingres 1979
Jean Dominique Ingres Mademoiselle Caroline Riviere 1805

F. Botero Imitation of Piero della Francesca 1988
Piero della Francesca Portrait of Federigo da Montefeltro second half of the 15th century

F. Botero Sunflowers 1977
Vincent van Gogh Sunflowers 1888

At the same time, Botero worked on his own works, seeking to be accepted into the Malbrough Gallery, which happened in 1970, where the artist appeared to the whole world. Soon Botero returned to Europe, and this time his arrival was triumphant. Since 1983 he lived in the Tuscan town of Pietrasanta.
This is what his themes and plots were like in the 80s.

F. Botero Ball in Colombia 1980

F. Botero Man drinking orange juice 1987

F. Botero British Ambassador 1987
F. Botero In the park

F. Botero Adam 1989
F. Botero Eva 1989

F. Botero Melancholia 1989
F. Botero Ballerina at the barre

Botero creates in different countries of the world: in his house in Paris he paints large canvases, in Tuscany (Italy) he spends the summer with his sons and grandchildren, creates his huge sculptures,
on the Côte d'Azur in Monte Carlo, he creates his smallest works in watercolor and ink; in New York he paints larger paintings in pastel and watercolor.
His conquest of Paris ended a fifteen-year struggle for success and turned Master Fernando Botero into one of the most important living artists in the world.
In 1992, Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris, during the campaigns for the gentrification of Paris, chose Botero, not even a Frenchman, to compose an exclusive exhibition on the Champs-Elysees. No artist had ever received such an honor before.
Since then, various cities around the world have invited Fernando Botero to display his works to enhance their celebrations. This happened in Madrid, New York, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Monte Carlo, Florence and many others. Other cities have purchased his works for very large sums, and others are waiting in line.
On the other hand, how can his portraits of famous artists be called, if not caricatures, or at best friendly caricatures?

F. Botero Picasso. Paris. 1930th year. 1998
F. Botero Portrait of P. Picasso 1999

F. Botero Portrait of J. Ingres 1999
F. Botero Portrait of E. Delacroix 1998

F. Botero Portrait of G. Courbet 1998
F. Botero Portrait of G. Giacometti 1998

His works are rated as some of the most expensive in the world, such as the painting “Breakfast on the Grass.” This is a paraphrase of the famous painting of the same name by the founder of impressionism Edouard Manet, painted by Fernando Botero in 1969. Only if in Manet's case, dressed men were in the company of naked women, in Botero's the monumental lady is dressed, and the man is lying naked on the grass and smoking a cigarette. At Sotheby's the painting was sold for one million US dollars.

F.Botero Breakfast on the grass 1969

At the turn of the 20th–21st centuries. became the most famous Latin American artist of his generation. Already, Botero’s creative heritage is enormous - it includes almost 3 thousand paintings and more than 200 sculptural works, as well as countless drawings and watercolors.
In Russia there is his work “Still Life with Watermelon” (1976-1977), donated by the author to the State Hermitage Museum and exhibited in the Hall of Art of Europe and America of the 20th Century.

F. Botero Still life with watermelon 1976-77 Hermitage

Since 1973, he became more and more actively involved in sculpture, varying in it the same hypertrophied and magnificent figures of people and animals. Botero's characters do not seem "inflated", they are heavy and petrified. That is why the Colombian master, no less than painting, is famous for his sculpture: bronze and marble are the most suitable materials for his gigantic figures.
These works decorated many cities of the world (Medellin, Bogota, Paris, Lisbon, etc.) in the form of unique heroic-comic monuments.

F. Botero Roman warrior
F.Botero Ruca (Madrid)

F. Botero Adam
F. Botero Cote (Barcelona)

F.Botero Couple (Darmstadt)

The artist's generosity is legendary in Colombia. For example, he donated a collection of paintings valued at $60 million to the Bogota Museum of Fine Arts. As a gift to his hometown of Medellin, the artist donated 18 sculptures from those shown at exhibitions in Madrid, Paris, New York, Chicago, and almost a hundred paintings that formed the basis of the exhibition at the Place des Arts. In total, the artist's gift to Colombian collections exceeded $100 million. It is not for nothing that the influential Colombian magazine Semana named Fernando Botero among the ten most popular personalities.

Four evenings “spent” with Botero’s painting somehow reconciled me with the artist’s work. Either because I recognized myself in some of Botero’s heroes, or because there were so many paintings that they no longer caused surprise and misunderstanding. In the same way, at one time I did not fall in love, but with my mind I accepted Picasso’s square women. And I would like to finish the post with the “series” of double paintings collected from Botero, which I mentioned at the beginning.