Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of, pertaining to, or reminiscent of Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), Italian painter of the early Renaissance era, or his works.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Botticelli +‎ -an

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Examples

  • Davis has a soft Botticellian beauty that belongs in a painting, rather than the stark halls of the Supreme Court.

    Cynthia Ellis: Tribeca Film Festival: Juror Hope Davis' Special Relationship 2010

  • Four Botticellian wood sprites, who could also sing divinely, led the promenade performance from tree to tree.

    Francesca da Rimini, Fantastic Mr Fox; BBC Proms 24 & 25 2010

  • There have been a few celebrated ones in recent years: the photographer Lee Friedlander's wife, Maria, whom he photographed over four decades; John and Yoko Ono (mutual muses); painter John Currin and his Botticellian wife, the artist Rachel Feinstein.

    Where Have All the Muses Gone? 2009

  • And she looked critically at her sister: “You look more Botticellian than ever.”

    Over the River 2004

  • And yet, strangely, Eustace Dornford, verging on middle age, was continually being visited, whether the sun shone or not, by the feeling of one who sits on a low wall in the first spring warmth, seeing life as a Botticellian figure advancing towards him through an orchard of orange trees and spring flowers.

    Over the River 2004

  • Dinny was slight and rather tall; she had hair the colour of chestnuts, an imperfect nose, a Botticellian mouth, eyes cornflower blue and widely set, and a look rather of a flower on a long stalk that might easily be broken off, but never was.

    Maid in Waiting 2004

  • With a cunning worthy of her cause, she waited till he was in deep water over British politics, which he seemed to regard as serious manifestations of human activity; then, turning on him the Botticellian eye, she said:

    Maid in Waiting 2004

  • But it is probable that Swann, having remained constant, or having reverted to a different conception of her, enjoyed in the slender young woman with pensive eyes and tired features, caught in a pose between rest and motion, a more Botticellian charm.

    Within a Budding Grove 2003

  • He loved the poetry that had been written about it, including a line by Lowell about Leonidas and his men getting ready for battle by combing their “golden Botticellian hair.”

    Summer of Deliverance Christopher Dickey 1998

  • He loved the poetry that had been written about it, including a line by Lowell about Leonidas and his men getting ready for battle by combing their “golden Botticellian hair.”

    Summer of Deliverance Christopher Dickey 1998

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