Bust of Savonarola, the wild-eyed friar who got Botticelli to burn his own paintings (OC, info in comments) [6000×4000]

Brushes. Mirrors. Paintings. Set them all on fire! They’re evil!

That’s what Girolamo Savonarola wanted — and what he had done, thanks in part to getting gangs of creepy little kids to go door to door and look for these horribly sinful items.

Savonarola was a super ultra mega devout Dominican friar who basically took control of Florence during the late 1400s. And let me tell you, the dude hated fun.

When you think of wild-eyed, apocalyptic, fire & brimstone speeches, this guy was basically the mold for all of it. He kind of reminds me of Gary Busey’s son in the movie “Contact,” the cult guy who blows up the giant machine.

Is that an outdated reference? Probably.

**Master of Tickets**

Anyway, Savonarola kept gaining popularity with his crazed speeches — eventually he had to start preaching under the dome of the Church of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, to accommodate the crowds. Ticketmaster probably would’ve charged some outrageous convenience fees to see him.

If there’s one thing Savonarola hated more than fun, it was the Catholic Church, which he saw as corrupt. Which…it was, but…he took things a bit too far. Though in his defense, a lot of his complaints were echoed by those who wound up founding the Protestant Church.

One of Savonarola’s main complaints was that people just weren’t “holy” enough. If you think being “holy” is subjective, then…you’re right. But if there’s one thing humans are great at, it’s getting all up in other people’s business.

He recruited all these creepy children of Florence and had them go door to door, looking for anything that could tempt someone to sin.

Like what? Let’s see…wigs, mirrors, perfume, playing cards, musical instruments, chess pieces, and on and on and on.

Can you imagine? Kids looking like the Children of the Corn, with weird bowl haircuts, banging on your door and ransacking your bedroom like some adolescent moral police.

I don’t know if they actually had bowl cuts or not, but that’s what we’re going with.

The items were brought to the main city square, and set on fire in what’s called the “Bonfire of the Vanities.” Which is also the title of a really awful movie from the 1980s starring Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis. It has nothing to do with Savonarola, and as far as I know, Gary Busey wasn’t involved.

**The Death of Venus**

You know what else may have been burned in these bonfires? Paintings by Sandro Botticelli.

He was almost certainly one of Savonarola’s followers, called “piagnoni,” meaning “whiners.” Many have claimed he was so involved in the movement that he set his own paintings on fire.

What were these paintings of? There’s no way of knowing. We can assume they likely would’ve been mythological paintings along the lines of his Birth of Venus or Primavera, since Christian paintings seem to have been spared, but who knows?

Of course, those paintings and a couple of others like Venus and Mars were saved, due to being outside of Florence in Medici villas.

Eventually, Savonarola got the Pope pretty pissed at him. It may have something to do with calling the Catholic leadership a “pockmarked whore.”

He was excommunicated, and a Franciscan was like “Oh, if you’re really a messenger from God, you should totally prove it by walking through fire.” Which was a thing back then.

When this big event is supposed to happen, it rains. The fire party is off. Which you’d think would work in Savonarola’s favor, but the crowd was like “Fuck this guy, he was supposed to prove something and it didn’t happen.”

So, Savonarola was arrested. Eventually he and a couple of other friars were publicly hanged and set on fire. Where? In the same square as the Bonfire of the Vanities.

As for Botticelli, he was never quite the same. His art changed quite a bit after Savonarola, becoming…let’s just say…more “apocalyptic” and strictly religious. He even made references to Savonarola’s speeches in one painting.

He died in obscurity, and it wasn’t until the 1800s that his art was rediscovered.

**A pointless heading I’m adding here just to break up this wall of text**

Now, I do have [a video about Botticelli](https://youtu.be/-H9phUtu46M?si=zSucDaqr_OMob5cJ) which gets into his obsession with a particular woman, and how that played into his connection with Savonarola.

But if you aren’t into that (though you should be, it’s super weird and fascinating, and it only took me like four months to edit, so if you didn’t then I would be sad) I’ve also put some more [pictures on Imgur.](https://imgur.com/a/BUtR7Mz)

Of what? Well, there’s another picture of this terracotta bust. Speaking of which, I was supposed to tell you about that, right? Well, it was sculpted by another of Savonarola’s “piagnoni,” Marco della Robbia, and is on display in San Marco.

San Marco is a convent turned museum in Florence, where you can see the cells the friars lived in — including Savonarola. I’m including a picture of his room, where they’ve hung a painting showing his death. Which is pretty fucked up when you think about it.

I’m also including a picture of that painting, as well as a picture of his cloak, and a couple of pictures of the square where he died. Today, there’s a little circular plaque on the ground marking where it happened.