Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510), author of one of the most famous works in history, The Birth of Venus, was a major painter of the Florentine Renaissance and the protégé of the Medici family. Her aesthetic quest, translated into the creation of an ideal female type, is marked by the influence of Neoplatonism and humanism. He is steeped in classical culture, but also, like many Italian painters, he is sensitive to Flemish painting. Botticelli was involved in some of the greatest decorative projects of his time, in particular, that of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.