Francesco Botticini (real name Francesco di Giovanni, 1446 – 16 January 1498) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He was born in Florence, where he remained active until his death in 1498. Although there are only few documented works by Botticini, a considerable corpus has been confidently attributed to him on the basis of style including a number of altarpieces, dozens of small-scale religious panels and a few portraits. Life Early work Botticini was born in Florence in 1446. His father was Giovanni di Domenico di Piero, a naibaio, or painter of playing cards, from whom he probably received his initial artistic training. By 22 July 1459 was a salaried assistant in the workshop of Neri di Bicci. Botticini left Neri's workshop in 24 July 1460. He eventually came into contact with Andrea del Verrocchio, in whose workshop he would have met Leonardo da Vinci, Lorenzo di Credi, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Pietro Perugino. Though Botticini's presence in Verrocchio's studio is not documented, it is often inferred on the basis of style. Botticini opened his own workshop by 1469, as reported in an arbitration document from that year. He remained close with his father, who oversaw his working contracts until 1475, when he filed for emancipation. The emancipation was granted in 1477, according to legal records. Botticini's earliest works include the Saint Nicholas and Four Female Saints at the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, a Saint Sebastian at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and a Madonna adoring the Child at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama. His earliest dated work is an altarpiece of the Madonna and Child with Saints Sebastian, Pancras, Sebastian and Peter (1471) at the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, which is painted under the strong influence of Verrocchio. The Saint Monica Enthroned with Augustinian Nuns in Santo Spirito, Florence, is usually dated also dated to this year, as his the famous Three Archangels with the Young Tobias at the Uffizi. Maturity By 1475 Botticini had developed a more personal style, which he first expressed in his most famous work, the large Assumption of the Virgin at the National Gallery, London. Wrongly attributed Botticelli in Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists, this painting has been unanimously attributed to Botticini since the early twentieth century. The attribution is corroborated by extant documents, which state how the painting was begun in 1475 and completed in 1477.