Favored by the Medici family, Sandro Botticelli was a Florentine Renaissance painter known for his large paintings featuring mythological subjects. His "The Birth of Venus," 1786, depicting a nude female standing in a seashell, was the first nude goddess in a major painting since the time of the Romans. Botticelli also provided a set of 19 small drawings to illustrate Dante's Divine Comedy, printed in 1481. Between 1492-1495 he created about 100 drawings for Dante's work. He served a commission at the Vatican, with other artists decorating Sixtus IV's chapel. Most of his great altarpieces were created between 1482-1492.