# The Florentine Eight pay Botticelli for painting the Pazzi conspirators as hanged traitors Date: 1478 ## The fact In July 1478 the Otto paid Botticelli for painting the Pazzi conspirators as hanged traitors on a public government wall after Giuliano de’ Medici’s murder. This Fact is that defamatory fresco commission as a completed political-image instrument. The paintings do not survive. It is one event. ## Context A state infamy picture is polarising propaganda of punishment. It is his documented public work for the regime, not a later museum Madonna. Do not invent a 1478 body-count from the fresco. [Sandro Botticelli](/people/sandro-botticelli)’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death. Payment of 40 florins on 21 July 1478 is in the Eight’s record as received. The frescoes on the Dogana/Bargello-Palazzo complex were a pittura infamante. They were later destroyed after 1494. Leonardo’s hanging drawing of Bandini is a neighbouring witness, not this commission. Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers are the surviving public file. ## Evidence and sources Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio civic file and Britannica’s life independently record the post-Pazzi infamy paintings. Official or archival record: Comune di Firenze — Palazzo Vecchio (https://cultura.comune.fi.it/pagina/musei-civici-fiorentini/palazzo-vecchio; Comune di Firenze). ## Significance A paid hanging-image on a government wall is a polarisation path. Confidence high on the payment heading, medium on the exact wall. ## What is established and what is not Established: 1478 payment for painting the traitors. Not established: a surviving autograph fresco or a unique riot series from the images. What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions. The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit. Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Sandro Botticelli. They are not a public rating. The driver `political-polarization` is attached because the mechanism named in Significance follows from this instrument, not because a standing list of welfare headings needed another tick. Sandro Botticelli did not file a later UNESCO form, a later Loeb colophon, or a later museum label as a personal act. A portrait or conventional bust is not this mechanism. Allegation, reconstruction, and established occurrence stay distinct. A lost infamy fresco is not Primavera. Keep 26 April’s killing distinct from 21 July’s paint. Keep the carrier date of later English distinct from the received historical year stored in the date field. Do not read a later English edition as a recovered autograph of Sandro Botticelli. ## People - Sandro Botticelli: https://factrail.ai/people/sandro-botticelli ## Drivers - Political Polarization: https://factrail.ai/drivers/political-polarization ## Sources - https://cultura.comune.fi.it/pagina/musei-civici-fiorentini/palazzo-vecchio - https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sandro-Botticelli ## Methodology https://factrail.ai/methodology Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/sb-pazzi-pittura-infamante-1478