Sandro Botticelli was born in Florence, Italy. He showed a talent for painting at a very early age. The young Sandro was also influenced by the Pollaiolo brothers, and their emotive force, and by Verrocchio and his use of color. He is recognized as one of the most important artists of the Italian Renaissance. His paintings of Primavera and The Birth of Venus, both in Florence's Uffizi Galleries, were painted for the Medici and exemplify the rise of secularism, the depiction of mythological and classical subjects in addition to the religious subjects commissioned by the Church.