The Birth of Venus is probably the most famous of Botticelli's
paintings (not least due to good advertising by Adobe
;)) and for many people it is the symbol of Medici Florentine
art. The origin and patron of the painting are unknown,
but by the 16th century it could be found together with
the Primavera in the
Castello villa of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici.
The title of the painting is an invention of the 19th
century when it was believed to be based on work by the
ancient painter Apelles who was fond of the subject Venus
Anadiomene (arising from the sea). It is now believed
that it was inspired by the writing of Virgil and Homer,
and like the Primavera, by the verses of Poliziano,
a Botticelli contemporary. According to this interpretation,
it tells the story of Venus' arrival at the island of
Kythera or Cyprus. The shell that she travels upon is
pushed by the wind of Zephyrus and Aura and she is welcomed
by a girl wearing a gown embroidered with flowers or daisies,
possibly one of the Three Graces. Ingres the great French
painter claimed that the face of this Grace was the most
beautiful ever painted. It is believed that the figures
of Zephyrus and Aura were inspired by the famous Tazza
Farnese which was at the time in the collection of
Lorenzo the Magnificent. Venus' pose is reportedly inspired
by the archetypal Chaste Venus of antiquity. The
painting overall represents the fusion of Spirit and Matter.
There is much evidence to link this painting with the
earlier Primavera,
in terms of it's composition. The trees, flowers and landscape
in each are almost identical, except that one is a seascape
and the other is a garden. The same figures appear in
each painting, with slight variations, sometimes suggested
to symbolise the changing seasons. There is one hitch
with this reasoning, and that is that it presumes that
this work tells the story of the Venus' birth, a theory
which has since been disproved. However its not unreasonable
to suggest that Botticelli intended the two paintings
as a pair in homage to Venus and all that she stood for
in Renaissance humanist philosophies.
However one interprets it, it is now an icon of Renaissance
art.
