How are you?
On every Thursday, I am introducing the stories about various artists and
their paintings with the title “Interesting Art Stories”.
The 33rd story for this week is “The Birth of Venus” by the Italian
artist Sandro Botticelli.
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| Sandro Botticelli |
“The Birth of Venus” is a painting by the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli in the mid-1480s. It depicts the goddess Venus born from the sea, called "Venus Anadyomene", arriving at the shore.
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| The Birth of Venus, William-Adolphe Bouguerea (1879) |
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| A Pompeian mural of Venus Anadyomene |
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| The Birth of Venus, Alexandre Cabanel (1863) |
This painting is often discussed alongside another painting by Botticelli, the “Primavera”, both of which are among the world's most famous paintings and icons of the Italian Renaissance.
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| Primavera, Sandro Botticelli |
Commissioned by Lorenzo de Medici, this painting is virtually
unprecedented in Western art since classical antiquity in the size and
prominence of a nude female figure. It is very accessible and enjoys enormous
popularity with its straightforward meaning and traditional scene from Greek
mythology.
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| Lorenzo de Medici |
In the center of the
painting, the newly-born goddess Venus stands naked in a giant scallop shell.
At the left side, Zephyr, the god of wind, is blowing wind at her, holding a
young female floating in the air and blowing a much weaker wind together.
Giorgio Vasari assumed her as "Aura", who personified
"breeze". They blow the wind to move Venus towards the shore, and the
female's hair and clothes on the right side are blown by the wind they are
blowing.
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| Giorgio Vasari |
At the right, a female, who
seems to be floating slightly above the ground, is holding a cloak or clothes
to cover Venus when she arrives at the shore. She is one of the Horae, the
goddesses of the seasons in Greek mythology, and the floral decoration of her
clothes suggests that she is the Hora of Spring.
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Dionysus leading the Horae (Neo-Attic Roman relief, 1st century) |
However, the two female figures in the painting are also interpreted as other characters appearing in Botticelli’s "Primavera". The female Zephyr is holding may be Chloris, a flower nymph married to him, and the female on land may be Flora. Flora is generally equivalent to the Greek Chloris in Roman mythology.
Strictly
speaking, the subject of this painting is not the "Birth of Venus",
the title of the painting, but rather the next scene in her story, where she
arrives on land, blown by the wind. In this painting, the land where Venus
arrived might represent either Cythera or Cyprus, both Mediterranean islands
that the Greeks regard as territories of Venus.
In addition to this painting, Botticelli also portrayed Venus in other paintings. The Galleria Sabauda in Turin has "Venus", which contrasted against a dark background, while partially wearing a light- blouse with a pose similar to Venus in this painting. There is another painting of Venus in Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.
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Venus, Sandro Botticelli, Galleria Sabauda, Turin, Italy (c.1485) |
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Venus, Workshop of Botticelli, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (c.1490) |
Later, Botticelli adapted the figure of Venus for a nude
personification of "Truth" in his "Calumny of Apelles", in
which Venus is raising one hand, pointing to heaven for justification, and the
figure's gaze also looks upwards.
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The Calumny of Apelles, Sandro Botticelli (1494–95) |
It is claimed that Venus in this painting was modeled after Simonetta Vespucci, who was praised as the best beauty in Italy at the time.
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| Simonetta Vespucci |
However, this painting aroused the ire of Girolamo Savonarola, an Italian Dominican friar who attacked the fundamentalist in Florence, who liked secular tastes.
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| Girolamo Savonarola |
As a result, one of the actions he took was
the "Bonfire of the Vanities" in 1497, which burned “profane” objects
such as cosmetics, artworks, books on a pyre. At the time, this painting was
also scheduled for incineration, but it managed to escape destruction.
Unfortunately, however, other Venus paintings by Botticelli seems to have been
destroyed during the incident. Botticelli was so surprised by the incident that
he even gave up painting for a while.
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| Bernardino of Siena organising the vanities bonfire, Perugia |
Currently, this painting is
in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.
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| Uffizi Gallery |
Thank you.
