Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli
Between 1482 and 1485
Uffizi Gallery, Florence
The “Birth of Venus” is one of Botticelli’s most famous works and one of the most popular paintings in the world. It is believed that the paintings was commissioned by Lorenzo de Medici and Botticelli started it after his return from Rome, where he worked on several paintings in Sistine Chapel.
This painting is a representation of a mythological subject, Botticelli was inspired from the Homeric hymns (Ομηρικοί Ύμνοι) and Greek mythology, the Greek scolar Demetrios Chalcocondyles (Δημήτριος Χαλκοκονδύλης) at the time had published many works of Homer, and the narrative poem Metamorphoses (Metamorphoseon libri) by Ovid. Botticelli was as well inspired by Angelo Poliziano’s poem “Stanze per la Giostra” where a very similar scene with that of the painting takes place.
According to the myth, as described in Hesiod’s “Theogony” (“Θεογονία” Ησιόδου), Venus was born when the water was fertilized after the castration of Uranus from his son Cronus. As seen in the painting, Venus emerged from the sea. Hesiod states that Venus or Aphrodite was created from the sea foam, that’s why she was given the name Aphrodite which means risen from the foam (aphros/αφρός in Greek means foam). It is also said that after her birth she was landed either in Paphos in Cyprus or in Kithira, a Greek island, what’s why usually she is also called as Lady of Cyprus or Kithira.
In the painting we can see her arriving to the shores of Paphos or Kithira on a big shell, she was led there (as you can see to the left side of the painting) by Zephyrus the God of the west wind that holds in his hands Aura, a Celestial nymph that her name means light breeze. You can see that the wind is blowing foul of flowers. On the right side of the painting, one of the three Horae Thallo (Θαλλώ), the goddess of spring, appears. The Horae (Οι Ώρες) where the goddess of season and time. Hora of spring is waiting for Venus in the shore to wrap her with a cloak, it is said that the flowers in the cloak are violets, a flower that was used in love potions.
The “Birth of Venus” is an allegory and symbolizes divide love and beauty, beauty that is both physical and spiritual. Love and virtue together can make a supreme unite. According to the Neoplatonic conception, which is the combination of Greek philosophy and the Christian teaching, the painting depicts the birth of love and grace, the birth of beauty and soul, because spiritual beauty is as important as physical beauty and the combination of the two can create the divine.
Finally, it is important to mention that this masterpiece escaped from the “bonfire of the vanities” in 1497 in the Piazza della Signoria that was created by Savonarola, a Dominican monk and preacher, where things like books, paintings, sculptures, mirrors and jewelries were burnt. Fortunately for us one of the greatest Renaissance paintings was saved.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-paintings/birth-of-venus.htm
The picture was taken by me in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence during my visit there.