"The Birth of Venus" Botticelli: hidden symbols in the picture

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Painting "The Birth of Venus" is one of the most famous and recognized works of art in the world, a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance. The heroine is a charming model and muse Simonetta Vespucci, who is surrounded by many symbolic and mythological elements in the picture. What do the flowers and other symbols in the picture mean?

Writing history

Botticelli wrote The Birth of Venus between 1484-85 and this work became a landmark of 15th century painting, rich in its allegorical references. The painting was commissioned by a member of the Florentine Medici family, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, who was a distant relative of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici also commissioned the artist to illustrate Dante's Divine Comedy and Allegory of Spring. The painting "The Birth of Venus" adorned the bedroom of its client in a villa in Castello, near Florence.

Simonetta Vespucci

The charming model and muse, who inspired many artists, including Botticelli, was a famous young blonde from Florence. Simonetta Vespucci is the wife of Marco Vespucci, cousin of the famous Amerigo Vespucci, whose name was given to the new continent of America. Simonetta was a legendary beauty, and the Medici were obsessed with her, openly showing their admiration despite her married status. Simonetta died very young, at the age of 23, and is buried in the church of Ognissanti in Florence.

The plot of the picture

In the painting, in a mythologized form, Botticelli praises the union of the spiritual and the material, the heavenly and the earthly. The presentation of mythological motives was a major trend during the Renaissance. Allegories drawn from classical culture, the gods of Olympus and mythology have been used to express humanistic values. And Florence was just the center of humanistic research. Venus Humanitas - Human Venus - is born among the elements of nature. A triumphant goddess of love and beauty, the Romans knew her as Venus, and to the Greeks, she was Aphrodite. Venus, according to the Greek poet Hesiod, who wrote Theogony, was born from sea foam. Venus is enchantingly seductive with its feminine sloping shoulders, delicate shapes, expressive arms and lush hair., captivating portraits of which were left by many artists (including Piero di Cosimo and Botticelli himself). Despite the unusual size of her body - an elongated neck and a long left arm - Venus Botticelli is an incredibly beautiful woman with smooth, delicate skin and golden curls. She lifts her leg to step off her gilded shell as the wind floods her with flowers. She was born to the world as a goddess of beauty, and the viewer witnesses this act of creation.

Other heroes of the picture

After birth, Venus came ashore in a shell, repelled by the breath of Zephyr, the god of the wind. In the picture we see Zephyr hugging the nymph Flora. Zephyr's breath was believed to have the ability to fertilize and create new life. His hug with a nymph symbolizes an act of love. On the right is a maid (Ora), ready to wrap a cloak decorated with spring flowers around Venus to cover her nakedness. She is the embodiment of one of the Greek goddesses of the seasons (the floral decoration of her dress suggests that she is the goddess of Spring).

Writing technique

It is worth mentioning the exceptional technique and the excellent materials used to get the job done. For a long time, wood panels were the most popular for painting and will remain popular until the end of the 16th century. The canvas gradually gained additional popularity. It cost less than wood and was considered less formal and more suitable for private customers. Botticelli used expensive alabaster in the process of painting, which made the colors even brighter and better. In addition, the painting has its own unique designs of the artist: Botticelli prepared his pigments with a very low fat content and covered them with a layer of pure egg white, which was an unusual technique for his time. Thanks to this technique, Botticelli's paintings, with their freshness and brightness, rather resemble a fresco. Thus, it is the first work done on canvas in Tuscany and "the first large-scale canvas created during the Renaissance in Florence."

Symbolism

1. Conch - reflects the oceanic origin of Venus, symbolically uniting with the birth of man. The seashell beauty, as well as its smaller sister, the river shell, is a water and moon sign, as well as a female symbol. It is also an emblem of love, marriage and prosperity. 2. Zephyr - god of wind. 3. Flora is the wife of the god of the west wind Zephyr and the mother of all plants. She is the one who nourishes and gives life. The union of Zephyr and Flora is often viewed as an allegory of the unity of carnal (Flora) and spiritual (Zephyr) love. The reed is a symbol of the modesty of Venus, which, as it were, is ashamed of its beauty. 5. Ora Tallo - in Greek mythology, one of the Or (spring), the goddess of flowering plants6. Violets - the meadow is covered with violets, a symbol of modesty, but often used for love potions. 7. Rose - a white rose is a "flower of light", a symbol of innocence, virginity, chastity and purity, spiritual revelation, charm. 8. The island to which Venus arrives is Cyprus or Sitkhereya. 9. The orange tree is one of the most prolific trees and an ancient symbol of fertility. Orange is associated with splendor and love. 10. Daisy is a symbol of love, spring and fertility.