Birth of Venus

"The figures of Botticelli are less solid. They do not have the correctness of the design of those of Pollaiolo or Masaccio. His graceful movements and his melodious lines are reminiscent of the Gothic tradition, perhaps even the art of the fourteenth century". (Ernst Gombrich)

Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, 1485, tempera on canvas, Uffizi Gallery, Florence

An iconic work of the Renaissance, so much so that the face of the goddess is about ten cents, it represents a universal ideal of female beauty through the exaltation of classical beauty and purity of the soul, features highlighted by the light colors of the goddess's complexion.

According to the writings of Vasari (1550) the client could be Lorenzo de 'Medici, former principal of the Primavera, to complete the cycle of which Pallas and the Centaur (Uffizi) and Venus and Mars (National Gallery of London) were part, even if the first time it appears in the family inventory and with Cosimo I de 'Medici who may have inherited or purchased it directly.

The literary sources of the myth derive from Hesiod's Theogony and Lucretius's De rerum natura. Contrary to the title, it does not represent the birth of Venus, but her landing on the island of Cyprus or Kythera, even if roses fall from the sky (legend has it that happened when Venus was born).

The goddess floating on a shell along the surface of the sea is pushed by the breath of Zephyr, the fecundating wind of passion, embraced by a female figure, the nymph Clori or the Aura breeze (Stanze del Poliziano), symbolizing the physicality of the act of love. Waiting for Venus is her chaste handmaid (goddess Flora or one of the Graces) with a dress of flowers and garlands (roses and cornflowers that the goddess Flora found near the body of her beloved Cyanus) and a pink cloak in her hand embroidered with flowers to cover the goddess. The attitude of the goddess Venus derives from the Hellenistic composition of Venus pudica, that is, with her breasts and belly covered by her arms and the Anadiomene, rising from the sea foam, of which the Medici owned a statue.

The landscape in the background is characterized by inlets and promontories that lead to a grove of orange trees illuminated in gold. Fruit with therapeutic properties alluding to the Medici lineage.

The uninterrupted and marked outlines of the figures enhance the pure value of the line and allow the observer not to dwell on a single detail, but to grasp the painting in its entirety. Light is spiritual illumination, it has no sources and does not shape the figures or enhance the colors. In accordance with the Neoplatonic theories, Botticelli proposes a contemplative painting, in fact it lacks a real perspective structure that would have made us lose the ideal of perfection. The reality is not reconstructed, but all the proportions of the body of Venus reflect the golden section. The most accredited interpretation of this painting is precisely of a philosophical nature: it proposes a comparison between classical and Christian culture, it is no coincidence that the composition recalls that tradition of the Baptism of Christ in which Flora could identify with Saint John the Baptist who towards the water on the head of Jesus.