Analysis of The Birth of Venus (1484-86) by Sandro Botticelli

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29 07 2021
The Birth of Venus (1484-86)-Sandro Botticelli
The Birth of Venus, done by an Italian artist, Sandro Botticelli, between 1484-86, was the first non-religious, full-length nude painting since the antiquity era and was created for Lorenzo de Medici, the de facto Florentine Republic ruler. Currently found in The Uffizi Museum in Florence, Italy, the symbol of the Goddess of Love depicted on the painting is claimed to have been inspired by Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci, Marco Vespucci's wife. She charmed the Medici brothers, Lorenzo and Giuliano. There is a high possibility that the art was commissioned by one of the Medici family members. However, no literature about the painting exists before 1550, when Giorgio Vasari illustrates it after finding the artwork in the Medici's Villa of Castello, a Medici family cadet branch's residence in the mid-fifteenth century. The theory is possibly informed by the orange trees in the artwork, which was considered the Medici family emblem, on account of the rhyming of their family name with the orange tree's name, "mala medica." Although Botticelli's paintings focused on mythology and symbolism, he also adored the idealism of women. His belief transcended natural beauty, and he depicted flawless women as in The Birth of Venus` case.
Unlike Botticelli's Primavera, or the Allegory of Spring, painted on wood, the Birth of Venus, was painted with tempera on canvas, a popular medium used by artists for decorative artworks intended for noble houses throughout the 15th century. Moreover, the canvas was preferred by secular artists since it was cheaper than the wood used in court and church pictures. In this artwork, Botticelli derives inspiration from classical statues in the Medici gardens and incorporates it into the girl's (Venus) reserved pose. Besides, even the embracing pair flying towards Venus and the winds borrows from a gem in the Hellenistic era, an antique work owned by Lorenzo the Magnificent. Generally, in all his paintings, Botticelli usually concocted tempera pigments with a bit of fat and coated them with a pure egg-white layer in an unusual method for his time. The process always yielded a fresco-like artwork in its pure brightness and freshness. Being Renaissance Florence's first large-scale canvas artwork, Botticelli employed various techniques in painting Venus. In the Birth of Venus, to achieve different effects, he used tempera mixed with oil (tempera grassa) to produce stronger, fuller, and more opaque colors. The result was a magnificent piece of art with well-defined object outlines.
The artwork portrays Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, being swayed gently ashore on a giant clamshell by Zephyrus and Aura (the wind gods) on the island of Cyprus. On land, she is awaited by a young woman, often classified as the Hora or the Graces of Spring, holding a flowery silken cloak to cover her nakedness. Momentarily, the cloak intended to cover Venus is blown by the same wind propelling her ashore. She is portrayed in a demure and yet pliant pose in her nudity, surrounded by the magnificent and long ribbons of golden hair. The roses being blown in by the wind signify the Spring season. During the Florentine Renaissance, nudity symbolized innocence and purity. In depicting Venus in the painting, her nakedness represented the "Celestial Venus" goddess version which paradoxically, signified love derived from the contemplation of eternity and divinity. In summary, she symbolized sacred love rather than mundane, sexualized love. Although it is a secular artwork, the painting's overall compositional structure is derived from the conventions of the Baptism of Christ painted by Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea del Verrocchio.
In this mythology, it is claimed that Venus was born as a mature woman by the sea. She was conceived after her father, the god Uranus, was castrated by his son Titan Cronus. After which, the detached genitals fell into the enormous sea, and fertilization took place. In the mythical story, Venus was considered a woman who symbolized the idealized woman version. At nearly three meters wide, it is believed that the painting, which acclaims Venus as a figure of beauty and love, was maybe proposed by the Florentine Renaissance poet, Agnolo (Angelo) Poliziano....