The Birth of Venus
| The Birth of Venus | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Artist | Sandro Botticelli |
| Year | c. 1486 |
| Type | tempera on canvas |
| Location | Uffizi, Florence |
The Birth of Venus is a painting by Sandro Botticelli. It depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as a full grown woman, arriving at the sea-shore (which is related to the Venus Anadyomene motif). The painting is held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Origins
In the past many scholars thought that this large picture may have been, like the Primavera, painted for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici's Villa di Castello, around 1482, or even before. This was because Vasari, in his 1550 edition of the Lives of the Artists wrote: "...today, still at Castello, in the villa of the Duke Cosimo, there are two paintings, one the birth of Venus and those breezes and winds that bring her to land with the loves, and likewise another Venus, whom the Graces adorn with flowers, denoting the Springtime."[1] But the Birth of Venus, unlike the Primavera,is not found in Medici inventories of the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries,[2] which has led some recent scholars to rethink the patronage, and hence the meaning, of the painting. In the last 30 years most art historians have dated the painting, based on its stylistic qualities, to c. 1485-87.
Interpretation
The iconography of Birth of Venus is very similar to a description of the event (or rather, a description of a sculpture of the event) in a poem by Angelo Poliziano, the Stanze per la giostra.[3] No single text provides the precise content of the painting, however, which has led scholars to propose many sources and interpretations.[4] Art historians who specialize in the Italian Renaissance have found a Neoplatonic interpretation, which was most clearly articulated by Ernst Gombrich, to be the most enduring way to understand the painting.
For Plato - and so for the members of the Florentine Platonic Academy - Venus had two aspects: she was an earthy goddess who aroused humans to physical love or she was a heavenly goddess who inspired intellectual love in them. Plato further argued that contemplation of physical beauty allowed the mind to better understand spiritual beauty. So, looking at Venus, the most beautiful of goddesses, might at first raise a physical response in viewers which then lifted their minds towards the Creator.[5] A Neoplatonic reading of Botticelli's Birth of Venus suggests that fifteenth-century viewers would have looked at the painting and felt their minds lifted to the realm of divine love.
More recently, questions have arisen about Neoplatonism as the dominant intellectual system of late fifteenth-century Florence,[6] and scholars have indicated that there might be other ways to interpret Botticelli's mythological paintings. In particular, both Primavera and Birth of Venus have been seen as wedding paintings that suggest appropriate behaviors for brides and grooms.[7]
Style
Botticelli's art was never fully committed to naturalism - if one compares his paintings to those of his contemporary, Domenico Ghirlandaio, one finds that Botticelli seldom gives convicing weight and volume to his figures and rarely uses a deep perspectival space. Birth of Venus is, however, a very unreal painting, even for Botticelli. Venus's body is anatomically improbable, with elongated neck and torso. Her pose is impossible; although she stands in a classical contrapposto stance, her weight is shifted too far over the left leg for the pose to be held. Moreover, were she actually to stand on the edge of the shell (which cannot be identified as real), it would certainly tip over. The bodies and poses of the winds to the left are even harder to figure out. The background is summary, and the figures cast no shadows. It is clear that this is a fantasy image.
It is also clear that the painting is meant to be beautiful. Venus is an Italian Renaissance ideal: blonde, pale-skinned, voluptuous. Botticelli has picked out highlights in her hair with gold leaf and has emphasized the femininity of her body (long neck, curviness). The brilliant light and soothing colors, the luxurious garden, the gorgeous draperies of the nymph, and the roses floating around the beautiful nude all suggest that the painting is meant to bring pleasure to the viewer.
Classical inspiration
The central figure of Venus in the painting is very similar to Praxiteles' sculpture of Aphrodite. The version of her birth, is where she arises from the sea foam, already a full woman.
In classical antiquity, the sea shell was a metaphor for a woman's vulva.[8]
The pose of Botticelli's Venus is reminiscent of the Venus de' Medici, a marble sculpture from classical antiquity in the Medici collection which Botticelli had opportunity to study.
In popular culture
Reproductions and variations on Botticelli's famous painting have been numerous in popular culture. A notable example was Uma Thurman as Venus in the 1988 film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen recreating the painting.[9] The painting is colloquially called "Venus on the Half Shell," referring to seafood on the half-shell (as in Oysters Rockefeller); a novel entitled Venus on the Half-Shell by Philip Jose Farmer (under the pseudonym Kilgore Trout) was first published in 1975.[10]
Notes
- ^ Giorgio Vasari, Le vite de' piu eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori, ed. Gaetano Milanesi, Florence, 1906, III, 312.
- ^ John Shearman, "The Collections of the Younger Branch of the Medici," Burlington Magazine, CXVII (1975) 12-27.
- ^ Stanze de Messer Angelo Poliziano cominciate per la giostra del magnifico Giuliano di Pietro de Medici, I 99, 101, trans. David L. Quint, University Park, PA, 1979.
- ^ Among many interpretations start with: Aby Warburg, The Renewal of Pagan Antiquity, trans. David Britt, Los Angeles, 1999, 405-431; Ernst H. Gombrich, "Botticelli's Mythologies: A Study in the Neoplatonic Symbolism of his circle," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 8 (1945) 7-60; Ronald Lightbown, Botticelli: Life and Work, New York, 1989, 152-163; Frank Zollner, Botticelli: Images of Love and Spring, Munich, 1998, 82-91.
- ^ Plato, Symposium, 180-181, 210.
- ^ James Hankins, "The Myth of the Platonic Academy of Florence," Renaissance Quarterly, 44 (1991) 429-475.
- ^ Lilian Zirpolo, "Botticelli's Primavera: a Lesson for the Bride," Woman's Art Journal, 12/2 1991; Jane C. Long, "Botticelli's Birth of Venus as Wedding Painting," Aurora, 9 (2008) 1-26.
- ^ Clair, Jean. "Picasso érotique". Prestel, 2001. 71. ISBN 3-7913-2561-2
- ^ Lumenick, Lou. "Terry Gilliam Tripping the Light Fantastic." The Record (New Jersey), March 10, 1989.
- ^ Graham, Mark. "Specialty Bookshelf, March 14. Science Fiction. 'Venus on the Half-Shell and Others'." Rocky Mountain News, March 14, 2008.
External links
- The Medici Venus - Greek statue, template for Botticelli's Venuss JVATZ
- Neoplatonic interpretation of the Birth of Venus
- Birth of Venus and Detailed Biography
