She is one of the three Horae or Hours, Greek minor goddesses of the seasons and of other divisions of time, and attendants of Venus. Īt the right a female figure who may be floating slightly above the ground holds out a rich cloak or dress to cover Venus when she reaches the shore, as she is about to do. Their joint efforts are blowing Venus towards the shore, and blowing the hair and clothes of the other figures to the right. Vasari was probably correct in identifying her as " Aura", personification of a lighter breeze. He is in the air, and carries a young female, who is also blowing, but less forcefully. At the left the wind god Zephyrus blows at her, with the wind shown by lines radiating from his mouth. The size of the shell is purely imaginary, and is also found in classical depictions of the subject. In the centre the newly born goddess Venus stands nude in a giant scallop shell. Description and subject The Hora of Spring While there are subtleties in the painting, its main meaning is a straightforward, if individual, treatment of a traditional scene from Greek mythology, and its appeal is sensory and very accessible, hence its enormous popularity. Most art historians agree, however, that the Birth does not require complex analysis to decode its meaning, in the way that the Primavera probably does. They have been endlessly analysed by art historians, with the main themes being: the emulation of ancient painters and the context of wedding celebrations (generally agreed), the influence of Renaissance Neo-Platonism (somewhat controversial), and the identity of the commissioners (not agreed). It used to be thought that they were both commissioned by the same member of the Medici family, but this is now uncertain. As depictions of subjects from classical mythology on a very large scale they were virtually unprecedented in Western art since classical antiquity, as was the size and prominence of a nude female figure in the Birth. They are among the most famous paintings in the world, and icons of Italian Renaissance painting of the two, the Birth is better known than the Primavera.
The painting is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.Īlthough the two are not a pair, the painting is inevitably discussed with Botticelli's other very large mythological painting, the Primavera, also in the Uffizi. It depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth, when she had emerged from the sea fully-grown (called Venus Anadyomene and often depicted in art).
The Birth of Venus ( Italian: Nascita di Venere ) is a painting by the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli, probably executed in the mid 1480s. Uffizi, Florence Detail: the face of Venus Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus (c. For other uses, see The Birth of Venus (disambiguation).
0 kommentar(er)
