Day 6 of our Art Blogmas is dedicated to one of the Italian Renaissance masterpieces, Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. Keep on reading to learn more about that fantastic painting.
Art Blogmas 2021
The theme of this year’s Culture Tourist’s Art Blogmas is the most iconic paintings from European museums. And one of the first paintings coming to everyone’s mind when talking about the most famous masterpieces of Western art history is Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus.
⤷ Read more: European museums you have to visit this year
Sandro Botticelli: The Birth of Venus
⤷ Where is it? Uffizi Gallery, Florence
This painting is one of the most important works of the Italian Renaissance, made in the mid-1480s. It’s also one of the first large scale paintings created after the Antiquity with a theme from Classical mythology. Central nude figure is also something that hasn’t been seen in Western art since Old Rome.
Its title, The Birth of Venus, was given to the painting in the nineteenth century, and it’s not entirely correct. The image represents the events shortly after she was born when she’s travelling towards the shore.
Botticelli painted Venus coming to the shore after being born. She is represented as a young woman standing in a giant shell. On the left, the wind god Zephyr and Aura, a personification of a lighter wind, are blowing into her. They are trying to move her closer to the shore. The wind is represented by the horizontal lines between them and Venus. On the right is a female person waiting for her with a dress Venus will wear.
There are some other interpretations of who the female figures could also represent. But, the majority of researchers agree with this one.
Although Sandro Botticelli is one of the most notable Renaissance painters, something medieval is still present in his art. Looking at Venus’ proportions, she’s a bit elongated. And with the many floral and ornamental motives, his artworks owns so much to the decorativeness of the Middle Ages.
⤷ Read more: Best exhibitions in Autumn & Winter 2021
If you don’t want to miss other paintings I will share with you in this year’s Art Blogmas, be sure to check in here tomorrow at 7:30 am. Or, follow along on the Culture Tourist Facebook page and Instagram profile.