Botticelli's famous painting of The Birth of Venus was executed in the middle of the 1480s. At the start of the 16th century, the painting hung together with A detail of the Hora holding out a cloak for Venus from Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, c. 1485; Sandro Botticelli, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Substitute Florence for Italy and the Medicis for the Borgias and it would still be an accurate assessment. British author Dunant ( Mapping the Edge, 2001, etc.) weaves everyone’s favorite art history moments into a vivid tapestry of life on the Arno during the upheaval of the Renaissance.

Shea, Andrea (April 14, 2017). "What 'Venus', Now At The MFA, Can Teach Us About Renaissance Painter Sandro Botticelli". The ARTery. WBUR-FM . Retrieved 2017-04-24.

Venus was also regarded in Neo-Platonic thought as a symbol for physical and spiritual love as described by the ancient Greek philosopher, Plato. It is believed that the Birth of Venus painting was meant to elicit a contemplative response in viewers. In other words, when viewing Venus, her physical beauty portrayed would be a reminder of the ideas of divine love.Having a large standing female nude as the central focus was unprecedented in post-classical Western painting, and certainly drew on the classical sculptures which were coming to light in this period, especially in Rome, where Botticelli had spent 1481–82 working on the walls of the Sistine Chapel. [38] The pose of Botticelli's Venus follows the Venus Pudica ("Venus of Modesty") type from classical antiquity, where the hands are held to cover the breasts and groin; in classical art this is not associated with the new-born Venus Anadyomene. What became a famous example of this type is the Venus de' Medici, a marble sculpture that was in a Medici collection in Rome by 1559, which Botticelli may have had opportunity to study (the date it was found is unclear). [39] 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; Wind, Chapter VIII; Lightbown, 152–163; Frank Zollner, Botticelli: Images of Love and Spring, Munich, 1998, 82–91. Botticelli's art was never fully committed to naturalism; in comparison to his contemporary Caravaggio, Botticelli seldom gave weight and volume to his The laurel trees at right and laurel wreath worn by the Hora are punning references to the name "Lorenzo", though it is uncertain whether Lorenzo il Magnifico, the effective ruler of Florence, or his young cousin Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco is meant. In the same way the flowers in the air around Zephyr and on the textiles worn and carried by the Hora evoke the name of Florence. [33] Literary sources [ edit ] Roman fresco from the "House of Venus" in Pompeii, 1st century AD

Unlike his contemporaries such as Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli chose to delve further into the past for his subject matter in the "Birth of Venus." While da Vinci was sourcing Botticelli was believed to have been influenced by Poliziano because both had some sort of involvement with members of the Medici family at the time.More than a decade later, Botticelli adapted the figure of Venus for a nude personification of "Truth" in his Calumny of Apelles. Here one hand is raised, pointing to heaven for justification, and the figure's gaze also looks upwards; the whole effect is very different. [52] These shapes suggest the idea of waves and create more dynamism to the painting, especially near the rim of Venus’ shell by her feet, where the water is painted in curling splashes. Here’s the premise: fourteen-year-old Alessandra is the oddball of her fifteenth century Florence family. She’s not beautiful, as her sister and two brothers are, she’s not content to follow the prescribed duty for a well-to-do woman and either marry and push out babies, or take herself to a nunnery, she’s been educated and she has artistic talent. Her drawing is a secret, abetted by her slave maid, Erila. She yearns for freedom, but is constrained by the need to remain virginal. But when her father employs a painter from the north to paint the family chapel, Alessandra is drawn to him, despite the prohibitions on both of them. No real surprises in the romance department, but the depiction of Florence as Tehran under the Ayatollah is an eye-opener. The painting is recreated in one scene from the 1988 Terry Gilliam film, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. [54]

The painting is large, but slightly smaller than the Primavera, and where that is a panel painting, this is on the cheaper support of canvas. Canvas was increasing in popularity, perhaps especially for secular paintings for country villas, which were decorated more simply, cheaply and cheerfully than those for city palazzi, being designed for pleasure more than ostentatious entertainment. [10] A detail of Venus from Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, c. 1485; Sandro Botticelli, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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A young Florentine girl, Alessandra Cecchi, is drawn to a young painter commissioned to paint the family's chapel walls. The painter is brought to her home by her father, a rich textile merchant whose business would be negatively affected by the rise of Girolamo Savonarola in Florence over the next few years. The book follows Alessandra's daily life, and is written in the first person, as a memoir written by Alessandra late in her life. Her passion for painting and learning serve her well, but her family does not approve. Her mother tries her hardest to shape Alessandra into a woman who will be desired by a successful and powerful man. Eventually, after Alessandra has met the painter, but before her feelings for him and his talent have made themselves known to her, her hateful brother Tomaso suggests strong but quiet Cristoforo Langella as a potential husband for her. She marries him shortly afterward. Clark, 92, 96–97; Lightbown, 160, "the first surviving celebration of the beauty of the female nude represented for its own perfection rather than with erotic or moral or religious overtones." Modern technological testing reveals some of the revisions the artist made on his way to the final artwork. The Hora, or Spring goddess, to the right of Venus once wore sandals. The hair of Venus, Zephyr to her left and