The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)

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.

This large picture by Botticelli may have been, like the Primavera, painted for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici's Villa di Castello, around 1483, or even before. Some scholars suggest that the Venus painted for Lorenzo and mentioned by Giorgio Vasari may have been a different, now lost, work to the painting in the Uffizi. Some experts believe it to be a celebration of the love of Giuliano di Piero de' Medici (who died in the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478) for Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci, who lived in Portovenere, a town by the sea with a local tradition of being the birthplace of Venus. Whatever inspired the artist, there are clear similarities to Ovid's Metamorphoses and Fasti, as well as to Poliziano's Verses.

The classical Goddess Venus emerges from the water on a shell, blown towards shore by the Zephyrs, symbols of spiritual passions, and with one of the Ores, goddesses of the seasons, who hands her a flowered cloak. According to some commentators, the naked goddess isn't then a symbol of earthly but of spiritual love, like an ancient marble statue (which might have inspired the 18th century sculptor, Antonio Canova, by its candor), slim and long-limbed, with harmonious features.

The effect, nonetheless, is distinctly pagan considering it was made at a time and place when most artworks depicted Roman Catholic themes. It is somewhat surprising that this canvas escaped the flames of Savonarola's bonfires, where a number of Botticelli's other "pagan" influenced works perished.

The anatomy of Venus and various subsidiary details do not display the strict classical realism of Leonardo da Vinci or Raphael. Most obviously, Venus has an improbably long neck, and her left shoulder slopes at an anatomically unlikely angle. Such details, whether artistic errors or artistic licence, do little to diminish the great beauty of the painting, and some have suggested it prefigures mannerism.

Classical inspiration

The painting was one of a series which Botticelli was inspired to paint after written descriptions by the 2nd century historian Lucian of masterpieces of Ancient Greece which had long since disappeared by Botticelli's time. The ancient painting by Apelles was called Venus Anadyomene, "Anadyomene" meaning "rising from the sea"; this title was also used for Botticelli's painting, The Birth of Venus only becoming its better known title in the 19th century.

A mural from Pompeii was never seen by Botticelli, but may have been a Roman copy of the then famous painting by Apelles which Lucian mentioned.

In classical antiquity, the sea shell was a metaphor for a woman's vulva.

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.

Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" in literature

A subplot (chapter 7) of Thomas Pynchon's novel V. (1961) centers on an attempt to steal the painting from the Uffizi gallery in Florence. Rafael Mantissa, an exile from Venezuela, is more or less in love with Venus. While some correctly argue that this is not your regular motive for stealing a painting, this is an underscored point of the novel: the paradoxical relation of men to Woman. Men are attracted to Woman, but at the same time destroyed. However, all of this is perceived by one of the characters, Herbert Stencil, in his attempt to come to terms with loss through historical imagination and historiography - the famous 'historical chapters' in V..

Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" in popular culture

Reproductions and variations on Botticelli's famous painting have been numerous in popular culture, including in advertising and motion pictures:

A scene in the 1962 James Bond film Dr. No with Ursula Andress rising from the sea was inspired by the painting. The scene was recreated in more detail in the 1988 film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, with Uma Thurman as Venus.
On the Futurama episode, Love and Rocket, Bender shows the Planet Express ship (who is ranting about how his tax dollars are being used for what he considers "obscene art") the Venus de Venus, a (persumably nude) female blob monster on a clam.
Munchausen's director Terry Gilliam had previously featured the painting in an animated sequence in Monty Python's Flying Circus, segueing into the Dead Parrot sketch.
Adobe Illustrator used a stylized representation of the painting in its splash screen through version 10.
A stylized face of Venus is on the 10 cent Italian euro coins.

On the Simpsons episode The Last Temptation of Homer, Homer hallucinates The Birth of Venus upon first meeting his new female co-worker.
In the Herb Ritts-directed video for Mariah Carey's 1998 #1 single My All, Carey is seen lying in a shell and in front of flowers in poses inspired by the painting.
In the episode The Secret Snake Club in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Irwin makes a painting that has Mandy's head as a replacement of Venus's head.
The "Kilgore Trout" novel Venus on the Half-Shell is titled from a jocular nickname for the painting.
In the 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, Eva Herzigová appears as Venus from a shell.
From Joni Mitchell's 1991 album "Night Ride Home." In the song "The Only Joy In Town," the opening lyrics are, "I want to paint a picture Botticelli style, Instead of Venus on a clam I'd paint this flower child".
In the game Animal Crossing, a painting of Venus can be obtained as an item.
In Cycle 5 of America's Next Top Model, one contestant had to pose as Venus for one of the challenges.
In the XTC song "Then She Appeared", Andy Partridge sings, "Apple Venus on a half-open shell". The band also released two volumes titled "Apple Venus".
The cover of Robert Heinlein's novel "To Sail Beyond the Sunset" depicts the main character, Maureen, in a manner reminiscent of Birth of Venus.
Motorola used a Venus-like figure to promote their Moto Pebl handset in 2006.
In the 40th episode The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy titled The Secret Snake Club, Mandy contemplates what Macrame Club with Irwin would be like. In her thoughts, Mandy sees Irwin holding a macrame tapestry that he made with the image of Botticelli's Birth of Venus with her own head in place of the head of Venus.
Online interactive 3D reproduction of "The Birth of Venus" by Craig Dunning ^*.

Botticelli paintings | Venus types | 1486 paintings | Collections of the Uffizi

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Classical inspiration

Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" in literature

Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" in popular culture