The theme of the Birth of Venus was taken from the writings of the ancient poet, Homer. ‘The Birth of Venus’ is a masterpiece of the Renaissance that is flooded with allegorical references to antiquity. The Birth of Venus is painted when Botticelli was under the patronage of the Medici family. The other mythological One that never ceases to capture our imaginations. According to the traditional account, after Venus was born, she rode on a seashell and sea foam to the island of Cythera. Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, c. 1485, tempera on canvas, 172.5 x 278.5 cm (Uffizi Gallery, Florence). At the official Salon, another female nude was however received in triumph – it was Alexandre Cabanel's La Naissance de Vénus (The Birth of Venus). antiquity, The Birth of Venus(Nascita di Venere) belongs to the group of mythological pictures painted by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) in the 1480s, following his return from Rome after completing three fresco paintingsin the Sistine Chapel for Pope Sixtus IV. But the beauty of Venus — the pagan goddess of love and the main subject of the painting — never fails to amaze its audience no matter how many times they look at this magnum opus. The Birth of Venus depicts a moment from the Greek myth in which Kronos severs Uranus’s genitals and throws them into the sea; Venus, or Aphrodite, emerges fully formed from the foam of a cresting wave. The Birth of Venus was commissioned by the Medici family and belonged to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici. Botticelli The Birth of Venus is one of the most famous paintings of all time. It is not clear about the exact date or year of the creation of the painting and is generally believed to be done in the 1480s. The Primavera, or Allegory of Spring, and The Birth of Venus were painted for the home of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici. Carried by a shell, the goddess drifts to shore in Cyprus. Here we take a closer look at this masterpiece and some of the fascinating stories that surround it. Paris, France The Birth of Venus was one of the great successes of the 1863 Salon, where it was bought by Napoleon III. 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. The artwork was not done with typical oil painting … In the painting we see here, Venus is prominently depicted in the … Botticelli painted the Birth of Venus between 1484-85. https://www.amazon.com/Birth-Venus-Novel-Readers-Circle/dp/0812968972 Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris. In The Birth of Venus, Venus' body is anatomically improbable, with elongated neck and torso. Other articles where The Birth of Venus is discussed: Sandro Botticelli: Mythological paintings: 1485), and The Birth of Venus (c. 1485). This painting depicts a story by Hesiod, which describes what happens after Venus is created. All four of these panel paintings have been variously interpreted by modern scholarship. The first version of Cabanel's Birth of Venus (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) created a sensation at the Salon of 1863, which was dubbed the "Salon of the Venuses" owing to the number of alluring nudes on view. The painting was based off of a poem by Angelo Poliziano, Stanze per la giostra; however, the poem was based off of an ode by Hesiod. Here a voluptuous goddess can be seen emerging from the waves in a lascivious and inviting pose, which would seem today to be much more licentious than the women in Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe . 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