Name : The Birth Of Venus.
Author : Botticelli.
Year : 1484-1486.
Style : The First Renaissance.
Technique : Painted in tempera.
Location : Uffizi Gallery.
INTRODUCTION
The painting is called , The Venus of Botticelli or The Birth of Venus , and it was made between 1484 and 1486 by Sandro Botticelli. In this painting you can appreciate many common aspects from the period in when the painting was made , as the idealization of classical beauty , that appears also in The Gioconda , that is one of the most famous paintings in this period , and also the perfection of the bodies and faces.
The author was born in 1445 and he was called Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, in Florence. He was called before Botticelli, because his brothers sold tonnels and in Italian Botticelli means that.
He belong to the Quattrocento, and he obtained fame because the Vespucci and Medici family asked him to made some works for them, like this painting.Finally in 1510 he died in Florence, with a lot of works after him.
The author was born in 1445 and he was called Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, in Florence. He was called before Botticelli, because his brothers sold tonnels and in Italian Botticelli means that.
He belong to the Quattrocento, and he obtained fame because the Vespucci and Medici family asked him to made some works for them, like this painting.Finally in 1510 he died in Florence, with a lot of works after him.
ANALYSIS
This painting was ordered by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco one of the Medici family , and it was for a house in the countryside , that were normally with mithology of Ancient Romans. Botticelli by one sculpture of Venus that was in one of The Medici family house:
In the painting appear four characters, the Venus is the most important , here is represented her birth and you can appreciate that she is adult but in her legend they said that she was born adult , and in the paint also appear two god that are Cefiro and Cloris , who impulse with the wind Venus to the coast where a "Hora" is waiting for cover her with a cape decored with flowers which represents the Spring when she was born and from the "Hora" is from , and this represents the new begginning. Also you may see that a lot of roses are flying after Venus , because the legend said that she brought the roses to The Earth.
The Venus was represented by Simoneta Vespucci , who was part of the family of Americo Vespucci , and she participate in most of the Medici works. She was got fame because of her family.
This painting was made in tempera , and its support was a canvas , like for example in Gioconda.
There is a little perspective of depth , but is not as notticed as in the school of Athens , where you can appreciate very well that.
There is a dark zone that is in the part of the coast where Venus is coming, and it central zone Botticelli wanted to add more light, so it is supposed that Venus is going to add light to the people when she arrive , so you can see also that is not a Catholic or Christian painting.
The color are very soft and fair , also you can see that Venus seem s to be made of pearl or marble , so with this details you can see that here Botticelli wanted to represent that Venus was going to put our world in golden and very colorfull way to make it beauty.
The composition is with triangle shape , symmetric and dynamic.
It function is not well determined, because the work was made, as many people said, for the Medici, so they thought that is was for a house of the family, and it is mainly for decoration.
The figures of this painting , seem really idealised, and it is normal from this period of time because this is the part in when the idealism and serenity was mixed based on the ideas of Ancient Greek philosophers. As for example The Gioconda made by da Vinci.
In this period the paintings reflected a new mentality, for example this painting was the reopening of the nudes of womans after the ones of Eva, so it is very impressive. And then they wanted to search balance and proportion , and they used the pyramidal composition adding symmetrical aspects, in normal cases, but Michelangelo changed that in many of this works.
In this period there where many important works by other people as the Gioconda or The piety.
In my opinion this painting is very good, because it added many importance to the woman, and also it added a new way to represent beauty, with a woman. Also it is interesting to see how the author added light and comparing it to the Gioconda, or the different colours used between these paintings, because in the one of da Vinci he used very dark colours and in the Venus there are very fair colours, so there are huge differences between the authors in this period. I can also add that for my this paint is very beautiful and I love the way how the woman is represented, as a glorious shape, and with no defects, so I think it was a good point for this painting, because in those periods it was very strange to adore a woman, so I was very impressed to see it, because in my opinion the Gioconda was made to laugh about the ideal of beauty, beacuse she has no brows and she seem a bit strange, so I was thankful to this work.
