The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)

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The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)

The Birth of Venus is a painting

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting....
by Sandro Botticelli

Sandro Botticelli

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli or Il Botticello was an Italy Painting of the Florentine school during the Early Renaissance ....
. It depicts the goddess Venus

Venus (mythology)

Venus was a major Roman mythology goddess principally associated with love, beauty and sexual reproduction, the equivalent of the Greek mythology Aphrodite....
, having emerged from the sea

SEA

See also: Sea and seasThe three-letter acronym SEA may refer to:People/organizations/businesses*Scientists and Engineers for America, a pro-science political advocacy group....
as a full grown woman, arriving at the sea-shore (Venus Anadyomene

Venus Anadyomene

Venus Anadyomene was one of the iconic representations of Aphrodite, made famous in a much-admired painting by Apelles, now lost, but described in Natural History , with the anecdote that the great Apelles employed Campaspe, a mistress of Alexander the Great, for his model....
motif

Motif (art)

File:Ajanta Entrance cave 17.jpgFile:TajFlowerCloseUp.jpgIn art, a motif is a repeated idea, pattern, image, or theme. Paisley are referred to as motifs....
). The painting is currently in the Uffizi Gallery

Uffizi

The Uffizi Gallery , one of the oldest and most famous art museums in the world, is housed in the Palazzo degli Uffizi, a palazzo in Florence, Italy, Italy....
in Florence

Florence

Florence is the Capital city of the Italy Regions of Italy of Tuscany and of the provinces of Italy Province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany and has a population of 364,779 ....
.

large picture may have been, like the Primavera, painted for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici's Villa di Castello, around 1482, or even before. Some scholars suggest that the Venus painted for Lorenzo and mentioned by Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari was an Italy Painting and architect, who is today famous for his biography of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art history writing....
may have been a different work, now lost.

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Origins

This large picture may have been, like the Primavera, painted for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici's Villa di Castello, around 1482, or even before. Some scholars suggest that the Venus painted for Lorenzo and mentioned by Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari

Giuliano di Piero de' Medici

Giuliano de' Medici was the second son of Piero di Cosimo de' Medici and Lucrezia Tornabuoni. As co-ruler of Florence, with his brother Lorenzo de' Medici, he complemented his brother's image as the "patron of the arts" with his own image as the handsome, sporting, "golden boy."...
(who died in the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478) for Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci, who lived in Portovenere

Portovenere

Portovenere is a town and comune located on the Ligurian coast of Italy in the province of La Spezia. It comprises the three villages of Fezzano, Le Grazie and Portovenere, and the three islands of Palmaria , Tino and Tinetto....
, a town by the sea with a local tradition of being the birthplace of Venus. It must be noted that Botticelli himself also privately loved the beautiful Simonette, who was de' Medici's mistress. Whatever inspired the artist, there are clear similarities to Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman Empire poet known as Ovid to the English language-speaking world, who wrote about love, seduction, and Roman mythology transformation....
's Metamorphoses and Fasti, as well as to Poliziano

Poliziano

Angelo Ambrogini, best known as Poliziano was an Italy Florentine Renaissance classical scholar and poet, one of the revivers of Renaissance Latin....
's Verses. Simonetta is also believed to have been the model for Venus in this painting, as well as for several other women in other Botticelli works, such as Primavera.

The classical goddess Venus emerges from the water on a shell, blown towards shore by the Zephyrs, symbols of spiritual passions. She is joined by one of the Horae

Horae

In Greek mythology, the Horai, Latinized Horae were three goddesses controlling orderly life. They were daughters of Zeus and Themis, half-sisters to the Moirae....
, goddesses of the seasons, who hands her a flowered cloak

Cloak

A cloak is a type of loose garment that is worn over indoor clothing and serves the same purpose as an overcoat—it protects the wearer from the cold, rain or wind for example, or it may form part of a fashionable outfit or uniform....
.

The effect is distinctly pagan

Paganism

Paganism is the blanket term given to describe religions and spiritual practices of pre-Christian Europe, and by extension a term for polytheistic?traditions or folk religion?worldwide seen from a Western or Christian viewpoint....
, considering it was made at a time

Time

Time is a component of the measurement used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects....
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 alleged pagan influenced works perished. Botticelli was very close to Lorenzo de Medici. Because of their friendship and Lorenzo's power, this work was spared from Savonarola's fires and the disapproval of the church.

The anatomy of Venus and various subsidiary details do not display the strict classical realism

Realism (arts)

Realism in the visual arts and literature is the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life, without embellishment or interpretation....
of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italy polymath, being a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, Painting, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer....
or Raphael. Most obviously, Venus has an improbably long neck, and her left shoulder slopes at an anatomically unlikely angle. Some have suggested it prefigures mannerism

Mannerism

Mannerism is a Art periods of European art which emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but continued into the seventeenth century throughout much of Europe....
.

Classical inspiration

The painting was one of a series which Botticelli produced, taking as inspiration written descriptions by the 2nd century historian Lucian

Lucian

Lucian of Samosata was an Assyrian people rhetorician, and satire who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature....
of masterpieces of Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
which had long since disappeared. The ancient painting by Apelles

Apelles

Apelles of Kos was a renowned Painting of ancient Greece. Pliny the Elder, to whom we owe much of our knowledge of this artist rated him superior to preceding and subsequent artists....
was called Venus Anadyomene
Venus Anadyomene

Venus Anadyomene was one of the iconic representations of Aphrodite, made famous in a much-admired painting by Apelles, now lost, but described in Natural History , with the anecdote that the great Apelles employed Campaspe, a mistress of Alexander the Great, for his model....
, "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. 'The Birth of Venus' is very similar to Praxiteles' Aphrodite, a statue.

A mural from Pompeii

Pompeii

Pompeii is a ruined and partially buried Ancient Rome town-city near modern Naples in the Italy region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei....
was never seen by Botticelli, but may have been a Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
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

Vulva

The vulva refers to the external sex organ of the female. In colloquial speech, the term vagina is often used to refer to the female genitals generally, although, strictly speaking, the vagina is a specific internal structure, whereas the vulva is the whole exterior genitalia....
.

The pose of Botticelli's Venus is reminiscent of the Venus de Medici, a marble sculpture from classical antiquity

Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome....
in the Medici

Medici

The M?dici family was a powerful and influential Florence family from the 14th to 18th century. The family had three popes , numerous rulers of Florence and later members of the French and English royalty....
collection which Botticelli had opportunity to study.

In popular culture

Reproductions and variations on Botticelli's famous painting have been numerous in popular culture

Popular culture

Popular culture is the totality of Distinction memes, ideas, Perspective s and Attitude s that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture....
, including in advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to Purchasing or to consume more of a particular brand of Product or Service ....
and motion pictures

Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
. Notable examples include:

Film

A scene in the 1962 James Bond
James Bond

James Bond 007 is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections....
film Dr. No
Dr. No (film)

Dr. No is the first James Bond , and the first to star Sean Connery as the fictional character Secret Intelligence Service agent James Bond ....
with Ursula Andress
Ursula Andress

'Ursula Andress' is a Golden Globe award-winning Switzerland actor and a major sex symbol of the 1960s. She is best known for her roles as Bond girl: Honey Ryder in Dr....
, and later a similar scene with Halle Berry
Halle Berry

Halle Berry is an American actress, former fashion model, and beauty queen. Berry has received Emmy and Golden Globe awards for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming the first and, as of 2009, only woman of African-American descent to have won the a...
in "Die Another Day
Die Another Day

Die Another Day is the twentieth spy film in the James Bond James Bond , and the fourth and last to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional character Secret Intelligence Service agent James Bond ....
," 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
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a 1988 in film film directed by Terry Gilliam, starring John Neville , Sarah Polley, Eric Idle, Jonathan Pryce, Oliver Reed, Uma Thurman, and Robin Williams....
, with Uma Thurman
Uma Thurman

Uma Karuna Thurman Hawke , better known as Uma Thurman, is an American actress. She performs predominantly in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedy film and dramas to science fiction film and Action movie Thriller s....
as Venus.
In Ken Russell's 1971 film The Devils, Louis XIII of France first appears in a court tableau/ballet as Botticelli's Venus emerging on stage from a giant half shell à la Bette Midler.
A scene in the 1991 film L.A. Story
L.A. Story

L.A. Story is a 1991 in film Cinema of the United States romantic comedy film film director by Mick Jackson and screenwriter by Steve Martin, who also stars in the film....
, a mural at the skate park depicts Venus wearing contemporary clothing and roller skates.
In Marleen Gorris' 1995 film Antonia, Danielle has a vision, she sees the teacher Ms. Anderson as the famous Venus arising from the conch shell (as painted by Boticelli).

Television

Munchausen's director Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam

Terrence Vance Gilliam is an American-born British writer, filmmaker, animator and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several well-regarded films including Brazil , Twelve Monkeys , and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ....
had previously featured the painting in an animated sequence in the show Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python's Flying Circus

Monty Python?s Flying Circus is a BBC sketch comedy programme from the Monty Python comedy team, and the group's initial claim to fame. The show was noted for its surreality, Wiktionary:risqu? or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags, and sketches without punchlines....
, segueing into the Dead Parrot sketch. In true Python fashion, a hand reaches up from the sea to twist Venus' exposed breast, causing upbeat music to play while Venus dances in a very silly fashion. This sequence is also seen in the Monty Python film And Now For Something Completely Different
And Now For Something Completely Different

And Now for Something Completely Different is a film spin-off from the television comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus featuring favourite sketches from the first two seasons....
.
In a Simpsons episode called "The Last Temptation of Homer
The Last Temptation of Homer

"The Last Temptation of Homer" is the ninth episode of The Simpsons The Simpsons . It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 9, 1993....
", Homer imagines coworker Mindy as Venus.
In an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy is an American animated television series that originally aired on Cartoon Network . The show aired from August 24, 2001 to November 9, 2007, but still airs occasionally....
, Irwin made in arts and crafts club an identical work of art with Mandy's head on Venus' face.
In an episode of "America's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model

America's Next Top Model is a reality television show in which a number of women compete for the title of America's Next Top Model and a chance to start their career in the Model industry....
", Kim Stoltz of cycle 5 re-enacted the scene portrayed in The Birth of Venus.
In a Suddenly Susan
Suddenly Susan

Suddenly Susan is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC from 1996 to 2000. Its headlining star was Brooke Shields, who got the show after a guest appearance on Friends in the episode "The One After the Superbowl, Part One"....
episode called "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Susan's Party", for her Halloween
Halloween

Halloween is a holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic mythology of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints. It is largely a Secularity celebration, but some Christians and Paganism have expressed strong feelings about its religious overtones....
party, Susan dresses up as Venus to the confusion of her guests who think she's Stevie Nicks
Stevie Nicks

Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and has sold nearly 120 million albums....
at an oyster bar.
In an episode of "Gossip Girl
Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl is a series of novels for teenagers created by Cecily von Ziegesar and written by herself as well as by an unknown Ghostwriter. The name of the Gossip Girl , Gossip Girl, is also the nom de plume of the narrator....
" ("Bad News Blair
Bad News Blair

"Bad News Blair" is the fourth episode of the CW Television Network television series Gossip Girl . Joshua Safran wrote the episode; it was directed by Patrick Norris....
"), Serena and Blair are on the set of a photoshoot, and Serena encourages Blair to loosen up on set by telling her to emanate "Venus in the half-shell".

Music

Robin Williamson
Robin Williamson

Robin Williamson is a Scotland multi-instrumentalist musician, singer, songwriter and storyteller, who first made his name as a founder member of The Incredible String Band....
's song "Will We Open The Heavens", from his 1972 solo debut Myrrh, is based on Botticelli's painting.
Jacob Borshard's song "He Kept Painting", from his 2004 debut album 'Songs For a Small Stereo', is about Botticelli, and mentions The Birth of Venus several times.
In the Broadway musical
Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece ? humor, pathos, love, anger ? as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole....
"1776
1776 (musical)

1776 is a Tony Award winning musical theatre with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and a book by Peter Stone. It is based on the events leading to the writing and signing of the United States Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1776....
", Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author and Printer , Satire, list of political philosophers, politician, scientist, inventor, activism, statesman, and diplomacy....
is posing for a portrait. John Adams
John Adams

John Adams was an Politics of the United States and the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States , after being the List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States for two terms....
complains that "the artist's no Botticelli." Franklin retorts that "the subject's no Venus" either.
Venus is depicted on the cover of Skeletons from the Closet: The Best of Grateful Dead
Skeletons from the Closet: The Best of Grateful Dead

Skeletons from the Closet: The Best of Grateful Dead was the first compilation album from the Grateful Dead. It was first released on Gramophone record in February 1974....
The Joan Baez
Joan Baez

Joan Chandos Baez is a Mexican-United States folk singer and songwriter known for her highly individual vocal style. Many of her songs are Topical song and deal with social issues....
song Diamonds & Rust
Diamonds & Rust (song)

"Diamonds & Rust" is a 1975 song written and performed by Joan Baez. In the song, Baez recounts an out-of-the-blue phone call from an old lover, which sends her a decade back in time, to a seedy hotel in Greenwich Village....
contains a reference to "the girl on the half-shell", apparently an allusion to this painting.

Books

The "Kilgore Trout
Kilgore Trout

'Kilgore Trout' is a fictional character created by author Kurt Vonnegut. He was originally created as a fictionalized version of author Theodore Sturgeon , although Trout's consistent presence in Vonnegut's works has also led critics to view him as the author's own "alter ego." Trout is also the titular "author" of the novel Venus on the Hal...
" novel Venus on the Half-Shell
Venus on the Half-Shell

Venus on the Half-Shell was first published in two parts beginning in the December 1974 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction....
is titled from a jocular nickname for the painting.
In a scene near the end of Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a Multilingualism Russian-American novelist and short story writer.Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian language, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist....
's Lolita
LOLITA

LOLITA is a natural language processing system developed by Durham University between 1986 and 2000. The name is an acronym for "Large-scale, Object-based, Linguistics Interactor, Machine translation and Analyzer"....
, the main character Humbert Humbert decides that Lolita has a striking similarity to Botticelli's Venus.
A subplot of Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Pynchon

Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American literature based in New York City, noted for his dense and complex works of fiction. Hailing from Long Island, Pynchon spent two years in the United States Navy and earned an English studies degree from Cornell University....
's novel V.
V.

V. is the debut novel of Thomas Pynchon, published in 1963. It describes the exploits of a discharged United States Navy sailor named Benny Profane, his reconnection in New York City with a group of pseudo-bohemianism artists and hangers-on known as the Whole Sick Crew, and the quest of an aging traveller named Herbert Stencil to identify...
centers on an attempt by a love-struck character to steal the painting from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The scene underscores the paradoxical attraction and destruction of men to women, a key theme in the novel.
The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant contains many references to Sandro Boticelli and the de' Medici family. Most of the references contain mention of Venus' birth and how she is an extremely great and terrible being at the same time.
In the Sarah Waters' novel, Tipping the Velvet, the main character is compared to the birth of Venus.
In Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, the character of Marius de Romanus
Marius de Romanus

Marius de Romanus is a fictional character in The Vampire Chronicles novels written by Anne Rice. He is the primary character in the novel Blood and Gold....
is acquainted with Botticelli and is a great fan of his work, especially the painting. He points out several times the resemblance between Botticelli's Venus another character in the book, Bianca.
The cover of Robert Heinlein's To Sail Beyond the Sunset
To Sail Beyond the Sunset

To Sail Beyond the Sunset is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1987. It was the last novel published before he died in 1988; several books by the author were released posthumously, including a full novel: For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs, published with a foreword written by Spider Robinson....
depicts the main character of the novel, Maureen Johnson Smith Long
Maureen Johnson (Heinlein character)

Maureen Johnson Smith Long , most often referred to as Maureen Johnson, is a fictional character in several science fiction novels written by Robert A....
in the role of Venus in an homage to the painting.

Other

A stylized face of Venus is depicted on the reverse of the Italian-issue 10 cent euro coin
Italian euro coins

Italian euro coins have a design unique to each denomination, though there is a common theme of famous Italian works of art from one of Italy's renowned artists....
.
Starting with version 1.0, Adobe
Adobe Systems

Adobe Systems Incorporated is an United States computer Computer software company headquartered in San Jose, California, USA. The company has historically focused upon the creation of multimedia and creativity software products, with a more-recent foray into rich Internet application software development....
chose to license an image of Venus from the Bettmann Archive
Bettmann Archive

The Bettmann Archive is a collection of 11 million photographs and images, some going back to the United States American Civil War and including some of the best known U.S....
and use the portion containing Venus' face as the branding image for its Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Adobe Systems.The latest version, Illustrator CS4, is the fourteenth generation in the product line....
graphics software.
In the video game Portal, an early conceptual design for the character GLaDOS is described by the developers as having been "An upside-down version" of Botticelli's painting "built out of electrical parts".
The Museum level of Chex Quest 2
Chex Quest 2

Chex Quest 2 was released in 1997, after the release of the cereal box promotional game Chex Quest, and was available exclusively from the official Chex Quest website....
showcases a parody of the painting; Venus' body is replaced with a piece of Chex
Chex

Chex is a brand of breakfast cereal now manufactured by General Mills. It was originally owned by Ralston Purina, and the Chex name reflects the "checkerboard square" logo of Ralston Purina....
cereal.

External links

- Greek statue, template for Botticelli's Venuss JVATZ