Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus is not only the first large-scale canvas of the Renaissance, its subject, an ancient goddess – and a naked one at that – is unprecedented in Western art, wherein human-form depictions had hitherto almost unerringly been of Biblical characters. Here, we see not only the birth of Venus but in many ways the birth of the High Renaissance. Venus Pudica, born fully formed, stands on a scallop shell being blown to shore by Zephyr, the Greek god of the gentle western wind, with the help of his glamorous assistant. Ashore, she will be received, and dressed, by a handmaid in springtime attire.
INFORMATION
• Measuring 172.5 × 278.9 cm, Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus (tempera on canvas, circa 1485) is one of the major highlights of Florence’s Uffizi Gallery.www.uffizi.it