The Birth Of Venus

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Those literary heroines, though! I don’t think they want to grasp happiness. Urgh. Now you’ve got me thinking about why. The music video for the album's lead single, " Applause", also features a reference to the painting, depicting the singer in a blonde wig, wearing nothing but shells. [54] The music video also contains nods to various other famous works of art, including the Andy Warhol painting Marilyn Diptych. [55] Pliny also noted a second painting by Apelles of Venus "superior even to his earlier one," that had been begun by the artist but left unfinished. The Roman images in various media showing the new-born Venus in a giant shell may well be crude derivative versions of these paintings. Botticelli could not have seen the frescos unearthed later in Pompeii, but may well have seen small versions of the motif in terracotta or engraved gems. The "House of Venus" in Pompeii has a life-size fresco of Venus lying in the shell, also seen in other works; in most other images she stands with her hands on her hair, wringing the water from it, with or without a shell. The Birth of Venus is undoubtedly one of the world’s most famous and appreciated works of art. Painted by Sandro Botticelli between 1482 and 1485, it has become a landmark of XV century Italian painting, so rich in meaning and allegorical references to antiquity.

This also points to a broader characteristic of the period at the time, which is a new way of thinking and perceiving man within the world. With the progression of the Renaissance, the Humanist movement gradually emerged. This was based on philosophical thought rooted in the revival of ancient Classical texts from the Greek and Roman cultures. Behind the interpretation of the painting as a tribute to classic literature, we can certainly read an ode to the wealthy Florentine family who commissioned the work: the beginning of the reign of love finally comes to Florence thanks to the Medici, their diplomatic skills and their vast culture. But I will try to explain why this book, as addictive a read as I found it to be, did not merit an A: the ending. I don’t want to get specific because the experience of reading The Birth of Venus is worth borrowing your own copy, and I don’t want to spoil the finale, but suffice it to say that Alessandra’s choices at the end of the book, especially in regard to her opportunity for a happy ending, are infuriating and don’t accurately represent her character – at least, not the character in the first three-quarters of the book.clarity and coldness. Roses are floating down from the sky: according to classical legend, their origin coincided with the birth of Venus. It’s to Dunant’s credit that the vast quantities of historical information in this book are deployed so naturally and lightly….On the simplest level, this is an erotic and gripping thriller, but its intellectual excitement also comes from the way Dunant makes the art and philosophy of the period look new and dangerous again….Theology has rarely looked so sexy.”

The two-dimensionality of this painting may be a deliberate attempt to evoke the style of ancient Greek vase painting or frescos on the walls of Etruscan tombs, [41] the only types of ancient painting known to Botticelli. Her head is tilted to her right side and her body posture is like that of a contrapposto-styled stance. It has been believed that it was part of the other painting, La Primavera (c. 1482 to 1483), but it has been reported that it was not its counterpart. The Birth of Venus was also painted within the context of the popular literature of the time, specifically that of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (8 AD), Homer’s writings, and Agnolo (Angelo) Poliziano’s Stanze per la Giostra (1478). Some of his stylistic influences that contributed to how he portrayed perspective, space, and figure’s stances in his paintings came from the Byzantine and International Gothic styles.

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Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Studies for the Libyan Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso) More recently, questions have arisen about Neoplatonism as the dominant intellectual system of late 15th-century Florence, [31] and scholars have indicated that there might be other ways to interpret Botticelli's mythological paintings. In particular, both Primavera and Birth of Venus have been seen as wedding paintings that suggest appropriate behaviors for brides and grooms. [32] If the historical aspect of the novel is a departure for Dunant, she utilises the narrative skill she developed writing mysteries. Sometimes this can go awry: the subplot involving the murder of several sexual miscreants is not especially convincing, and the book's denouement is hurried and unlikely. But for the most part this author knows how to turn a plot, whether she is writing about the unravelling of complex family tensions or the nearly disastrous impact Savonarola has on an impressionable artist brought to the city from the Low Countries.

Paintings done on canvases were also mainly displayed in homes or villas compared to public buildings. From your description of the ending, it seems that was a similar case of setting up a character and not carrying them through their emotional logic. No real surprises in the romance department, but the depiction of Florence as Tehran under the Ayatollah is an eye-opener. Clark, 92, 96–97; Lightbown, 160, "the first surviving celebration of the beauty of the female nude represented for its own perfection rather than with erotic or moral or religious overtones." Hutt, John. "An Art History Guide To Lady Gaga's 'Applause' Music Video". Out . Retrieved 5 February 2023.

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Portrait of Pierfrancesco de’ Medici (1463–1503), called Lorenzo il Popolano; Cristofano dell’Altissimo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Having a large standing female nude as the central focus was unprecedented in post-classical Western painting, and certainly drew on the classical sculptures which were coming to light in this period, especially in Rome, where Botticelli had spent 1481–82 working on the walls of the Sistine Chapel. [38] The pose of Botticelli's Venus follows the Venus Pudica ("Venus of Modesty") type from classical antiquity, where the hands are held to cover the breasts and groin; in classical art this is not associated with the new-born Venus Anadyomene. What became a famous example of this type is the Venus de' Medici, a marble sculpture that was in a Medici collection in Rome by 1559, which Botticelli may have had opportunity to study (the date it was found is unclear). [39] The Neoplatonic philosophical meaning is then clear: the work would mean the birth of love and the spiritual beauty as a driving force of life.A photograph of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus on a wall in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, illustrating its large size; FrDr, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Alicia du Plessis is a multidisciplinary writer. She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Art History and Classical Civilization, as well as two Honors, namely, in Art History and Education and Development, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. For her main Honors project in Art History, she explored perceptions of the San Bushmen’s identity and the concept of the “Other”. She has also looked at the use of photography in art and how it has been used to portray people’s lives.