The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli

The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli

Blown ashore

Venus, newly born from the sea, stands on a scallop shell as it drifts to land. On the left the west wind, Zephyr, with a female companion wrapped in his arms, blows her in, and pink roses tumble through the air around them. On the right a young woman in a white dress sprigged with cornflowers, usually identified as one of the Hours, the goddesses of the seasons, steps forward with a flowered cloak to cover her. Venus’s pose, one hand at her breast and the other holding her long hair in front of her, comes from the modest Venus of classical sculpture.

Line on canvas

Botticelli painted it in tempera on canvas, which was unusual in Florence at the time, when a picture of this size would more often have been on wooden panel. The surface is pale and matt, the colours clear rather than deep, and line does most of the work: the outlines of the figures, the little V-shaped ripples on the sea, the hair that moves in separate strands. The anatomy is graceful rather than correct; Venus’s neck is long and her left shoulder slopes away improbably. In the sixteenth century it was recorded in the Medici villa at Castello, outside Florence.

Where it hangs

It is in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, and measures 172.5 by 278.5 centimetres.

About this print

Made from a 9,000-pixel photograph of the original, enough to print sharply at up to about 60 inches on its longest side.

Sources: Uffizi Gallery, Florence · Wikidata Q151047 · Wikimedia Commons