WESTERN ART

BIRTH OF VENUS BY SANDRO BOTTICELLI

Karishma Sahani

3rd Year

Department- Art History

College of Art
 BIRTH OF VENUS

Title: Birth of Venus

Artist: Sandro Botticelli

Date Created: 1483 - 1485

Style: Renaissance

Dimensions: w2785 x h1725 mm

Medium: Tempera on panel

Location: Uffizi Gallery, Italy

Description-

In the composition shows the goddess of love and beauty arriving on land, on the island of
Cyprus. In the painting newly born goddess Venus is depicted in the center stands nude in a
giant scallop shell, born out of the foam as she rides to shore.  On the left, the wind god
Zephyrus carries the nymph Chloris as they blows the wind shown by lines radiating from their
mouth to guide Venus, Chloris who is also blowing but less forcefully. They are in the air and
they both have wings. On  the right, a female figure who floating slightly above the ground holds
out a rich flowery cloak to cover Venus when she reaches the shore, as she is about to do. She is
one of the three Horai identified as Pomona as the Goddess of Spring.

Venus is slightly to the right of center, and she is isolated against the background so no other
figures overlap her.  She has a slight tilt of the head, she has a curved body and she leans. The
seascape, stunning for its metaphysical tone and almost unreal quality, it is illuminated by a very
soft, delicate light. There is heavy use of gold as a pigment for highlights, on hair, wings,
textiles, the shell and the landscape. On right the leaves of the orange trees on the land has dark
exposure of light, parts of some leaves at the corner covered by the frame. Botticelli paid much
attention to Venus hair and hairstyle which reflected the way women wore their long hair in the
late fifteenth century. The hairs of Venus and Pomona are flowing in same direction but the
flying couple’s was changed. Artist gave Venus an idealized face which is remarkably free of
blemishes and beautifully shaded her face to distinguish a lighter side and a more shaded side.
The importance in this painting is the nudity of Venus in which the goddess attempts to cover
herself in a gesture of modestly.

Botticelli's art was never fully committed to naturalism; he gave weight and volume to his
figures and rarely used a deep perspective space and never painted landscape backgrounds with
great detail or realism, but this is especially the case here. The laurel trees and the grass below
them are green with gold highlights, most of the waves have regular patterns, and the landscape
seems out of scale with the figures.