Woman's Art, Inc.

The Central Figure in Botticelli's "Primavera"

Author(s): Jean Gillies
Source: Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring - Summer, 1981), pp. 12-16
Published by: Woman's Art, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1357894 .
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The Central Figure in
JEAN GILLIES
In recent years feminist scholars have been examining
the traditional methodologies of their various disciplines to
discover and weed out sexist assumptions and attitudes. In
an effort to counteract or correct these, some scholars have
sought new methodological paradigms that address the
experiences and contributions of women, their roles and
productivity. A number of art historians, for example, have
researched women artists whose lives and works have been
ignored or overlooked. My own approach has been
iconographical. I have been concerned with the symbology of
images of women-how they have been used in art and what
connotations they have conveyed to viewers.
The intentions of this paper are to indicate how this
feminist perspective has affected my scholarship and how an
examination of images of women has led me to question
previous interpretations of Botticelli's Primavera (Fig. 1),
and to suggest a different view of that painting's program. It
is not possible to discuss all the problems the Primavera
presents to an art historian, some of which lie with and
emerge from the numerous exegetical contributions to the
literature on the painting. In addition to Aby Warburg's
fundamental essay, there have been at least four major
interpretations of the Primavera, all of which differ in the
essential sources cited for the panel's imagery, purpose, and
meaning.2 Moreover, there have been countless references
to and comments on the painting, many of which merit
attention for their insights or observations as well as for
their differing viewpoints.
Despite all of this scholarly research, no consensus on the
meaning of the Primavera has been reached. Instead, the
controversy and disagreement suggest that a basic problem
has not been resolved or that some impediment has
precluded the finding of a conclusive, convincing analysis of
the painting. Perhaps some basic assumptions can be, but
have not been, questioned.
An examination of the literature shows that three
assumptions have been shared by the writers of major essays
on the Primavera. First, all have taken for granted that the
central figure is Venus, despite her unorthodoxapparel, her
apparent pregnant condition, and her madonna-like
demeanor. No one, however, has found literary or visual
sources that support this identification other than Vasari's
brief, vague 16th-century reference in which he links the
Primavera to Botticelli's Birth of Venus.Second, the literary
sources cited above for the painting's program are ones that
are valued today and exclude other possible sources which
have lost favor with or have been dismissed by modern
Botticelli's Primavera
thinkers. In other words, it seems that scholars have
projected 20th-century values upon Quattrocento
humanists' tastes and interests. Finally, with only a few
hesitant exceptions, all major writers on the Primavera
apparently have accepted the painting as being consistent
with Boticelli's ouevre, for few have remarked on the
anatomical distortions of the figures and the painting's
spatial ambiguity, which differ from Botticelli's other works
and which deviate from the Quattrocento ideal of physical
proportions and its conventional reliance on linear
perspective.
These assumptions must be reconsidered. If we
acknowledge that the painting is indeed stylistically
peculiar and spatially disturbing, if we broaden our
knowledge of Quattrocento interests and ways of thinking,
and, if we recognize that the central figure of the Primavera
is not a stereotypical Venus, our perception of the work will
change. We are forced then to find new avenues of inquiry.
Since the central figure controls the painting's
composition and since the action revolves around her, she not
only commands the viewer's attention but her identification
is critical to any analysis of the work. It is on this figure,
then, that I shall concentrate.
While researching archetypal female images another
possibility presented itself. A photograph of a Roman cult
statue of the Egyptian moon goddess, Isis, now in the
Capitoline Museum, Rome, caught my attention (Fig. 2).
Her costume, with its flowing drapery, mantle, veil, and
sandals, seemed remarkably similar to the one worn by
Botticelli's central figure. In addition, the figures' stances,
hand gestures, even their benign facial expressions, are
comparable. The similarities between the two images were
striking enough to justify further inquiry into the possibility
that the Primavera's central figure was, after all, Isis and
not Venus.
In reviewing the literature on the painting, I found a
description of the Egyptian goddess in The Golden Ass, a
literary source by Apuleius Madaurensis, also known as
Lucius Apuleius, whose importance to Florentine humanists
during the Quattrocento was established by Ernst
Gombrich in his essay on the Primavera.3 Written in the
second century A.D., The GoldenAss, or the Metamorphoses
of Lucius, is probably an allegorical autobiography of
Apuleius's spiritual awakening and initiation into the cult of
Isis. Gombrich, however, accepting the central figure in the
painting as Venus, cited as the source of Primavera a section

of the story that describes the Judgment of Paris.
Although Gombrich recognized certain difficulties in the
application of this episode to the painting, he justified the
connection on the grounds that the description of Venus and
her train was simplified in accordance with Alberti's
pictorial rule against using more than nine or ten figures in a
painting, and that the moral and mystical inferences of
Apuleius's account of Lucius would have appealed to
Quattrocento humanists.4 However, the difficulties
acknowledged by Gombrich cannot be ignored as one tries to
apply the episode of the Judgment of Paris to the Primavera.
For example, in addition to Venus, Apuleius includes Juno
accompanied by Castor and Pollux, Minerva together with
Terror and Fear, and, of course, Paris. All three goddesses
are essential to the very notion of Paris's judgment; to omit
two of them from a visual interpretation of this story denies
the point of the contest. To omit Paris as well is
incomprehensible, for he is the judge whose decision
established Venus's superior beauty. A more important
difficulty with this section of The GoldenAss as a possible
source of the Primavera's program lies with Apuleius's
description of Venus: Venus is naked, excepting a thin, blue
veil, which the wind has blown away from her perfect body.
The account immediately following the Judgment of
Paris relates the transformation of Lucius from his form as
an ass to his original human form, as performed by the
goddess Isis. Lucius, as an ass, has been assigned to carry out
an act that he considers humiliating. Therefore, he escapes
his guards, gallops six miles to a safe harbor near Corinth,
and, exhausted, falls asleep in a cove by a secluded beach. He
is awakened by a dazzling, full moon rising over the water
and, after dipping his head in the water seven times to purify
himself, he prays to the Moon Goddess, beseeching her to rid
him of his ass's shape or else to permit him to die. He returns
to the cove, falls asleep again, and is almost immediately
awakened by a vision of a woman, described as follows:
FIG. 1. SandroBotticelli,Primavera(c. 1478),
Uffizi, Florence. Photo: Alinari/Editorial
Archives.
Woman's Art Journal 13
Her long thick hair fell in tapering ringlets on her
lovelyneck,andwascrownedwithan intricatechaplet
in which was woveneverykind of flower.Just above
her browshonea rounddisc, like a mirror,or like the
bright face of the moon,whichtold me who she was.
Vipers rising from the left-hand and right-hand
partingsof her hair supportedthis disc, with ears of
corn bristling beside them. Her many-coloured robe
was of finest linen; part was glistening white, part
crocus-yellow,part glowing red and alongthe entire
hem a woven [border]of flowers and fruit clung
swayingin the breeze.But what caughtand held my
eye morethananythingelse was the deepblacklustre
of her mantle.She woreit slungacrossher bodyfrom
the righthiptotheleftshoulder,whereit wascaughtin
a knot resemblingthe boss of a shield, but part of it
hung in innumerable folds, the tasselled fringe
quivering.It wasembroideredwithglitteringstarson
the hem and everywhereelse, and in the middle
beameda full and fiery moon.5
The goddess then identifies herself to Lucius:
Yousee mehere,Lucius,in answertoyourprayer.I am
Nature, the universal Mother,mistress of all the
elements,primordialchild of time, sovereignof all
things spiritual,queen of the sea, queen also of the
immortals,the single manifestationof all gods and
goddessesthatare.Mynodgovernstheshiningheights
of Heaven,the wholesomesea breezes,the lamentable
silencesoftheworldbelow.ThoughI amworshippedin
many aspects, known by countless names, and
propitiatedwith all mannerof differentrites,yet the
wholeroundearthveneratesme.6
Then the goddess gives Lucius the many names by which
she is known before revealing that her real name, Isis, was
known only by the Aethiopians and the Egyptians.
Apuleius's description of Isis is so like Botticelli's image
that one may rightfully suspect a connection. The
14 Woman's Art Journal

differences are remarkably few. Specific attributes, which

are included in Apuleius's complete account are omitted.
(The figure in the Primavera does not carry a bronze rattle
in her right hand or hold a boat-shaped disc dish with a
serpent in her left.) However, other variations are minor,
especially when she is compared to the Roman statue and to a
17th century manuscript illustration (Fig. 3). These span the
centuries, demonstrating that Isis's depiction had a long
tradition with little modification. In both examples, the
positions of the hands, the clothing and the stance are almost
identical to those of the figure in question.
Botticelli did not portray the elaborate headdress seen in
the manuscript illustration and described by Apuleius, but
the Roman sculptor of the cult statue omitted it as well. On
the other hand, the painter gave his figure a golden veil
adorned with a round disc that fits Apuleius's description.
The slightly irridescent golden serpentine ornaments
dangling from her bodice may have been the artist's way of
including Isis's attribute of the snake. The colors of her
clothing are close to Apuleius's description-her dress
almost white, her veil golden, and her mantle red on the
outside with a dark blue lining corresponding to the deep
black lustre that caught Lucius's eye. Even the border of the
mantle has the decorative detail and tasselled fringe noted in
Apuleius's text. Its hem is adorned with a motif that seems to
strike a compromise between the author's glittering stars
and the flowers seen on the mantle's border in the
manuscript illustration.
Further support of the notion that the model for the main
figure in the Primavera was Isis lies within the painting
itself, in the representation of Isis's primary attribute and
essential nature the crescent moon.
Until now, no one has carefully investigated the
medallion (Fig. 4) that lies between the figure's breasts. It FIG. 2. Isis with Jar and Sistrum,2nd CenturyA.D., Capitoline
consists of a lunar crescent surrounding an earth-red stone Museum,Rome.Photo:Alinari/EditorialArchives.
with a rough, undefined surface. The crescent is not silver as
one might expect were it a symbol of a minor moon goddess;
it is gold. Careful consideration of the painting's light source This same notion is implied in the manuscript
illustration of Isis, which shows her with the same type of
may explain the reason: The medallion lies in the path of moon on the lower part of her abdomen, the source of her
light whose source, presumably the sun, is outside the
painting, on the left. Since the medallion is in a position to generative power. Here the moon encloses the letter H.
reflect the light of the sun, it appears golden, and According to the key accompanying the image of Isis, the
letter denotes "lunarrays."However, it is tempting to see the
iconographically this indicates that the feminine moon
reflects or incorporates the sun's masculine light. By initial as a cryptic reference to Horus, the son of Isis, who
was equated with the Sun. In fact, during the Greco-Roman
extension, the central figure herself, the goddess of the
moon, is imbued with the light of the "masculine"sun. One period, Horus's identity was conflated with that of Apollo,
can agree with R.E. Witt that, "From her springs the light of the Greek god of light and the sun's charioteer, under the
the sun."7 The Primavera's central figure, therefore, name of Horapollo. Symbolically then, Isis's reflection of the
sun's light was personified by Horus to whom she gave birth.
represents the essence of creativity. She is Nature, the
universal Mother, just as Apuleius's Isis identified herself. Finally, the unusual shape of Botticelli's medallion is
The golden color of the crescent-shaped medallion may almost identical to that of the crescent shown in the
explain why Botticelli's central figure looks pregnant. A manuscript. This particular kind of crescent moon, which
encloses a rectangular shape that could symbolize the
pregnant Venus is incomprehensible, but a pregnant Isis is unborn Horus, was used to identify and characterize the
wholly consistent with that moon goddess's universal ancient Egyptian moon mother. As Isis, Botticelli's central
maternalism. Imbued with the sun's masculine light, she,
figuratively speaking, has been impregnated by the male figure would understandably look pregnant.
principle. This may be understood as the meaning behind Gombrich's essay is significant not only because it cites
Witt's words, which suggest that Isis must continuously The GoldenAss, which contains a written description of Isis,
reflect, or regenerate, the light that informs her. but also because of its contention that the primary author of
 Woman's Art Journal 15

the Primavera's program was Marsilio Ficino, the initiations into the cult of Isis as a follower and priest may be
Neoplatonic philosopher, who would have known Apuleius's implicit in the painting's message. Perhaps Ficino intended
popular work. to present a moral allegory to the young Lorenzo by
Ficino had been brought into the Medici circle by Cosimo suggesting the trials one must endure in the quest for
de' Medici to translate and comment on the writings of Plato spiritual enlightenment and salvation. This simple theme,
and others. Ficino also served as mentor of the young however, may not easily convince one that Ficino or
Botticelli would have chosen Isis over Venus for the central
Medicis, including Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici,
second cousin and ward of II Magnifico, and the person for figure, or Apuleius's story over Plato's Symposium, for
whom, or by whom, the Primavera was commissioned. example, as a source for his allegory.
Young Lorenzo (b. 1463) was in his teens when the painting
was executed, sometime between 1478-82. ISI DI S
Gombrich's conclusion that Ficino authored the Magne Dcorum Matris
APVLBIANA DBSCRIPTIO.
Primavera's program for the young Lorenzo was based on I\N?
1wM V4 u I,' fm-
axpl {41to0
one of several letters that Ficino wrote to the boy. These W
IItfidn D - hoorumlfdii.
letters are preserved in the Epistolarium, which in turn is I 1IP" , J A Diiniscrem,mon-
dauo,orbes cr!eces
included in the Opera Omnia of the philosopher. Gombrich C{A.
BB IterLuonzr Auo-
(am,& imnfatcun-
assumes that the painting was commissioned around 1477- ditiaamr.otat.
CC Tutulut,vin tLu-
78, and dates the letter at the same time. His translation sa in herbas, &
planras.
D Ccrcrisfymbolum,
begins: fis oimnfpicasin.
iienit.
E Bvfsinavelis mul-
My immenselovefor you,excellentLorenzo,has long ticolor, multifor-
promptedme to make you an immensepresent.For memLanzfacicm.
F lancetiofrumenti.
anyonewhocontemplatesthe heavens,nothinghe sets f Dominiumin om-
niavegetlbilia.
eyesuponseemsimmense,buttheheavensthemselves. H Radiosiunares.
I GeniusNili malo-
If, therefore,I make you a presentof the heavens rumauerruncus.
K Ircrcmenta &de-
themselves,what wouldbe its price? cremcntaLunz.
LHumeaat.visLunc.
M Lun vis Vidfrix,8
The letter continues with astrological allusions: is diuinandi.
N Dominiurm inhu-
mores&mnare.
Theastrologershaveit that he is the happiestmanfor -
0 Terratynmbolt, &
Medicinzinuentrix.
whom Fate has so disposedthe heavenlysigns that " P Farcunditas,qua fe.
quittr terramirrn-
Luna is in no bad aspect to Mars and Saturn,that gtanm.
Q AllroaimDomina.
furthermoreshe is in favourableaspect to Sol and : 1 Onniumnutrix.
I
qTtrenmarifque._
Jupiter, Mercury and Venus. And just as the g[M_jDnmina.
astrologers call happy the man for whom Fate has thus i T,nl;u

arrangedthe heavenlybodies,so the theologiansdeem

him happywho has disposedhis own self in a similar
way ....
Ficino's letter concludes by instructing Lorenzo to "dispose"
the heavenly signs and his own gifts according to
instructions that include his attention to Luna, the Sun,
Jupiter, Mercury, and Venus who is called Humanitas, in
order to "escape all the threats of fortune"and to "live happy FIG. 3. Isis, Athanasius Kirchner,OedipusAegyptiacus(1652),
and free from cares."8 Rome.

According to Gombrich, the letter established that the

painting was meant to be a moral allegory authored by
Ficino directing Lorenzo to follow the beauty of Venus
toward love, virtue, and the Divine. However, Gombrich
dismisses the letter as a direct reference to the painting,
finding the conception of the classical deities "bizarre."9This
finding justifies his choice of the Judgment of Paris episode
from The Golden Ass. However, when the astrological
conception is seen in conjunction with Isis, the Queen of
heaven and the universal Mother, the reference to Ficino's
"present of the heavens itself" takes on greater significance.
The naming of the Egyptian goddess rather than Venus
as the central figure has far-reaching implications for the
meaning of the Primavera's program. The action and
iconography must be in accord with Isis's essence and with
the cult practices associated with her. For example, Lucius's
transformation back to human form and his subsequent FIG. 4. Primavera,detail.
16 Woman's Art Journal
Indeed, the notion that Ficino would choose the Egyptian
goddess Isis as the painting's main figure may seem
farfetched. However, there is evidence to the contrary.
Frances A. Yates's studies of Renaissance Neoplatonism
have led her to write:
... historiansof philosophymayhavesomewhatmisled
us as to the natureof [Neoplatonism]... Thenewwork
donein recentyearson MarsilioFicinoandhis sources
has demonstratedthat the core of the [Neoplatonic]
movementwas Hermetic, involving a view of the
cosmosas a networkof magicalforceswithwhichman
can operate.10
In this same essay Yates reminds the reader that the first
work translated by Ficino for Cosimo de' Medici was not by
Plato, but was the Corpus Hermeticum, a collection of 14
treatises authored by Hermes Trismegistus. Also, "Ficino
and his contemporaries believed that'Hermes Trismegistus'
existed and was an Egyptian priest, almost contemporary
with Moses, ... and the source-or one of the sources-with
other prisci theologi-of the stream of ancient wisdom which
eventually reached Plato and the Platonists."lTherefore,
since Ficino recognized this ancient wisdom in the writings
of Plato and, further, believed that the Greek philosopher's
tenets could be reconciled with Christianity, it may be
assumed that he would have granted preeminent authority
to Plato's Egyptian predecessors.
In addition, it should be noted that Ficino and others
attributed another divine book, the Asclepius, to Hermes
Trismegistus. This second work had been known through a
late antique Latin translation attributed to Lucius Apuleius,
author of The GoldenAss. Thus, Ficino may have believed
that while Apuleius had translated one of the Hermetic
sources, it had been left to him, Ficino, to translate the other.
Finally, there is evidence that other Quattrocento
thinkers and artists were aware of the images and
significance of Isis. The pavement in the central aisle of the
Siena Duomo, attributed to Giovanni de Stefano and dated
1488, includes an image of Hermes Trismegistus. Also,
Pinturicchio's frescoes (1492-1503) in the Borgia
apartments, Room of the Saints, Rome, show Moses, Hermes
Trismegistus, and Isis together. These same frescoes include
the sacrificial bulls sacred to the goddess.
With Yates's assurances of the Hermetic nature of
Ficino's Neoplatonism and these two Quattrocentoexamples
of interest in ancient Egyptian cult figures, Ficino's letter to
the young Lorenzo begins to take on more specific meaning.
The allusion to astrology in the letter is clear enough, and
those familiar with the Hermetica know that their context is
also astrological. As Yates has written, "The cosmological
framework which [the Hermetica] takes for granted is
always astrological, even where this is not expressly stated.
The material world is under the rule of the stars, and of the
seven planets. . .12
In this context, Isis is the appropriate goddess to assist
Lorenzo in the disposition of his own heavens. Witt
summarized her authority as it is presented in Apuleius:
Isis,by identificationwiththe Motherof Gods,became
withoutquestionthe Life Force, indwellingNature,
wherever she gained adherents .... We find Isis
praised with awe and wonder by Apuleius.... Her
power controls the winds, the seasons, and the
revolutionsof the heavens.13
My conviction that the central figure is the Egyptian
goddess Isis has led me into a study of the occult sciences as
they were understood in the Quattrocento and by Ficino,
who is known to have cast horoscopes and to have believed in
the influential rays of the planets and astral bodies. Closely
related to his interest in astrology were Ficino's conceptions
of the harmony, beauty, and perfection of a divinely ordered
universe. He believed that this order could be reflected on
earth and should be cultivated by men in their own lives.
Botticelli's considerable skills and ability were called
upon, then, to pictorialize Ficino's concept of a divine order
that produces the universal harmony, beauty and justice
that men seek on earth. In all probability, the peculiar space
and anatomical distortions in the painting conform to a
mathematical construction that was planned carefully and
is significant numerically. The purpose of the Primavera,
therefore, was to show young Lorenzo the benefits of a
measured, judicious life guided and blessed by a divine
intermediary whose power controls "the revolution of the
heavens."
This interpretation is most consistent with Florentine
Quattrocento Neoplatonism and its interest in Hermetic
beliefs and the occult. Moreover, it is supported by Ficino's
own writings and explains his enigmatic letter of advice to
Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, for whom the
Primavera was painted. *
1. Aby Warburg, Sandro Botticelli's 'Geburtder Venus' und 'Fruhling'
(Leipzig, 1893), reprint "Der Fruhling," GesammelteShriften (Leipzig -
Berlin, 1969), vol. I, 26-44.
2. The four interpretationsto which I am referring are:Ernst H. Gombrich,
"Botticelli's Mythologies"(1945); Edgar Wind, "Botticelli'sPrimavera"
(1958); Charles G. Bempsey, "MercuriusVer:The Sources of Botticelli's
Primavera" (1968); and Ronald Lightbown, Sandro Botticelli, 2 vols.
(1979).
3. Ernst H. Gombrich,"Botticelli'sMythologies,A Study of the Neoplatonic
Symbolism of His Circle," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld
Institutes, VIII (1945), 7-60.
4. Ibid., 24,30.
5. Apuleuis Madaurensis,TheMetamorphosesof Lucius OtherwiseKnownas
The Golden Ass, trans. Robert Graves (New York: Farrar, Straus &
Young, 1951), 263f.
6. Ibid., 254f.
7. R.E. Witt, Isis in the Graeco-Roman World (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell
University, 1971), 133.
8. Gombrich, 16.
9. Ibid., 17.
10. Frances A. Yates, "The Hermetic Tradition and Renaissance Science,"
Art, Science, and History in the Renaissance, Charles S. Singleton, ed.
(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1967), 255.
11. Ibid., 256.
12. Frances A. Yates, GiordanoBruno and theHermeticTradition(London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1964), 22.
13. Witt, 133.
JEAN GILLIES,pastvice-president of Women'sCaucusforArt,is
Professorof Art, NortheasternIllinoisUniversity,Chicago,where
she was FoundingCoordinator of the Women'sStudiesprogram.
She was also Project Directorof the film, "AmericanWomen:
Daughtersof a Dream."