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The Birth of Venus
Sandro Botticelli · Renaissance & Mannerism
- Artist
- Sandro Botticelli (c. 1444/45–1510)
- Date
- c. 1484–1486
- Dimensions
- 172.5 x 278.5 cm
- Medium
- Tempera on canvas
- Location
- Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy
Botticelli’s Birth of Venus shows the goddess of love arriving on the shore on a scallop shell, blown by the winds. Painted in Florence in the 1480s, it was one of the first large-scale images of a classical nude goddess since antiquity.
A closer look
On the left, the wind god Zephyr and a companion blow Venus towards land, scattering roses through the air. On the right, a nymph of the seasons hurries to cover her with a flowered cloak. Venus stands in a pose borrowed from ancient statues, modestly covering herself, her long hair flowing in the breeze. Botticelli cared less about anatomy than about graceful line: her neck is too long and her shoulders slope impossibly, yet the figure seems to float.
History of the painting
In the mid-16th century the painter and biographer Giorgio Vasari saw The Birth of Venus, together with Primavera, in the Medici villa at Castello outside Florence, which is the first secure record of the picture. It stayed in Medici villas until it was transferred to the Uffizi in 1815. A careful restoration completed in 1987 removed yellowed varnish and revealed touches of gold in Venus's hair and the trees. Today it is the gallery's most visited work, and its central figure is reproduced on the Italian 10-cent euro coin.
