The Birth of Venus is a painting by Sandro Botticelli. It depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as a full grown woman, arriving at the sea-shore (Venus Anadyomene motif). The painting is currently in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1182x740, 265 KB)Botticellis The Birth of Venus The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author... A 1367 tempera on wood by Niccolò Semitecolo. ... For building painting, see painter and decorator. ... Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli (little barrel) (March 1, 1445 – May 17, 1510) was an Italian painter of the Florentine school during the Early Renaissance (Quattrocento). ... Marble Venus of the Capitoline Venus type, Roman (British Museum) Venus was a major Roman goddess principally associated with love and beauty, the rough equivalent of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. ... For the three letter acronym, see SEA. For the ancient Jewish unit of volume, see Seah (unit). ... Venus Anadyomene, by Titian, ca. ... In art, a motif is a repeated idea, pattern, image, or theme. ... The narrow courtyard between the Uffizis two wings creates the effect of a short, idealized street. ... Florence (Italian: ) is the capital city of the region of Tuscany, Italy. ...

Origins

This large picture by Botticelli may have been, like the Primavera, painted for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici's Villa di Castello, around 1483, or even before. Some scholars suggest that the Venus painted for Lorenzo and mentioned by Giorgio Vasari may have been a different work, now lost. Some experts believe it to be a celebration of the love of Giuliano di Piero de' Medici (who died in the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478) for Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci, who lived in Portovenere, a town by the sea with a local tradition of being the birthplace of Venus. It must be noted that Botticelli himself also privately loved the beautiful Simonetta, who was de' Medici's mistress. Whatever inspired the artist, there are clear similarities to Ovid's Metamorphoses and Fasti, as well as to Poliziano's Verses. Simonetta is also believed to have been the model for Venus in this painting, as well as for several other women in other Botticelli works, such as Primavera. The Primavera is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, c. ... Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici (1463 - May 20, 1503), son of Pierfrancesco de Medici (the Elder). ... Giorgio Vasaris selfportrait Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (Arezzo, Tuscany July 3, 1511 - Florence, June 27, 1574) was an Italian painter and architect, mainly known for his famous biographies of Italian artists. ... Portrait by Sandro Botticelli. ... Simonetta Vespucci (1454 – 1476) was the mistress of Giuliano de Medici, Lorenzo Medicis younger brother. ... Portovenere is a village in Liguria, Italy located 12km from La Spezia. ... Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC – Tomis, now Constanţa AD 17), a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. ... Angelo Poliziano. ...

The classical goddess Venus emerges from the water on a shell, blown towards shore by the Zephyrs, symbols of spiritual passions. She is joined by one of the Horae, goddesses of the seasons, who hands her a flowered cloak. Zephyr and Hyakinth; Attic red figure cup from Tarquinia, circa 480 BCE. Boston Museum of Fine Arts. ... Horae in Meyers, 1888 In Greek mythology, the Horae were three goddesses controlling orderly life. ... Evening cloak or manteau, from Costume Parisien, 1823 A cloak is a type of loose garment that is worn over indoor clothing and serves the same purpose as an overcoat—it protects the wearer from the cold, rain or wind for example, or it may form part of a fashionable...

The effect, nonetheless, is distinctly pagan, considering it was made at a time and place when most artworks depicted Roman Catholic themes. It is somewhat surprising that this canvas escaped the flames of Savonarola's bonfires, where a number of Botticelli's other alleged pagan influenced works perished. Botticelli was very close to Lorenzo de Medici. Because of their friendship and Lorenzo's power, this work was spared from Savonarola's fires and the disapproval of the church. Look up pagan, heathen in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... Girolamo Savonarola by Fra Bartolomeo, ca 1498 Girolamo Savonarola (September 21, 1452–May 23, 1498), also translated as Jerome Savonarola or Hieronymous Savonarola, was a Dominican priest and, briefly, ruler of Florence, who was known for religious reformation and anti-Renaissance preaching and his book burning and destruction of...

The anatomy of Venus and various subsidiary details do not display the strict classical realism of Leonardo da Vinci or Raphael. Most obviously, Venus has an improbably long neck, and her left shoulder slopes at an anatomically unlikely angle. Such details only enhance the great beauty of the painting, and some have suggested it prefigures mannerism. Realism in the visual arts and literature is the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life, without embellishment or interpretation. ... The Mona Lisa Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian polymath: scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, and writer. ... This page is about the artist. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... In Parmigianinos Madonna with the Long Neck (1534-40), Mannerism makes itself known by elongated proportions, affected poses, and unclear perspective. ...

Classical inspiration

Mural at Pompeii.

The painting was one of a series which Botticelli produced, taking as inspiration written descriptions by the 2nd century historian Lucian of masterpieces of Ancient Greece which had long since disappeared. The ancient painting by Apelles was called Venus Anadyomene, "Anadyomene" meaning "rising from the sea"; this title was also used for Botticelli's painting, The Birth of Venus only becoming its better known title in the 19th century. 'The Birth of Venus' is very similar to Praxiteles' Aphrodite, a statue. Elizabeth Thomas, eli@eli-nati. ... Elizabeth Thomas, eli@eli-nati. ... Lucian. ... The Temple to Athena, the Parthenon Ancient Greece is a period in Greek history that lasted for around three thousand years. ... Another Apelles was the founder of a Gnostic sect in the 2nd century; Apelles (theologian). ... Venus Anadyomene, by Titian, ca. ...

A mural from Pompeii was never seen by Botticelli, but may have been a Roman copy of the then famous painting by Apelles which Lucian mentioned. Pompeii is a ruined Roman city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. ... Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea. ...

In classical antiquity, the sea shell was a metaphor for a woman's vulva. The hard, rigid outer calcium carbonate covering of certain animals is called a shell. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

The pose of Botticelli's Venus is reminiscent of the Venus de Medici, a marble sculpture from classical antiquity in the Medici collection which Botticelli had opportunity to study. Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, which begins roughly with the earliest-recorded Greek poetry of Homer (7th century BC), and continues through the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Western Roman Empire (5th century AD... For the board game, see Medici (board game). ...

Detail of the painting.

Download high resolution version (720x1033, 125 KB)detail from The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli. ... Download high resolution version (720x1033, 125 KB)detail from The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli. ...

Botticelli's Birth of Venus in popular culture

Reproductions and variations on Botticelli's famous painting have been numerous in popular culture, including in advertising and motion pictures. Notable examples include: Popular culture, sometimes called pop culture, consists of widespread cultural elements in any given society. ... Commercialism redirects here. ... Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ...

Film

• A scene in the 1962 James Bond film Dr. No with Ursula Andress rising from the sea was inspired by the painting.^{[citation needed]}
• The scene was recreated in more detail in the 1988 film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, with Uma Thurman as Venus.
• In Ken Russell's 1971 film The Devils, Louis XIII of France first appears in a court tableau/ballet as Botticelli's Venus emerging on stage from a giant half shell à la Bette Midler.

Flemings image of James Bond; commissioned to aid the Daily Express comic strip artists. ... Dr. No is a 1962 spy film. ... Ursula Andress (born 19 March 1936) is a Swiss actress and a major sex symbol of the 1960s. ... The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a 1988 film directed by Terry Gilliam, starring John Neville (as the Baron), Sarah Polley, Eric Idle, Jonathan Pryce, Oliver Reed, Uma Thurman, Robin Williams and a great many more. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, the lead section of this article may need to be expanded. ...

Television

• Munchausen's director Terry Gilliam had previously featured the painting in an animated sequence in Monty Python's Flying Circus, segueing into the Dead Parrot sketch. In true Python fashion, a hand reaches up from the sea to twist Venus' exposed breast, causing upbeat music to play while Venus dances in a very silly fashion. This sequence is also seen in the Monty Python film And Now For Something Completely Different.
• In a Simpsons episode called "The Last Temptation of Homer", Homer imagines coworker Mindy as Venus.

Terrence Vance Gilliam (born November 22, 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, animator, and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. ... This article discusses the series itself. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wikisource. ... And Now For Something Completely Different is a film spinoff from the television comedy series Monty Pythons Flying Circus featuring favourite sketches from the first two seasons. ... The Simpsons. ... The Last Temptation of Homer is the ninth episode of The Simpsons fifth season. ... This list is of one-time fictional characters from the American animated television comedy series The Simpsons. ...

Music

• Robin Williamson's song "Will We Open The Heavens", from his 1972 solo debut Myrrh, is based on Botticelli's painting.^{[citation needed]}

Robin Williamson (born 1943, Edinburgh) is a Scottish multi-instrumentalist musician. ...

Books

• The "Kilgore Trout" novel Venus on the Half-Shell is titled from a jocular nickname for the painting.
• In a scene near the end of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, the main character Humbert Humbert decides that Lolita has a striking similarity to Botticelli's Venus.
• A subplot of Thomas Pynchon's novel V. centers on an attempt by a love-struck character to steal the painting from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The scene underscores the paradoxical attraction and destruction of men to women, a key theme in the novel.

Kilgore Trout is a fictional character created by author Kurt Vonnegut. ... Venus on the Half-Shell, first published in two parts begining in the December 1974 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, is a science fiction novel attributed to the fictional author Kilgore Trout but actually written by Philip José Farmer. ... Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Набо́ков, pronounced ) (April 22 [O.S. April 10] 1899, Saint Petersburg – July 2, 1977, Montreux) was a Russian-American author. ... Lolita (1955) is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov. ... Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. ... book cover V. is the debut novel of Thomas Pynchon published in 1963, concerning the journey of discharged U.S. Navy sailor Benny Profane through a decadent group of artists in 1956, along with the attempt of an aging traveller named Herbert Stencil to locate the mysterious woman he knows...

Media

• Adobe Illustrator used a stylized representation of the painting in its splash screen through version 10.
• In the 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, Eva Herzigová appears as Venus from a shell.

This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A splash screen in Inkscape with the logo and version information Splash screen is a term used to describe an image that appears while a computer program is loading. ... The Opening Ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics (Torino 2006) was held on February 10, 2006 beginning at 20:00 CET (19:00 UTC) at the Stadio Olimpico in Turin, Italy. ... Eva Herzigová (born March 10, 1973) is a Czech supermodel and actress. ...

Other

• A stylized face of Venus is on the 10 cent Italian euro coins.

Italian euro coins have a design unique to each denomination, though there is a common theme of famous Italian works of art from one of Italys renowned artists. ...

External links

• The Medici Venus - Greek statue, template for Botticelli's Venus