Immortal Beauty: Botticelli’s Venus Trilogy

The brightest evening star currently making its appearance after sunset in the Northern hemisphere is the planet Venus, named after the Roman Goddess of Love. The most iconic image of Venus was painted by Sandro Botticelli 500 years ago, and after centuries of obscurity, it finally came to epitomise ideals of feminine beauty. <img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*bjiJOSl6sxeBJQYpuj3NOA.jpeg" style="height:440px; width:700px" /> ‘The Birth of Venus’ (c.1486) by Sandro Botticelli [<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sandro_Botticelli_-_La_nascita_di_Venere_-_Google_Art_Project_-_edited.jpg" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">view license</a>] Botticelli looked to Roman copies of classical Greek statues that depicted Aphrodite the Greek Goddess of Love, and which were created centuries before his time. When he painted his Venus, he retained a clear outline of her body and her pale, milky skin suggesting marble statues he had studied. Venus is shown naked, which set a precedent at this time, yet draped by her long lustrous hair. She is standing, almost floating on a giant scallop shell which is being blown toward the shore of Kythera (Cyprus) by Zephyr, God of the wind, and the nymph Aura. Hora, another goddess and one of the Graces, waits on the shore to drape her in a rich fabric covered with beautiful flowers. All the figures remain otherworldly, floating above the earth and none cast a shadow. <a href="https://medium.com/signifier/immortal-beauty-botticellis-venus-trilogy-921ab326ed69">Read More</a>