The renaissance period was from 1300-1600 and during this era there were several movements. Sandro Botticelli was a painter of the early renaissance/ Italian renaissance and painted the well known painting called The Birth of Venus. Overall during the renaissance period the images that emerged continue to represent beauty and intellect for people all around the world.
Early Italian renaissance began to emerge in Florence, Italy during the 15th century. Early renaissance paintings attempted to achieve greater realism in all of their works. In paintings, the faces that were being painted were more accurate and “life-like”, the bodies were painted with better posture and more realistic poses and the people who were posing began to portray more expressive emotions. The creation of credible space played a huge role by have allowing artists to also focus on the accurate representation of the human body and/or naturalistic landscapes. Greater realism in fine art painting also required proper study of light, shadow and human anatomy. Even though major advances were made during the early renaissance period, it was not until the end of the century that proper lighting and use of shadow was fully mastered by very well known high renaissance artists like Leonardo Da Vinci. The Italian renaissance was the earliest revelation of the European renaissance. It was a period of great cultural change and achievements transitioning out of Medieval period. The Italian renaissance was centred in the city of Florence, but then later spread to Venice.The Renaissance period also introduced some great talents of artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo,Raphael and Sandro Botticelli. In general, the Italian renaissance was best known for their skills in painting, architecture, sculptures, literature, music, philosophy, science and exploration.
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi was born in Florence, Italy in 1445. He went by Sandro Botticelli and is well known for his painting, The Birth of Venus from 1484-1486. He is also ,known for his paintings called Primavera and The Adoration of the Magi. Although he painted paintings around mythological subjects, he painted a wide range of religious subjects and also some portraits. Botticelli was very religious and was heavily shown through the theme of his painting. The majority of Botticelli’s paintings were not dated but were approximately dated following his other painting that were. He was labelled as an independent master for all the 1470s, growing in mastery and reputation, the 1480s were his most successful decade. Around the 1490s, his style became more personal and some would say mannered, he appeared to be moving in a direction opposite to that of the new generation of painters at the time, creating the High Renaissance style just as he returned in some ways to the Gothic movement.
In the painting, The Birth of Venus, Botticelli was interprets the goddess Venus arriving to shore after her birth. This painting depicts subjects from classic mythology by featuring Venus the Roman goddess of love and beauty emerging from the sea fully grown. To the left of Venus, the god of wind Zephyr blows at her to bring her to shore alongside a young female also blowing wind but not as strongly. On the right there is a minor goddess who has a piece of clothing for Venus to cover her once she reaches shore. The illustration of nude women was not something that was normally done in the Middle Ages, but there were exceptions in specific circumstances. This painting is painted on two pieces of canvas that were sewn together before Botticelli began painting.
I chose this painting because there is a meaningful and clever explanation behind every small detail in this painting. It specifically caught my eye because of my love for mythology, it makes the painting that much more captivating when there is a story behind what has been painted on the canvas.
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