Myths and legends: Botticelli's 'Venus and Mars'

Excellent workshop at the National Gallery looking in detail at Botticelli’s Venus and Mars led by David Bellingham.

We began by looking at Venus’s in art to this point, thinking about the role of the ancient statues in setting models for painted Venus’s. We also looked at other works by Botticelli with Venus’s in them.

We then went to look at the picture in the gallery. We thought about its unusual shape and what it might have been used for. We also talked about the fact it’s not dated and how we can place it stylistically. We then talked about which sections used ancient models and which were contemporary.

Back in the lecture room we looked at the layers of meaning in the paintings. Most fascinating was the idea that it shows a well-known contemporary couple Simonetta Vespuci and Juliano de Medici, friend and brother of Lorenzo de Medici. We also talked about how it may refer to another picture referred to in ancient texts o Alexander the Great and his wife Roxanna.

The relationship may be being shown as a Platonic one and we discussed Platonic philosophy at this time. We analyses the symbolism in the picture including the oval green prickly fruit at the front of the picture plane which the lecturer thought is a Thorn Apple and a reference to the garden of Eden. This could therefore be seen as a humanist version of Adam and Eve.

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