The Birth of Venus

c. 1485

Tempera on canvas, 172.5 × 278.5 cm · Uffizi Gallery, Florence

One of the first large paintings of a pagan goddess since antiquity, very probably made for a member of the Medici family. It is painted on canvas, a support then used for decoration in great houses.

First recorded in 1550 by Vasari at the Medici villa of Castello.
Venus’s pose comes from ancient statues; gold highlights run through her hair.
The two winds at left are modelled on an ancient gem owned by Lorenzo the Magnificent.
Orange trees, a Medici emblem, and roses blown on the wind.
The cloaked woman is sometimes identified as the Hora of spring or one of the Graces.

Aphrodite (Roman Venus) is the goddess of love and beauty. In Hesiod she rises full-grown from the sea foam and comes ashore on Cyprus.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain