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Sandro Botticelli
Spring
1482
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Mythical figures
Botticelli's Primavera
is an allegory on the
harmony of nature
and humankind and
contains many mythical
figures, including Venus
(the link between
nature and civilization)
and Mercury. At the
extreme right of the
painting, the figure of
Zephyr (the west wind
of spring) is seen chasing
Chloris, who is then
transformed into
Flora,
the goddess of flowers.
A blindfolded Cupid
shoots his arrows
at the Three Graces
(the handmaidens of Venus)
who were believed
to represent the three
phases of love:
beauty, desire, and
fulfillment. This
illustration shows a
woodcut of Cupid, who
was one of the most
popular figures in
Renaissance art.
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Iron ore, in quattrocento Italy, was found solely on the island
of Elba, where the mines belonged to a family called Appiani. In
1478 Lorenzo de' Medici wished to acquire the mining rights. Lorenzo
was known as "the Magnificent", the uncrowned king of Florence. The
respective contract was signed, and, in May 1482, there was a
wedding: Lorenzo the Magnificent's cousin, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco
de' Medici, married Semirarmde Appiani. There is no evidence to
suggest that the wedding was arranged by Lorenzo the Magnificent and
the Appiani family - common practice in ruling families at the time
- to promote trade. It nonetheless served that purpose ably.
The conjunction of mine owners and mining interests, or perhaps —
who knows! - the joining in wedlock of lovers, was the occasion
which prompted Botticelli's Primavera. This, in any case, is
generally assumed. Nor is it unlikely either: although undated, the
style of the painting is that of Botticelli's other works of this
period.
It was usual in upper class circles to provide newly-weds with a
fully furnished home, including works of art. The painting was later
listed in Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco's inventary, so that scholars now
suppose it was executed for the younger Lorenzo (rather than for
Lorenzo the Magnificent, as previously thought); it hung in the
antechamber of the master bedroom.
Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, like his powerful cousin and in keeping
with family tradition, was a patron of philosophy and the arts. The
great humanist Ficino supervised his education, while the poet
Poliziano dedicated verses to him. Besides the Primavera,
Botticelli painted The Birth of Venus and Pallas and the
Centaur for Lorenzo. For thirty years, Lorenzo di
Pierfrancesco was entirely dominated by his powerful and more
"magnificent" cousin, who made him ambassador to the pope and gave
him the task of conveying the official congratulations of the ruling
house of Florence to the newly crowned French king. At the same
time, however, Lorenzo did everything he could to prevent his
younger cousin from growing powerful. Tensions arose between them,
and rivalry. When the Medicis were expelled from Florence after the
death of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco was
permitted to stay. He abandoned the Medici family name, calling
himself "Popolano", after the "populist" party, instead. He died in
1503, at the age of 40.
He married at the age of 19, a time of life that is frequently
compared to spring. Spring, too, or Primavera, is the
title by which the painting is commonly known today. It was first
described by the artist and writer Giorgio Vasari in the 16th
century: "Venus, adorned with garlands by the Graces, annouces the
Spring." During the 17th and 18th centuries the painting was called
The Garden of the Hesperides. According to the ancient myth,
golden apples grew in this garden. They were guarded by a dragon,
and by the Hesperides, daughters of the Titan Atlas. There is no
dragon here, and whether the dancing women really are Graces, or
even Atlas's daughters, is a matter of some dispute. Venus stands at
the centre of the painting. Zephyrus is the figure on the right,
blowing pleasant breezes that bring eternal spring. The goddess
Flora scatters her flowers, while on the left, the god Mercury keeps
watch, sheltering the garden against threatening clouds.
Besides obvious references to fertility and spring, there are two
hidden allusions to the name of the bridegroom. On the right, laurel
trees sway in the wind; their Latin name was laurus, in which
contemporaries would have heard Laurentius, the Latin name for
Lorenzo. Venus' golden apples are here painted as oranges, known in
antiquity as the "health fruit": medica mala. From here to
the name Medici is hardly very far. Allusions of this kind were the
joy of an educated public.
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 Sandro Botticelli (detail)
Spring
1482
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Chloris
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 Sandro Botticelli (detail)
Spring
1482 |
Sandro Botticelli (detail)
Spring
1482
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Various nineteenth-century art buffs let it be known that the
features of members and friends of the Medici family could be
identified in the faces of Botticelli figures. There is no evidence
whatsoever to support this claim. At the same time, however, the
figures in Botticelli's paintings were certainly known to his
contemporaries: not as individuals, but as figures from Greek and
Roman mythology.
They knew that Zephyrus, a wind god, was pursuing the nymph Chloris
in this picture. The story was familiar enough, recorded by the
Roman poet Ovid (43 B.C.-18 A.D.), who allowed the nymph to tell the
story herself: "Zephyrus caught sight of me, I avoided him, he
followed, I took flight; he was the stronger ..."
Of course, the pursuit and rape of Chloris had a happy ending; we
would otherwise be unlikely to find them in a wedding painting:
Zephyrus turned the nymph into the goddess Flora, and married her.
Botticelli paints Chloris and Flora as a couple. And indeed from
then on, so Flora tells us, she had no reason for complaint:
"I enjoy eternal spring, a radiant season ... At the heart of the
land of my dowry lies a fertile garden in the mildest of climates
... My noble husband filled it with flowers, saying: 'You, o
goddess, shall rule over the flowers!'"
Flora thus became the goddess of flowers; Botticelli's blossoms look
as if Flora herself has scattered them. Flora: "I often wished to
count the colours arranged on the ground, but I could not. Together,
they were greater than any number could be ... I was first to
scatter new seed over countless peoples, before then the earth had
but one colour."
There is nothing in Ovid to suggest that flowers sprang from Chloris'
mouth when she cried for help. That is probably the artist's own
invention. But when the goddess spoke, "spring roses were the breath
that passed her lips". Afterwards she ascended "into the mild air,
leaving nothing but a light fragrance. One simply knew: a goddess
was here."
This lovely story comes from Ovid's "Fasti", a Roman calendar. Ovid
tells a tale about the god revered on each feast day. Flora's feast
day, for example, was called Floralia. Botticelli is unlikely to
have read the "Fasti"; as the son of an uneducated tanner, he
probably could not read Latin. However, it is known that Pohziano, a
poet employed by the Medici family, held public lectures on Ovid's
festive calandar in 1481. The wedding took place a year later. It is
possible that Botticelli was inspired by Poliziano.
The lectures on Ovid were enormously popular, coinciding as they did
with the rediscovery by Poliziano's more progressive contemporaries
of Classical antiquity. The majority of Greek and Roman writers had
been committed to oblivion for over a thousand years. The ancient
gods and heroes had been swept aside by the one God, by Christ, the
Virgin Mary and the saints. But Classical authors now enjoyed a
comeback. Their manuscripts were sought far and wide, and large sums
were paid for copies. Ancient mythical figures began, in turn, to
replace the Holy Family and saints.
In Florence, Poliziano was a major proponent of the rediscovery - or
rebirth, for it became known as the Renaissance - of Classical art
and literature. His real name was Angelo Ambrogini, born in
Montepul-ciano in 1454. Like many humanist scholars and poets of his
day, he gave himself a Latin name after his place of birth, the
Latin word for which was Mons Politianus. He thus called himself
Politianus, or, translated into Italian, Poliziano. It was he who
coined the famous dictum: "Athens lies not in ruins, but brought her
scholars, mice and men to set up house in Florence."
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The flowers
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 Sandro Botticelli (detail)
Spring
1482
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Not only was Classical antiquity discovered anew, but Nature too.
Botanists have identified the species of flower that Flora, wife of
Zephyrus, appears to scatter in the painting. Among them are
forget-me-not, hyacinth, iris, periwinkle, pheasant's-eye and
anemone. Around her neck the goddess wears a wreath of myrtle; in
her dress she carries wild roses; in her hair are violets,
cornflowers and a sprig of wild strawberries. Apparently, these
flowers all blossom in Tuscany in the month of May. Whatever the
dictates of mythology and style, Botticelli's choice was true to
Nature.
Botticelli's botanic realism corresponded to a newly awakened
interest in Nature at the universities, where botany had become an
academic subject. Pisa and Padua, the university towns of Florence
and Venice, were the sites of the first botanic gardens.
Besides all else, the special attention devoted to Nature also had a
practical side. Any Florentine who could afford to do so had a
country house and farm not far from town. Once there, they would eat
vegetables and fruit grown in their own garden and use oil from
their own groves. Lorenzo the Magnificent is known to have owned a
country villa near Careggi where he bred Calabrian pigs; at one of
his other villas he bred Sicilian pheasants. He also introduced a
species of rabbit from Spain.
Even a relatively poor man like Botticelli's father bought a small
villa near Careggi. On 19th April 1494 Sandro Botticelli bought a
country house outside Florence, admittedly with the help of his
brother and nephews. The price was 155 gulden. That was
approximately what he was paid for one and a half paintings.
It was not uncommon in Europe for the inhabitants of towns to own
agricultural land. However, the difference between Florentines and
the majority of other town dwellers, especially those in more
northerly climes, was that the former also liked to live out of
town. A book published at the time states: "In the crystal-clean air
and pleasant countryside around Florence are many villas with
wonderful vistas ..." In the same book we read: "A country house is
like a reliable friend ... It keeps your troubles at bay all the
year round."
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Venus
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 Sandro Botticelli (detail)
Spring
1482
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 Sandro Botticelli (detail)
Spring
1482
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Venus stands at the centre of the painting. The space
between the branches of trees surrounding her head forms the
shape of a halo. Her graceful pose and chaste clothes are
rather more reminiscent of the Virgin Mary than of a goddess
of sensual love. Classical antiquity ascribed two roles to
Venus. On the one hand, certainly, she was the
light-hearted, adulterous goddess, accompanied by her son
Cupid, "who (painted near the Graces in this picture),
blindly excited passion with his burning arrows. On the
other, she was all harmony, proportion, balance. A
civilizing influnce, she settled quarrels, eased social
cohesion. She was the incarnation of eroticism - a creative
rather than destructive force.
The vision of a Venus humanitas informed the ideal of
womanhood in 15th-century Italy. In his treatise Il
Libro del Cortegiano Baldassare Castiglione
(1478-1529) wrote: "It is surely beyond dispute that there
could be no contentment in a life without "women. Without
them, life would be rough, lacking in tenderness, worse than
the life of wild beasts. Can there be anybody who disputes
this? Women drive from our hearts all evil, all baseness,
all worry, misery, sadness. They inspire our minds to great
things, rather than distracting us ..."
It goes without saying that Botticelli clothed his Venus in
the robes of a married woman: she wears a bonnet and, draped
over it, a veil. Hair was considered the weapon of the
seductress; only young girls were permitted to let their
hair hang loose.
The figures of the three Graces allow the artist to display
the elaborate artistry with which the women of his time
arranged their hair. To make their hair seem fuller, women
would often use silk bands, false plaits and
other hairpieces. The most fashionable colour was a
delicately tinted blonde, the product of strenuous bleaching
and dyeing.
Under her dress and shawl, Venus wears a long chemise, of
which the arms alone are visible. This was quite usual for a
lady of Florence. However, it was unusual for a married
woman to reveal her feet, or drape her shawl or cloak with
such evident disregard for symmetry. Mercury's toga, too, is
deliberately asymmetrical. This was thought to be in the
antique manner, and Florentines would have considered it a
token of Classical mythology.
What was utterly contemporary, and utterly 15th century,
however, was the ideal of beauty shown in Botticelli's
paintings: eyebrows drawn as gentle curves rather than a
double arch, foreheads no longer high and shaved, as they
had been during the Middle Ages, but linear and Greek and
twice as broad as long. A rounded, slightly protruberant
belly was now considered graceful. The beauty of the hand
was accentuated by exhibiting it against the background of a
dress or shawl - as does Venus in the painting.
While in Rome to assess the qualities of a potential bride
for her son, Lorenzo the Magnificent's mother, Lucrezia,
mentions two characteristics that were highly treasured at
the time: "She is tall and has a white skin." Almost all of
Botticelli's women are large, indeed slightly elongated, if
not unnaturally tall. And as for white skin, even country
girls are said to have gone to some length in order to
procure the ideal pallor, using tinctures, pastry packs,
cosmetic pastes, and avoiding sunlight. If the three Graces
dancing in the shadows in the present painting seem almost
carved from alabaster, this cannot solely be attributed to
idiosyncracy of style on the artist's part, for their
appearance is fully in keeping with contemporary notions of
beauty.
The Florentine ideal of womanhood demanded not only beauty,
but education. In wealthier families, women were taught the
Classical subjects alongside their brothers; they were
expected to hold their own in a discussion, and to please
their husbands with intelligent conversation. Besides this,
a woman had to know how to run a household, an ability which
the practically-minded Florentines held in high esteem. She
had to be thrifty, keep a clean house and give sound
direction to the servants. Only the cash-books were out of
bounds.
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