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The goddess of love and beauty in the painting by Botticelli is sad and detached from the world. Her sad face catches our eye. Why is there no happiness in it, the joy of discovering and recognizing the world? What did the artist want to tell us? Psychoanalyst Andrei Rossokhin and art critic Maria Revyakina examine the painting and tell us what they know and feel.
«LOVE CONNECTS EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY»
Maria Revyakina, art historian:
Venus, personifying love, stands in a sea shell (1), which the wind god Zephyr (2) carries to the shore. The open shell in the Renaissance was a symbol of femininity and was literally interpreted as a female womb. The figure of the goddess is sculptural, and her posture, characteristic of ancient statues, emphasizes ease and modesty. Her immaculate image is complemented by a ribbon (3) in her hair, a symbol of innocence. The beauty of the goddess is mesmerizing, but she looks thoughtful and aloof compared to other characters.
On the left side of the picture we see a married couple — the wind god Zephyr (2) and the goddess of flowers Flora (4)entwined in an embrace. Zephyr personified earthly, carnal love, and Botticelli enhances this symbol by depicting Zephyr with his wife. On the right side of the picture, the goddess of Spring, Ora Tallo, is depicted. (5), symbolizing chaste, heavenly love. This goddess was also associated with the transition to another world (for example, with the moment of birth or death).
It is believed that myrtle, garland (6) from which we see on her neck, personified eternal feelings, and the orange tree (7) was associated with immortality. So the composition of the picture supports the main idea of the work: about the union of the earthly and the heavenly through love.
The color range, where blue tones predominate, gives the composition airiness, festivity and at the same time coldness.
No less symbolic is the color range, dominated by blue tones, turning into turquoise-gray shades, which gives the composition airiness and festivity, on the one hand, and a certain coldness, on the other. Blue color in those days was typical for young married women (they are surrounded by a married couple).
It is no coincidence that there is a large green color spot on the right side of the canvas: this color was associated both with wisdom and chastity, and with love, joy, the triumph of life over death.
Dress color (5) Ory Tallo, which fades from white to gray, is no less eloquent than the purple-red shade of the mantle (8), with which she is going to cover Venus: the white color personified purity and innocence, and the gray was interpreted as a symbol of abstinence and Great Lent. Perhaps the color of the mantle here symbolizes the power of beauty as an earthly force and the sacred fire that appears every year on Easter as a heavenly force.
«ADMISSION OF BEAUTY AND THE PAIN OF LOSS»
Andrey Rossokhin, psychoanalyst:
The hidden confrontation in the picture of the left and right groups catches the eye. The wind god Zephyr blows on Venus from the left (2)representing male sexuality. On the right, the nymph Ora meets her with a mantle in her hands. (5). With a caring maternal gesture, she wants to throw a cloak over Venus, as if to protect her from the seductive wind of Zephyr. And it’s like fighting for a newborn. Look: the force of the wind is directed not so much at the sea or at Venus (there are no waves and the figure of the heroine is static), but at this mantle. Zephyr seems to be trying to prevent Ora from hiding Venus.
And Venus herself is calm, as if frozen in the confrontation between two forces. Her sadness, detachment from what is happening attracts attention. Why is there no happiness in it, the joy of discovering and recognizing the world?
I see in this a premonition of imminent death. Primarily symbolic — she gives up her femininity and sexuality for the sake of divine maternal power. Venus will become the goddess of love pleasure, which she herself will never experience this pleasure.
In addition, the shadow of real death also falls on the face of Venus. The Florentine lady Simonetta Vespucci, who allegedly posed for Botticelli, was the ideal of beauty of that era, but died suddenly at 23 from consumption. The artist began to paint «The Birth of Venus» six years after her death and involuntarily reflected here not only admiration for her beauty, but also the pain of loss.
Venus has no choice, and this is the reason for sadness. She is not destined to experience attraction, desire, earthly joys
Ora’s clothes (5) very similar to the clothes of Flora from the painting «Spring», which acts as a symbol of fertility and motherhood. This is motherhood without sexuality. This is the possession of divine power, not sexual attraction. As soon as Ora covers Venus, her virginal image will immediately turn into a mother-divine one.
We can even see how the edge of the mantle turns into a sharp hook by the artist: he will pull Venus into a closed prison space, marked by a palisade of trees. In all this, I see the influence of the Christian tradition — the birth of a girl should be followed by an immaculate conception and motherhood, bypassing the sinful stage.
Venus has no choice, and this is the reason for her sadness. She is not destined to be a woman-lover, like the one that soars in the voluptuous embrace of Zephyr. Not destined to experience attraction, desire, earthly joys.
The whole figure of Venus, her movement is directed towards the mother. One more moment — and Venus will come out of the shell, which symbolizes the female womb: she will no longer need her. She will set foot on mother earth and put on her mother’s clothes. She will wrap herself in a purple robe, which in ancient Greece symbolized the border between the two worlds — both newborns and the dead were wrapped in it.
So it is here: Venus is born for the world and, having barely managed to find femininity, the desire to love, she instantly loses her life, the living principle — what the shell symbolizes. A moment later, she will continue to exist only as a goddess. But until this moment, we see in the picture the beautiful Venus in the prime of her virginal purity, tenderness and innocence.