The Birth of Venus (Italian: La nascita di Venere) is a tempera painting created by Florentine painter Sandro Botticelli. It was finished in 1486 and counts among the most iconic works of art coming from the Italian Renaissance.
It depicts the goddess Venus of Classical Mythology arriving at the shore after her birth when she had emerged from the sea fully-grown (called Venus Anadyomene and often depicted in art). She's being blown to the shore by the minor wind deities Zephyr and Aura, who Zephyr is carrying. On the right, the Hora of the Spring is about to robe Venus with a pink dress.
While not the only painting to take the name The Birth Of Venus, Botticelli's painting is definitely the most recognizable.
The painting is currently on display in the Uffizi Gallery Museum in Florence. There are plenty of references and parodies of it in the trope The Burlesque of Venus.
Compare Primavera, Botticelli's other big painting starring Venus. Not to be confused with the Venus de Milo sculpture nor with the equally named paintings of Bouguereau, Cabanel and Steinbrück.
The Birth of Venus provides examples of:
- Adaptational Modesty: The depiction of Venus was based on the Capitoline Venus, a type of statue of Venus where the naked goddess is desperately trying to preserve her modesty, covering her breasts with her right hand, and her groin with her left hand.
- Artifact Title: As it turns out, Botticelli never named his painting — it was art historians from the XIXth century who did that. And they, well, screwed up. The painting's subject is not Venus' birth per se but the newborn Venus about to step onto the island of Cythera (which was considered her homeland). A more fitting title would be Venus Arriving on Shore after Being Born from the Sea.
- Artistic License – Anatomy: Venus' neck is unnaturally long and bends at an improbable angle.
- Blow You Away: Zephyrus, God of the West Wind, and Aura, Goddess of Breeze, are blowing the newborn Venus to land.
- Born as an Adult: As was the case in the classical myth that inspired it, Venus arrives on shore as a young woman.
- Contrapposto Pose: Venus is resting most of her weight on her left foot, giving the impression that it's a consequence of Zephyr blowing her and her shell from the opposite direction. This makes her overall posture look very delicate and stereotypically feminine.
- Godiva Hair: Venus covers herself with her long hair.
- Gold and White Are Divine: Venus has golden hair, and the only article of clothing she's wearing (a ribbon to tie it back) is white.
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: Venus is covering her chest with her right arm and gathering up her hair to cover her pubic region with her left.
- Hot Wind: An Older Than Steam example. Thanks to the minor wind deities Aura and Zephyr, Venus' hair is being gently tousled. Meanwhile, Venus is standing naked in a sexy contrapposto pose.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Venus, though covering herself as best she can, doesn't seem too distressed at her lack of clothing. She is looking at the country she is about to call home, almost ignoring the lesser deities bringing her to shore or racing to get some clothing on her.
- Love Goddess: Venus, the Roman Goddess of Love, is the subject of the painting. This status is represented by several symbols: the color pink, her naked state, the flowers, and the seashell she's standing on.
- Magical Barefooter: The figures in the painting are Venus and three lesser deities, and no one is wearing shoes. Furthermore, Zephyr, the god of the west wind, and Aura, the goddess of the breeze, are using their powers to blow the recently-born Venus from the sea to the shore.
- The Muse: Not the goddess kind, but the metaphorical kind. No one is certain who the model who posed as Venus was, but most take a guess that she was Simonetta Vespucci, wife of Marco Vespucci, a locally famous beauty and one of Botticelli's recurring models.
- Naked on Arrival: Greek Mythology states that Venus or Aphrodite was born a fully-formed woman out of sea foam — and, naturally, she wasn't wearing a stitch. The painting depicts her earliest moments or hours, where she has already emerged from the sea but has yet to arrive on land or receive any clothing. Her nude, womanly figure is appropriate for the Goddess of Love and Sexuality. Furthermore, in Renaissance art, nudity is a shorthand for divine nature.
- Protagonist Title: The painting's primary subject is Venus.
- Rule of Symbolism:
- Most of the imagery in the painting revolves around Venus being a Love Goddess. Very evident is that she's naked and standing in a very feminine, sensual Contrapposto Pose — this is the erotic side of love. Moreover, the seashell below is an object commonly used to symbolize female genitalia. On a more romantic side, one of the minor deities is about to robe her in a pink dress, a color associated with love. Finally, there are some pink roses being blown along with Venus by Zephyr.
- The flower motifs are also meant to evoke Florence, the city where Botticelli was born. The city's ruler, Lorenzo il Magnifico, has too his name alluded by means of the laurel trees and wreath.
- Scenery Censor: Although it's technically a nude rendition of Venus, she preserves a bit of her modesty using her hands and her long hair.
- Sexy Surfacing Shot: Botticelli's painting is possibly the Trope Codifier, as it exquisitely depicts what the myths can only leave to the imagination. It's not strange to be born naked, but Venus, the most beautiful goddess, came to this world as an adult, very attractive woman.
- Ur-Example: Popularity breeds imitations, hence why The Burlesque of Venus is a trope.
- Water Is Womanly: Botticelli takes after the classical myth and depicts the Love Goddess Venus on a seascape and standing in a very feminine Contrapposto Pose on top of a seashell.
- Winged Humanoid: As depicted with Zephyrus and Chloris, the former being an Anthropomorphic Personification of the wind, and flying.
- The X of Y: The painting depicts Venus being Born as an Adult from the ocean, in this case from the shell of a clam.
