![Venus and Mars National Gallery](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Venus_and_Mars_National_Gallery.jpg)
''Venus and Mars'' (or '' Mars and Venus'') is a
panel painting
A panel painting is a painting made on a flat panel of wood, either a single piece or a number of pieces joined together. Until canvas became the more popular support medium in the 16th century, panel painting was the normal method, when not paint ...
of about 1485 by the
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...
painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
Sandro Botticelli
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian Renaissance painting, Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th cent ...
. It shows the Roman gods
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...
, goddess of love, and
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
, god of war, in an allegory of beauty and valour. The youthful and voluptuous couple recline in a forest setting, surrounded by playful baby
satyrs
In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, σειληνός ), is a male nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, exag ...
.
The painting was probably intended to commemorate a wedding, set into panelling or a piece of furniture to adorn the bedroom of the bride and groom,
[Lightbown, 164] possibly as part of a set of works. This is suggested by the wide format and the close view of the figures. It is widely seen as representation of an ideal view of sensuous love. It seems likely that Botticelli worked out the concept for the painting, with its learned allusions, with an advisor such as
Poliziano
Agnolo (Angelo) Ambrogini (14 July 1454 – 24 September 1494), commonly known by his nickname Poliziano (; anglicized as Politian; Latin: '' Politianus''), was an Italian classical scholar and poet of the Florentine Renaissance. His scho ...
, the Medici house poet and
Renaissance Humanist
Renaissance humanism was a revival in the study of classical antiquity, at first in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the term ''humanist'' ( it, umanista) referred to teache ...
scholar.
The exact date of ''Venus and Mars'' is not known, but the National Gallery's dated the painting to "c. 1485" in 2017. Scholar
Ronald Lightbown
Ronald Lightbown (1932–2021) was a noted British art historian and curator, specializing in Renaissance art. He wrote large monographs on the painters Sandro Botticelli and Carlo Crivelli. After a degree from the University of Cambridge, between ...
dates it to "probably around 1483", while art historians Leopold & Helen Ettlinger date the painting to "the latter half of the 1480s". All dates depend on analysis of the style, as the painting has not been convincingly tied to a specific date, such as a wedding. It likely comes a few years after the ''
Primavera'' and ''
Pallas and the Centaur
''Pallas and the Centaur'' is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, c. 1482. It is now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It has been proposed as a companion piece to his '' Primavera'', though it is a different shape. ...
'' (both about 1482) and around the time of ''
The Birth of Venus
''The Birth of Venus'' ( it, Nascita di Venere ) is a painting by the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli, probably executed in the mid 1480s. It depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth, when she had emerged from the sea ...
'' (c. 1486). It is the only one of these paintings not in the
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...
in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
; it has been in the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...
in London since 1874.
Description
![Botticelli-Venus and Mars (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Botticelli-Venus_and_Mars_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Venus watches Mars sleep while two infant satyrs play, carrying his helmet (a
sallet
The sallet (also called ''celata,'' ''salade'' and ''schaller'') was a combat helmet that replaced the bascinet in Italy, western and northern Europe and Hungary during the mid-15th century. In Italy, France and England the armet helmet was also p ...
) and
lance
A lance is a spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior or cavalry soldier ( lancer). In ancient and medieval warfare, it evolved into the leading weapon in cavalry charges, and was unsuited for throwing or for repeated thrusting, unlike si ...
as another rests inside his breastplate under his arm. A fourth blows a small
conch
Conch () is a common name of a number of different medium-to-large-sized sea snails. Conch shells typically have a high spire and a noticeable siphonal canal (in other words, the shell comes to a noticeable point at both ends).
In North Am ...
shell in his ear in an effort, so far unsuccessful, to wake him. The clear implication is that the couple have been making love, and the male habit of falling asleep after sex was a regular subject for ribald jokes in the context of weddings in Renaissance Italy. The lance and conch can be read as sexual symbols.
The scene is set in a grove of
myrtle, traditionally associated with Venus and marriage, or possibly
laurel
Laurel may refer to:
Plants
* Lauraceae, the laurel family
* Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel
People
* Laurel (given name), people with the given name
* Laurel (surname), people with the surname
* Laurel (mus ...
, associated with
Lorenzo de' Medici
Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492) was an Italian statesman, banker, ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic and the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Also known as Lorenzo ...
(''il Magnifico''), or perhaps both plants. There is a limited view of the meadow beyond, leading to a distant walled city.
In the foreground, a swarm of wasps hovers around Mars' head, possibly as a symbol that love is often accompanied by pain.
[Potterton, 36] Another explanation, first suggested by
Ernst Gombrich
Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich (; ; 30 March 1909 – 3 November 2001) was an Austrian-born art historian who, after settling in England in 1936, became a naturalised British citizen in 1947 and spent most of his working life in the United Kin ...
, is that the wasps represent the Vespucci family that may have commissioned the painting. They had been neighbours of Botticelli since his childhood, and had commissioned his
''Saint Augustine in His Study'' for the Ognissanti church in 1480, probably in addition to other commissions. Their coat of arms included wasps, as their name means "little wasps" in Italian, and the wasps' nest, in a hollow in the tree in the top right corner, is exactly in the place in the panel where the
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
of a patron was often painted.
The painting is thought originally to have been set into panelling as a ''
spalliera
A spalliera (Plural: spalliere) is a decorated backboard mounted on a wall, often behind a cassone (a wooden chest used for storage), or as a headboard to a bed. It is usually made out of wood and embellished with decorative aspects such as intri ...
'', or part of furniture such as a bed, the back of a ''lettuccio'', a wooden sofa, or a similar piece.
Ronald Lightbown describes Mars as "Botticelli's most perfect male nude", though there are not really a large number of these; he was less interested in perfecting the anatomy of his figures than many of his Florentine contemporaries, but seems to have paid special attention to it here. The Venus here, unlike in the artist's ''Birth of Venus'', is fully clothed, as she is in marital mode. This despite Venus being the wife of
Vulcan
Vulcan may refer to:
Mythology
* Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...
, making the relationship adulterous by normal human standards. In Greek
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonism, Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and Hellenistic religion, religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of ...
, Harmony was the daughter of their union. Other late classical sources regarded
Cupid
In classical mythology, Cupid (Latin Cupīdō , meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, lust, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus (mythology), Venus and the god of war Mar ...
as a child of the union.
Interpretation
![Botticelli-Venus and Mars (cropped2)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Botticelli-Venus_and_Mars_%28cropped2%29.jpg)
The usual view of scholars is that the painting was commissioned to celebrate a marriage, and is a relatively uncomplicated representation of sensual pleasure, with an added meaning of love conquering or outlasting war. This was a commonplace in Renaissance thinking, which might be elaborated in terms of
Renaissance Neoplatonism
Platonism, especially in its Neoplatonist form, underwent a revival in the Renaissance as part of a general revival of interest in classical antiquity. Interest in Platonism was especially strong in Florence under the Medici.
History
During the s ...
. As with the other mythologies,
Ernst Gombrich
Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich (; ; 30 March 1909 – 3 November 2001) was an Austrian-born art historian who, after settling in England in 1936, became a naturalised British citizen in 1947 and spent most of his working life in the United Kin ...
and
Edgar Wind
Edgar Wind (; 14 May 1900 – 12 September 1971) was a German-born British interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary art historian, specializing in iconology in the Renaissance era. He was a member of the school of art historians associated with Aby ...
were the first to analyse the painting in these terms. The couple's relationship could also be considered in terms of
astrology
Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...
, in which Mars is, according to
Marsilio Ficino
Marsilio Ficino (; Latin name: ; 19 October 1433 – 1 October 1499) was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance. He was an astrologer, a reviver of ...
, "outstanding in strength among the planets, because he makes men stronger, but Venus masters him ...she seems to master Mars, but Mars never masters Venus".
The Victorian critic
John Addington Symonds
John Addington Symonds, Jr. (; 5 October 1840 – 19 April 1893) was an English poet and literary critic. A cultural historian, he was known for his work on the Renaissance, as well as numerous biographies of writers and artists. Although m ...
, without disagreeing with that interpretation, thought the newly fashionable Botticelli overrated and "harboured an irrational dislike for the picture", writing that "The face and attitude of that unseductive Venus... opposite her snoring lover, seems to symbolize the indignities which women have to endure from insolent and sottish boys with only youth to recommend them."
One dissenting interpretation is from Charles Dempsey, who finds a more sinister meaning in the picture, with the little satyrs as
''incubi'' who torment sleepers, provoking "sexual terrors in the dreams of those bound in a state of sensual error and confusion." He concludes that "The idea of love here invested in Venus seems to be revealed, not in a positive celebration of the spirit animating natural life shown in the ''Primavera'' and ''Birth of Venus'' but as an empty sensual fantasy that disarms and torments the slumbering spirit of a once virile martial valour.
The work is agreed by all to draw on the description by
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer
Pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes pamphlets, unbound (and therefore ...
, a poet in Greek of the 2nd-century AD, of a famous painting, now lost, by
Echion
In Greek mythology, the name Echion (Ancient Greek: Ἐχῑ́ων (''gen''.: Ἐχίονος), derivative of ἔχις ''echis'' "viper") referred to five different beings:
*Echion, one of the Gigantes, known for great strength (though not neces ...
of the wedding ceremony of
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...
and
Roxana
Roxana (c. 340 BC – 310 BC, grc, Ῥωξάνη; Old Iranian: ''*Raṷxšnā-'' "shining, radiant, brilliant"; sometimes Roxanne, Roxanna, Rukhsana, Roxandra and Roxane) was a Sogdian or a Bactrian princess whom Alexander the Great married a ...
. The ancient painting probably adapted
iconography
Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...
associated with Venus and Mars to the historical Alexander and his bride. Lucian's ''
ekphrasis
The word ekphrasis, or ecphrasis, comes from the Greek for the written description of a work of art produced as a rhetorical or literary exercise, often used in the adjectival form ekphrastic. It is a vivid, often dramatic, verbal descrip ...
'' or description mentions ''amoretti'' or
putti
A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and sometimes winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University of ...
playing with Alexander's armour during the ceremony, two carrying his lance and one who has crawled inside his breastplate.
This is taken both as evidence of Botticelli's collaboration with Humanist advisors with the full classical education that he lacked, and his keenness to recreate the lost wonders of ancient painting, a theme in the interpretation of several of his secular works, most clearly in the ''
Calumny of Apelles'', which also uses Lucian. A
Roman sarcophagus
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
in the Vatican is carved with a similar Mars and Venus reclining, accompanied by
putti
A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and sometimes winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University of ...
.
The position of the main figures reflects the description of them by
Lucretius
Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into E ...
in ''
de rerum natura
''De rerum natura'' (; ''On the Nature of Things'') is a first-century BC didactic poem by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius ( – c. 55 BC) with the goal of explaining Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience. The poem, written in some 7 ...
'' ("''The Nature of Things''"): "though Mars the War Lord rules war’s savage works, yet often he throws himself into your arms, faint with love’s deathless wound, and there, with arching neck bent back, looks up and sighs, and feeds a lustful eye on you and, pillowed, dangles his life’s breath from your lips. Then, as he falls back on your sacred body, Lady, lean over and let sweet utterance pour from your holy lips—a plea of peace for Rome."
![Botticelli-Venus and Mars (cropped4)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Botticelli-Venus_and_Mars_%28cropped4%29.jpg)
In 2010, the plant held by the satyr in the bottom right corner of the painting was hypothetically identified as the fruit of ''
Datura stramonium
''Datura stramonium'', known by the common names thorn apple, jimsonweed (jimson weed), devil's snare, or devil's trumpet, is a poisonous flowering plant of the nightshade family Solanaceae. It is a species belonging to the ''Datura'' genus a ...
'' by the art historian David Bellingham. This plant, often referred to as "poor man's acid", has properties likened to a mixture of
opium
Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
and
alcohol
Alcohol most commonly refers to:
* Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom
* Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks
Alcohol may also refer to:
Chemicals
* Ethanol, one of sev ...
, and may cause fainting or drowsiness as its effects wear off. Others question how this plant, normally considered a native only of North America, might have reached Italy by the 1480s, and dismiss the idea. However, in 2017 the National Gallery website endorsed the identification as a "thorn apple".
Bellingham suggests that the growing plant in the bottom right corner is a species of
aloe
''Aloe'' (; also written ''Aloë'') is a genus containing over 650 species of flowering succulent plants.WFO (2022): Aloe L. Published on the Internet;http://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-4000001341. Accessed on: 06 Nov 2022 The most wid ...
, credited by the Greeks with medicinal powers, as well as offering protection against evil spirits and enhancing sexual excitement. Bellingham proposes several layers of identification for the figures, generating different meanings. These include the couple as
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...
.
Possible models
As with many other of Botticelli's secular paintings, leading figures from Florentine high society have been proposed as the models for the figures.
Giuliano di Piero de' Medici
Giuliano de' Medici (25 October 1453 – 26 April 1478) was the second son of Piero de' Medici (the Gouty) and Lucrezia Tornabuoni. As co-ruler of Florence, with his brother Lorenzo the Magnificent, he complemented his brother's image as the " ...
has been proposed as the athletic model for Mars and, almost inevitably, it has been suggested that Venus has the face of
Simonetta Vespucci
Simonetta Vespucci (née Cattaneo; 1453 – 26 April 1476), nicknamed ''la bella Simonetta'', was an Italian noblewoman from Genoa, the wife of Marco Vespucci of Florence and the cousin-in-law of Amerigo Vespucci. She was known as the grea ...
, a great beauty of the time, married to the cousin of
Amerigo Vespucci. Giuliano di Piero de' Medici's candidacy as a model for Mars is somewhat problematic as he was assassinated in 1478, which is 5 years prior to the earliest date of the painting creation (1483). Simonetta Vespucci has been suggested as the model or inspiration for a great number of Botticelli's beauties, whose features by no means all have a close resemblance to each other.
Wilhelm von Bode
Wilhelm von Bode (10 December 1845 – 1 March 1929) was a German art historian and museum curator. Born Arnold Wilhelm Bode in Calvörde, he was ennobled in 1913. He was the creator and first curator of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, now calle ...
(d. 1929) first proposed the pair as the models in this painting; in his interpretation, Mars is tired after jousting, and Venus appears to him in a dream, as his prize. Giuliano had chosen Simonetta as his "lady" in a famous
joust
Jousting is a martial game or hastilude between two horse riders wielding lances with blunted tips, often as part of a tournament. The primary aim was to replicate a clash of heavy cavalry, with each participant trying to strike the opponent w ...
in 1475, organized by his older brother
Lorenzo de' Medici
Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492) was an Italian statesman, banker, ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic and the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Also known as Lorenzo ...
("Lorenzo il Magnifico"), the effective ruler of Florence to celebrate a treaty with
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
and
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
. This lavish public show was commemorated in the poem by
Poliziano
Agnolo (Angelo) Ambrogini (14 July 1454 – 24 September 1494), commonly known by his nickname Poliziano (; anglicized as Politian; Latin: '' Politianus''), was an Italian classical scholar and poet of the Florentine Renaissance. His scho ...
, the Medici court poet, known as the ''Stanze'' or ''la Giostra'' ("Verses" or "The Joust"), giving a detailed account, including a description of Giuliano's banner with an image of
Pallas Athene
Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...
, which was painted by Botticelli.
Many later commentators have probably taken this scripted display of
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...
an
courtly love
Courtly love ( oc, fin'amor ; french: amour courtois ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing vari ...
using the beautiful young wife of a political ally over-literally, generating a legend of an actual affair between the two. It is unlikely that any such affair took place; Giuliano's actual mistress,
Fioretta Gorini
Fioretta Gorini (1453/60 – possibly 1478) was the mistress of Giuliano de' Medici and the probable mother of Giulio de' Medici, the future Pope Clement VII. Gorini was the daughter of a professor, Antonio Gorini. Her actual name was Antonia or A ...
, was well known (and their son became
Pope Clement VII
Pope Clement VII ( la, Clemens VII; it, Clemente VII; born Giulio de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the ...
). Both Giuliano and Simonetta had been dead for several years when this painting was made: Simonetta died in 1476 at 22, and Giuliano had been assassinated in 1478 in the
Pazzi conspiracy.
![Venus and Mars National Gallery (detail a)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Venus_and_Mars_National_Gallery_%28detail_a%29.jpg)
''Stanze'' 122 describes how the hero found Venus "seated on the edge of her couch, just then released from the embrace of Mars, who lay on his back in her lap, still feeding his eyes on her face". However, the description, with Mars in Venus' lap, gazing up at her, is a poor fit to the painting. Poliziano was one of the
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
scholars in the court of
Lorenzo de' Medici
Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492) was an Italian statesman, banker, ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic and the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Also known as Lorenzo ...
, and his ''stanze'' recount
Giuliano di Piero de' Medici
Giuliano de' Medici (25 October 1453 – 26 April 1478) was the second son of Piero de' Medici (the Gouty) and Lucrezia Tornabuoni. As co-ruler of Florence, with his brother Lorenzo the Magnificent, he complemented his brother's image as the " ...
's prowess in a jousting tournament. The ultimate source for Poliziano's poem is
Lucretius
Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into E ...
I.32–34.
Provenance
Although today Botticelli is the most celebrated Florentine painter of second half of the 15th century, his reputation only reached this level in the late 19th century when his emphasis on line and contour chimed with the contemporary sensibility. Between 1857 and 1878, the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...
, London, acquired five of his works, including ''Venus and Mars''.
This painting was bought in Florence by the English collector and dealer Alexander Barker between 1864 and 1869, and then bought by the National Gallery at the auction of Barker's collection at
Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...
on 6–8 June 1874, for £1,050 (Lot 88). This is the only recorded sale on the open market of one of Botticelli's large mythological paintings, the others having all reached the collection of the Medici Grand-Dukes of Florence by an early date, and then passed to the
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...
. The National Gallery bought 13 works at the sale, where the Director, Sir
William Boxall
Sir William Boxall (29 June 1800 – 6 December 1879) was an English painter and museum director.
Early life and education
He was born at Oxford on 29 June 1800, and baptised 29 July at St Michael's Church, Oxford, to Thomas Boxall (d. 1847) ...
, was accompanied by
Benjamin Disraeli
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation o ...
, then
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
, who was keen to buy. The unfinished ''Nativity'' by
Piero della Francesca
Piero della Francesca (, also , ; – 12 October 1492), originally named Piero di Benedetto, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca i ...
was bought for £2,415, and a fresco ''Return of Ulysses'' by
Pinturicchio
Pinturicchio, or Pintoricchio (, ; born Bernardino di Betto; 1454–1513), also known as Benetto di Biagio or Sordicchio, was an Italian painter during the Renaissance. He acquired his nickname (meaning "little painter") because of his smal ...
for £2,152.
The price reached in 1874 is one of the examples used by
Gerald Reitlinger
Gerald Roberts Reitlinger (born 1900 in London, United Kingdom – died 1978 in St Leonards-on-Sea, United Kingdom) was an art historian, especially of Asian ceramics, and a scholar of historical changes in taste in art and their reflection in ...
to demonstrate the difference in the mid-Victorian period between the very high prices realized by contemporary art, and the modest ones for
s; a disparity just as marked in the early 21st century. In 1873, it appears that ''The Otter Hunt'' by
Edwin Landseer
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (7 March 1802 – 1 October 1873) was an English painter and sculptor, well known for his paintings of animals – particularly horses, dogs, and stags. However, his best-known works are the lion sculptures at the bas ...
, who died that year, was sold privately for £10,000.
Piero di Cosimo
Though there are other paintings of Venus and Mars, Botticelli's work is often compared and contrasted with the ''Venus, Mars and Cupid'' by
Piero di Cosimo
Piero di Cosimo (2 January 1462 – 12 April 1522), also known as Piero di Lorenzo, was an Italian painter of the Renaissance.
He is most famous for the mythological and allegorical subjects he painted in the late Quattrocento; he is said to ...
(
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
The Gemäldegalerie (, ''Painting Gallery'') is an art museum in Berlin, Germany, and the museum where the main selection of paintings belonging to the Berlin State Museums (''Staatliche Museen zu Berlin'') is displayed. It was first opened in ...
, c. 1505), a younger Florentine painter who had probably seen the Botticelli. The painting probably dates to around 1500-05, and later belonged to
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculpt ...
. The similarities include the two figures reclining, with Mars asleep and Venus awake, and a group of infant attendants who play with Mars' armour, in a setting of bushes opening to a landscape. They contrast in atmosphere and most other aspects, and Piero has included an infant Cupid, a wide landscape and some of the animals that he loved to paint. For
Erwin Panofsky
Erwin Panofsky (March 30, 1892 in Hannover – March 14, 1968 in Princeton, New Jersey) was a German-Jewish art historian, whose academic career was pursued mostly in the U.S. after the rise of the Nazi regime.
Panofsky's work represents a hig ...
, the Piero is an "enchantingly primitivistic pastoral" where Botticelli's version is a "solemnly classicizing allegory".
[Fermor, 46]
Notes
References
*
Avery-Quash, Susanna, in Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues (new series): ''The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings'', Volume 1, 2003,
* Bellingham, David, "Aphrodite Deconstructed: Botticelli's ''Venus and Mars'' in the National Gallery, London", in ''Brill's Companion to Aphrodite'', eds.
Amy C. Smith
Amy C. Smith is the current Curator of the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology and Professor of Classical Archaeology at Reading University. She is known for her work on iconography, the history of collections, and digital museology.
Career
Smith ...
, Sadie Pickup, 2010, BRILL, , 9789047444503
google books*
Davies, Martin, ''Catalogue of the Earlier Italian Schools'', National Gallery Catalogues, 1961, reprinted 1986,
*Dempsey, Charles, "Botticelli, Sandro",
Grove Art Online
''Grove Art Online'' is the online edition of ''The Dictionary of Art'', often referred to as the ''Grove Dictionary of Art'', and part of Oxford Art Online, an internet gateway to online art reference publications of Oxford University Press, ...
, Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 15 May 2017
subscription required*"Ettlingers":
Leopold Ettlinger
Leopold David Ettlinger (April 20, 1913 – July 4, 1989) was a Warburg Institute historian of the Italian renaissance and UC Berkeley Art Department Chair, from 1970 to 1980. He wrote some of his books together with his third wife Helen Sh ...
with Helen S. Ettlinger, ''Botticelli'', 1976,
Thames & Hudson
Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...
(World of Art),
*Fermor, Sharon, ''Piero Di Cosimo: Fiction, Invention, and Fantasìa'', 1993, Reaktion Books, , 9780948462368
google books*Legouix, Susan, ''Botticelli'', 2004 (rev'd ed.), Chaucer Press,
*
Hartt, Frederick, ''History of Italian Renaissance Art'', (2nd ed.) 1987, Thames & Hudson (U.S. Harry N. Abrams),
* Langmuir, Erica, ''The National Gallery Companion Guide'', 1997 revised edition, National Gallery, London, (Yale University Press, 2016 ed., )
* Lightbown, Ronald, ''Sandro Botticelli: Life and Work'', Thames & Hudson, 1989
* Potterton, Homan. ''The National Gallery''. London: Thames & Hudson, 1977
*
Reitlinger, Gerald; ''The Economics of Taste, Vol I: The Rise and Fall of Picture Prices 1760–1960'', Barrie and Rockliffe, London, 1961
*
Wind, Edgar, ''Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance'', 1967 ed., Peregrine Books
Literary sources
* Ficino, Marsilio, ''Commentary on the Symposium: De Amore'', from Oration V, chapter 8
* Fowler, H. W. and F. G. (eds.)
The Works of Lucian of Samosata', Oxford, 1905.
* Quint, David. (tr.) (1979) ''The Stanze of Angelo Poliziano''. Amherst:
University of Massachusetts Press
The University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The press was founded in 1963, publishing scholarly books and non-fiction. The press imprint is overseen by an interdisciplinar ...
External links
"Sandro Botticelli: ''Venus and Mars'' in Renaissance Florence", National Gallery talk by Caroline Campbell
{{Botticelli
1480s paintings
Paintings by Sandro Botticelli in the National Gallery, London
Paintings of Venus
Paintings of Mars (mythology)