Venus and Andy Warhol
Botticelli and Warhol’s Art Works of Venus Sandro Botticelli created the beautiful, captivating, and norm breaking Birth of Venus. It depicts the story of the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as a full grown woman arriving at the shore. Painted in 1486, and with the medium of tempera on canvas, The Birth of Venus hangs in the Uffizi gallery in Florence Italy. This renaissance painting is huge and is 67.9 inches tall by 109.6 inches wide. Andy Warhol’s screen print Venus was done is 1984 and has been mass produced all over the country. There are many critiques and analysis for both of these pieces. Also there is a large amount of comparisons between the two, because they are both of the same goddess. There is a lot of historical background pertaining to Botticelli’s masterpiece because of the era in which it was created: The Renaissance.
Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus is his most famous painting, and was once hung in the Medici Villa. In the composition Venus is in the middle drifting towards the sea shore. Venus is nude and at this time in the Renaissance nudity was not common, so is mythological image was risky. To the right of Venus a woman is waiting to clothe Venus, but she is floating away from the woman in her sea shell boat. To her left the god Zephyr and Flora are there to witness her arrival. The use of perspective in this painting is realistic because there is a vanishing point where the sky meets the water. The background is full of natural blues, and the white caps of the ripples in the water lead the viewer’s eyes toward the front of the piece. Shadow and light is used to make curves on the figures rather than outline, which were also becoming new in this period. All of the bodies seem to be very spiritualistic because of how they almost float above the ground. Sandro made the feet of the figures with flexed or almost pointed toes. This adds a really graceful flying look to the people. Also The placement of Zephyr and Flora is
Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus is his most famous painting, and was once hung in the Medici Villa. In the composition Venus is in the middle drifting towards the sea shore. Venus is nude and at this time in the Renaissance nudity was not common, so is mythological image was risky. To the right of Venus a woman is waiting to clothe Venus, but she is floating away from the woman in her sea shell boat. To her left the god Zephyr and Flora are there to witness her arrival. The use of perspective in this painting is realistic because there is a vanishing point where the sky meets the water. The background is full of natural blues, and the white caps of the ripples in the water lead the viewer’s eyes toward the front of the piece. Shadow and light is used to make curves on the figures rather than outline, which were also becoming new in this period. All of the bodies seem to be very spiritualistic because of how they almost float above the ground. Sandro made the feet of the figures with flexed or almost pointed toes. This adds a really graceful flying look to the people. Also The placement of Zephyr and Flora is
Cited: Penelope J.E.Davies, Walter B. Denny, Frima Fox Horfrichter, Joseph Jacobs, Ann M. Roberts and David L. Simon. Janson’s History of Art, 7th edition Upper Saddle River NJ, in 2007 by Pearson. Birth of Venus page 539.