Birth of Venus
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| The Birth of Venus |
| Sandro Botticelli, c. 1485–1486 |
| tempera on canvas |
| 172.5 × 278.5 cm |
| Uffizi, Florence |
| 64 worlds greatest paintings |
The Birth of Venus is a painting by Sandro Botticelli. It depicts the Goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as a full grown woman, arriving at the sea-shore. The painting is currently in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
This large picture by Botticelli may have been, like the Primavera, painted for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici's Villa di Castello, around 1483, or even before. Some scholars suggest that the Venus painted for Lorenzo and mentioned by Giorgio Vasari may have been a different work, now lost. Some experts believe it to be a celebration of the love of Giuliano di Piero de' Medici (who died in the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478) for Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci, who lived in Portovenere, a town by the sea with a local tradition of being the birthplace of Venus. Whatever inspired the artist, there are clear similarities to Ovid's Metamorphoses and Fasti, as well as to Poliziano's Verses.
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22 sculptures: Christ the Redeemer
44 buildings: Eiffel Tower • Colosseum • Big Ben • St Basil's Cathedral • Chichen Itza
64 paintings: American Gothic • Arnolfini marriage • Bacchus and Ariadne • Birth of Venus • Black Square • Burial of St. Lucy • Creation of Adam • Danae • Flight of a Bee • Girl with a Pearl Earring • Guernica • Haywain • Icon of the Trinity • Les Demoiselles d'Avignon • Liberty Leading the People • Madonna Litta • Mona Lisa • Moulin de la Galette • Olympia • Ship of Fools • Sistine Madonna • The Crucifixion of St. Peter • The Death Of Marat • The Great Wave • The Kiss • The Last Supper • The Nude Maja • The Old Guitarist • The Persistence of Memory • The School of Athens • The Scream • The Son of Man • The Starry Night • The Sunflowers • The Third of May • Tower of Babel • Triumph of Galatea • Venus at Her Mirror • Venus de Milo • Venus of Urbino • View of Toledo • Vitruvian Man

