One of my favourite art historian, Richard Leeman, told us one day “we look at the famous painting ‘Birth of Venus’ from Sandro Botticelli and we can converse for hours about Neo-Platonism, write books about its position in the artist’s life, the impact it has in art history or for contemporary artists… but this is also a lovely naked woman who is still pleasant to look at, even centuries after being paint”. I think this is a pretty good definition for this chef d’oeuvre and it shows how ambiguous and powerful an image can be!
Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus (c. 1486)
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