The Birth of Venus

Sandro Botticelli

Tempera on canvas

Uffizi Gallery

The Birth of Venus depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore, standing atop a large scallop shell, having emerged fully grown from the sea. To her left, the wind god Zephyrus and a companion blow her gently toward land, while to her right a female figure — likely a Hora, or goddess of the seasons — extends a flower-adorned cloak to receive her. Painted in tempera on canvas in the mid-1480s, the work is a landmark of Italian Renaissance art, notable for its graceful linearity, idealized figuration, and rich engagement with classical mythology and Neoplatonic philosophy cultivated in the Medici court. Botticelli, born Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi in Florence, trained under Fra Filippo Lippi and became one of the foremost painters of the Florentine School, celebrated for his lyrical draftsmanship and poetic use of mythological subject matter.