Genially #2

• This excerpt describes Venus, the goddess of Love
• Botticelli depicts Venus very closely to this description, depicting her "golden hair", and surrounding her with the forest, nature, and flowers.
• However, this description also fits Botticelli's depiction of Flora (see next window)

Poliziano's Stanze di messer Angelo Politiano cominciate per lagiostra del magnifico Giuliano di Pietro de' Medici, excerpt XLIII

"She is fair-skinned, unblemished white, and white is her garment, though ornamented with roses, flowers, and grass; the ringlets of her golden hair descend on a forehead humbly proud. The whole forest smiles about her, and, as it may, lightens her cares; in her movement she is regally mild, her glance alone could quiet a tempest."

• Botticelli depicts Flora very closely to the description provided in the excerpt, which could apply to either her or Venus.
• Flora is shown with "golden hair", fair unblemished skin, and "ornamented with roses, flowers, and grass" even more than the depiction of Venus.

Poliziano's Stanze di messer Angelo Politiano cominciate per lagiostra del magnifico Giuliano di Pietro de' Medici, excerpt XLIII

(See last button for excerpt)

• Botticelli depicts the Graces as companions to Venus, which is described in the excerpt above.
• The Graces are identifiable by their elegance and their connection to Venus, which is not described in the text but is a part of roman mythology.

Poliziano's Stanze di messer Angelo Politiano cominciate per lagiostra del magnifico Giuliano di Pietro de' Medici., excerpt XLV

"Beside her goes humble, gentle Chastity, who turns the key to every locked heart; with her goes Nobility with kindly appearance and imitates her sweet graceful step."

Blue button: True/Mostly true to the source text

Yellow Button: Semi-true to source text

• While it is clear that Botticelli is depicting Cupid in the action of drawing his bow, he is not shown in as much detail as the text describes
• Botticelli painted Cupid blindfolded, possibly to symbolize the unexpected nature of love, which is not described in the text.

Poliziano's Stanze di messer Angelo Politiano cominciate per lagiostra del magnifico Giuliano di Pietro de' Medici, excerpt XL

"Quickly, Cupid, hidden in those beautiful eyes, adjusts the notch of his arrow to his bowstring, then he draws back with his powerful arm so that the two ends of his bow meet; his left hand is touched by the point of fiery gold, his right breast by the string: the arrow does not begin to hiss through the air before Julio has felt it inside his heart."

• Botticelli uses Cupid's pointed arrow to convey the idea of giving up chastity for marriage, a theme shown through multiple points of the painting.
• This idea is not directly conveyed within the text, but it can be inferred that this passage applies to Chastity becoming a target of Cupid.

Poliziano's Stanze di messer Angelo Politiano cominciate per lagiostra del magnifico Giuliano di Pietro de' Medici, excerpt XLV

"Love captures, wounds, and kills all those hearts with whom she sweetly speaks or sweetly laughs."

• Botticelli very clearly depicts the rape of Chloris and her transformation into Flora, which is described straightforwardly in the text.

Ovid's Fasti

"But it brought my mother a god as son-in-law.It was spring, I wandered: Zephyrus saw me: I left.He followed me: I fled: he was the stronger,And Boreas had given his brother authority for rapeBy daring to steal a prize from Erechtheus’ house.Yet he made amends for his violence, by granting meThe name of bride, and I’ve nothing to complain of in bed."

• The details described here are present in the painting. Botticelli paints roses coming out of Chloris' mouth, and depicts her in a much more 'wild' pose compared to Flora, showing her immodesty and shame that came from Zephyr's rape.

Ovid's Fasti

"(While she spoke, her lips breathed out vernal roses):‘I, called Flora now, was Chloris: the first letter in GreekOf my name, became corrupted in the Latin language.I was Chloris, a nymph of those happy fields,Where, as you’ve heard, fortunate men once lived.It would be difficult to speak of my form, with modesty"

Red Button: Not true to source text at all

• Botticelli depicts Mercury, Cupid's father, as a part of the scene, although he is not mentioned in either source text.
• Mercury has been seen before as a symbol of springtime and male fertility, so he is not out of place in this painting, which has many symbols alluding to fertility and marriage.

Summary:

It is very clear that Botticelli was interested in humanism because of the ties to Mythology that this painting contains. He uses these mythological stories to depict scenes representing love, chastity, marriage, and fertility. While not all of the details came directly from source texts, the ones that do are very accurate to those texts by Ovid and Poliziano. Because Botticelli was making this painting for a member of the Medici family, it was likely very important that it reflected humanist knowledge in order to highlight the patron's intellect, as well as Botticelli's.