Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



Click to view high resolution image

  • Title: Primavera (Spring)
  • Creator: Botticelli, Sandro, painter
  • Description: This image draws on passages from the "De rerum natura" of Lucertius and Ovid’s "Fasti." Venus, goddess of love, stands in the center of an orange grove. Above her a blindfolded Cupid prepares to shoot a flaming arrow. To the right, Zephyr (the wind god), chases the nymph Chloris. According to Ovid, Zephyr captures and rapes Chloris but to atone for his actions he turns her into Flora, goddess of flowers. Here flowers begin to flow from Chloris’s mouth, and the figure wearing flowers in her hair and around her neck is Chloris fully transformed into Flora. To the left the three Graces dance to signal the beginning of spring while Mercury raises his caduceus to gathering clouds. Mercury is associated with Gemini/Virgo, and Venus with Taurus/Libra, so Mercury’s appearance to the left of Venus could illustrate the passing of the months, with the Three Graces marking the seasonal transition.
  • Source: Wikimedia Commons
  • Rights: Public domain
  • Subject (See Also): Astrology Classical Influences Cupid in Art Love Medici, Florentine Family Personification Venus (Mythological Figure) Women in Art
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 15
  • Date: 1481-1482 (restored 1982)
  • Related Work: Possible companion piece to Botticelli’s Pallas and the Centaur: http://www.googleartproject.com/collection/uffizi-gallery/artwork/pallas-and-the-centaur-botticelli-filipepi/328511/
  • Current Location: Florence, Uffizi Gallery
  • Original Location: Florence, Residence of Lorenzo and Giovanni di Pierfrancesco de' Medici
  • Artistic Type (Category): Digital images; Paintings
  • Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Panel; Tempera; Gold
  • Donor: Laymen; Lorenzo and Giovanni di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, cousins of Lorenzo il Magnifico
  • Height/Width/Length(cm): 314 cm/203 cm/
  • Inscription:
  • Related Resources: