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Beyond the Brush S01E05
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00:09I think the birth of Venus is actually an almost perfect portrayal of the philosophy of the renaissance.
00:16Somebody looking at this would see an ideal woman. She is almost improving our nature.
00:24It's an idealised beauty. That's really, really important.
00:30In the heart of the renaissance, Sandro Botticelli was about to create a masterpiece.
00:35Something that would define beauty for centuries.
00:40He wanted us to understand that this is otherworldly.
00:43She really has become the epitome of ideal beauty.
00:49In a time of shifting ideals, he dared to imagine something ancient made new again.
00:55A goddess rising from the sea, untouched by the modern world.
01:01There's the element to this painting that it is decorative and the colours and the composition aid that.
01:07It's a technical masterpiece.
01:10With each brushstroke, beauty and myth come to life.
01:14And when it's finished, she stands before you.
01:17The birth of Venus.
01:19When it's finished, she
01:59This painting is without doubt one of the most popular paintings in the Uffizi. It's
02:05one of the most reproduced paintings in the shop and street vendors. Every single iPhone
02:11cover and tea towel and so forth is covered with this painting. And yet Botticelli, whilst
02:18he was extremely popular in his own day, fell almost completely out of favour.
02:22I think there's a very simple answer to why this fell out of favour. And I think the
02:26reason is because he backed the wrong horse.
02:32Although we admire Botticelli's masterpieces today as some of the greatest achievements
02:37of the Renaissance, what many don't realise is the artist himself became entangled in
02:43the political and religious turmoil of his time.
02:48His patrons were the Medici family and the Medici family were ruling Florence. Now the
02:54Medici family are going to be ousted by Savonarola. Savonarola would rise to power in Florence after
03:01the Medici's. His regime was driven by religion and Puritanism.
03:07And he's the mad monk who's going to burn all of the possessions in the squares in Florence
03:13and the bonfires of the vanity. And he's going to take over Florence and the Medici's are going
03:18to be ousted. A figure whose rise challenged their authority and condemned the very ideals
03:26Botticelli once painted so vividly. Eventually he gets too powerful and he is executed. And Botticelli is
03:34left behind in Florence and then the Medici's come back.
03:39The Medici's returned to power in 1512 after Botticelli's death, but it was too late for
03:45his reputation. His association with Savonarola likely diminished his standing in Florence.
03:51So as a result, Botticelli's work fell out of favour.
03:57And I think he fell out of favour with the Medicis for that specific reason. Plus by this
04:03time, you've got Leonardo coming in, you've got Michelangelo coming in, and he just fell
04:08out of fashion. That's really as simple as it is.
04:15But how did Botticelli and this masterpiece regain the recognition it deserved? Let's jump
04:22forward in time to find out.
04:24Well, the Uffizio actually becomes a public museum in the 18th century. And when it does
04:29become a public museum, there's pretty much no Botticelli in evidence. It's not until the
04:3419th century that the decision was taken to create a sort of chronology of Italian art.
04:39Oh, well, we better include Botticelli.
04:45After centuries of obscurity, Botticelli's work was once again brought into the spotlight.
05:01And the birth of Venus is included in that synopsis. But Primavera is not. Primavera is still
05:08kept in storage. So loads of Botticelli is in storage in the 19th century. It seems absolutely
05:24crazy until a number of art historians and critics, and particularly artists, started to look at his
05:32work afresh. And one of those groups of artists is the Pre-Raphaelite group. They love the decorative
05:40aspect of Botticelli's paintings, those subtle colors, this ornamentation, this idealization of
05:48feminine beauty. So when you look at a lot of Pre-Raphaelite women, they look very much like Botticelli.
05:54The Pre-Raphaelites loved him. The Pre-Raphaelites absolutely adored him. He really encapsulates that
06:01whole romantic concept that the Pre-Raphaelites were interested in. If you look at any Pre-Raphaelite
06:06painting, you can see the influence of this painting.
06:14It's often assumed that the Pre-Raphaelites were interested in Raphael. They weren't. They were
06:20interested in what was before Raphael. And unfortunately, thanks partly to the writings
06:28of Giorgio Vasari, the world's first art historian you might call him in the 16th century, he creates
06:33this idea of almost a Bronze Age and Silver Age and Golden Age of art. And who's at the height
06:40of
06:40the Golden Age? It's Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. And then there becomes this tendency
06:46rather to overlook artists that came before. Overshadowed by the towering figures of the High
06:53Renaissance, Botticelli's delicate poetic style fell out of step.
06:57His mythological visions and spiritual grace were set aside as the world turned toward precision and
07:05anatomy. For a time, Botticelli was little more than a footnote in art history. A genius hidden in plain sight.
07:15So there's this rebirth of interest, thank goodness, in Botticelli as I say. Partly,
07:21all largely, thanks to artists themselves, who see a reflection of many of their own ideals and
07:28aspirations in his magnificent paintings.
07:42I think she really has become the epitome of ideal female beauty. She is just such a magnificent
07:52homage to youth and beauty.
07:59I think there's nothing quite like this painting, actually, and I think it really stands out. First of all,
08:04it's so huge. It's a very big painting. This is another one of those paintings that you need to see
08:10in
08:10real life just to realise how huge it is.
08:14This is the first time we see a full-scale nude in Western art outside of a religious context. And
08:21I do think
08:22the shock of that idea has passed down through the centuries, and that's what's made it so iconic.
08:33But in many ways, this is a paradox. In many ways, this is reflective of how we see beauty in
08:39the modern
08:40world. Because actually, it's a very, very strange body.
08:47I want you to have a look, for example, at her left shoulder and her left arm. The proportion of
08:54that
08:54shoulder is really, really strange. It almost looks like that left arm is made out of plasticine,
09:01as it's been stretched out of all proportion. She has very, very long limbs. And if you look at the
09:09nymph on the left-hand side, probably Chloris, and she's grabbing hold of Zephyr, the wind,
09:15have a look at her body, then have a look at her neck, and then have a look at her
09:20legs, and try and work
09:21out how those legs are attached to that body. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. It's completely
09:30nonsensical. It's completely anatomically inaccurate. But somehow, it doesn't matter.
09:43I think the birth of Venus is actually an almost perfect portrayal of the philosophy of the Renaissance.
09:49It's an idealized beauty. That's really, really important. It's an idealized form.
09:55The difference between this painting and the paintings of the later Renaissance is that this
10:00is a mythological subject. So it's not about reality. It's different in that context. We can
10:06take the form of Venus, and she is the perfect concept of the Renaissance.
10:11In 15th century Florence, nudity outside of religious or classical context was considered daring.
10:19Artistic depictions of the nude were typically reserved for biblical figures like Adam and Eve.
10:25Yet Botticelli's Venus boldly breaks from this convention, modestly covering herself in the
10:31ancient Venus Pudica pose. Her nudity is neither overtly erotic, nor entirely innocent.
10:43I think the key to this painting is sex. I think this is about sex, but not sex for pleasure.
10:49This is
10:49about sex for procreation. And I think the idea is that Venus is just about to step off that shell.
10:56She's not off the shell yet. She's just about to step onto the island, and she's going to make that
11:01island
11:02bloom, bloom, and blossom as child bearers. So it's about sex as procreation.
11:32If we think about what an ideal woman is supposed to look like today,
11:36probably large breasts, a very, very small waist, lots of long hair, long limbs. That's not so
11:44dissimilar from what an ideal woman was supposed to look like in the 15th century.
11:58During the Renaissance, everyone from poets to philosophers had something to say about the ideal
12:04woman. These weren't just abstract ideas. They shaped the art of the time. Writers such as Leon
12:12Battista Alberti, one of the era's greatest thinkers, believed that true beauty lay in symmetry,
12:18virtue, and a quiet dignity, all qualities Venus seems to radiate.
12:26One of these quotes comes from the writings of Leon Battista Alberti, who wrote various treatises,
12:33one on architecture, one on painting, but he actually wrote one about the family as well.
12:38And in that he says,
12:40the natural philosophers require that a woman be neither thin nor fat.
12:47They find that a woman is most suited to bear children if she has limbs of ample length.
12:58And then when we look at a slightly later source, this is a source from Brescia,
13:02also in Italy in the early 16th century. This is almost like a checklist.
13:08Long the hair, the hands, and the legs. Tiny the teeth, the ears, and the breasts. Large the forehead,
13:15the torso, and the hips. Narrow the waist, big but in good proportion, the buttocks, the arms,
13:21and the thighs. Find the eyebrows, the fingers, and the lips. It's quite some checklist. Now nobody
13:28actually looked like this, but you could help nature by, for example, plucking your eyebrows,
13:33or plucking the hair out of the front of your head. So a lot of Botticelli's women have very,
13:38very high foreheads, because perhaps the models made that forehead higher by plucking or shaving
13:44the hair from the top of their head.
13:48You can't change nature by stretching your own proportions, but you can do it in a work of art.
13:55So somebody looking at this would see an ideal woman. She is almost improving
14:02our nature. So in many respects, that's quite a modern thing to do.
14:11The face of Venus in this iconic painting may not be entirely imagined.
14:17Many believed she was modelled after Simonetta Vespucci, a renowned Florentine noble celebrated
14:24in her time as the most beautiful woman in this city. Though she died young, her image seems to
14:31live on in Botticelli's work. Decades later, when Botticelli died, he was buried near her in Florence's
14:39church of Ognisanti, leading to the long-held belief that he had asked to rest forever
14:44beside the woman who may have inspired his greatest masterpiece.
15:03The pastel-like colours of this painting are really, really crucial to understanding the painting.
15:09And this is really important because if we look at Botticelli's earlier works and his later works,
15:15they are completely different. The reason for this is because when Botticelli is painting
15:20a religious painting, as far as he's concerned, it's history. He's painting a history painting
15:25and he's showing realism. This painting is not about realism and so he doesn't use realistic tones.
15:31He uses these beautiful pastel tones, which is what really distinguishes it from other paintings of this period.
15:42So the colours that we see in the painting might seem quite pale. We have to bear in mind that
15:49there
15:49has been some change to the intensity of the colours over the years due to exposure to the light. And
15:56so,
15:56for example, the blue of the sea would have been a lot more intense and vivid. And there would have
16:03been
16:03a sense almost a reflection because of the use of gold leaf. Now, you really have to almost squint when
16:10you're in front of the painting these days to see the use of gold. But there's a lot of gold
16:15in the
16:15painting. There's a lot of gold in the hair of Venus. The entire shell is tinged with this edge of
16:22gold. All of the flowers have these little details of gold in the stems and so forth. And in the
16:29wings of
16:30Zephyr on the left hand side and Chloris, there are also gold details. And if we look at the central
16:35figure herself, she is painted in this alabaster colour. She has an outline. She doesn't blend in
16:41naturally. There's no naturalism about this painting. He wanted us to understand that this is otherworldly
16:49colours. Now, Botticelli trained as a goldsmith. By the time we get to the 1480s, 1490s, when he's at his
17:04height, the use of gold is seen as a little bit anachronistic, a little bit old fashioned. But
17:08Botticelli doesn't really care about that. He loves the decorative effects of gold. So when we're coming
17:15back to this question of the colours, they're quite decorative colours. They're almost like the colours
17:20you might find in a tapestry or a fresco, a decorative fresco or tapestry. I think there's
17:25the element of this painting that it is decorative and the colours in the composition aid that.
17:35Before Botticelli even picked up the brush,
17:38the birth of Venus began with careful planning, sketched out as an underdrawing on canvas,
17:46then layered with a smooth ground to prepare the surface. I think it's a technical masterpiece.
17:54There's no blending in this painting at all because it's made with egg tempera,
17:58so it's a completely different technique.
18:05But unlike many Renaissance artists who built their scenes with dramatic shadows and perspective,
18:12Botticelli chose a different path. His figures are softly lit, with only minimal shading,
18:18giving them a flat, almost weightless presence.
18:24Oil painting hadn't really come into its own at this point,
18:27so people were painting with tempera. And what's super interesting about tempera is
18:32that it does keep its colours, and it keeps its colours because the egg binds it,
18:37the egg dries and binds it. It's made with egg and water and pigment. And once that egg dries,
18:43it keeps it tight. And so it's almost like a fresco, the colours seep in and are held forever.
18:49When you look up close, you see it's all about cross-hatching, it's not actually about blending paint.
18:54And technically that was a difficult thing to do. So I think in that sense, Botticelli is a genius.
19:02That cross-hatching was no accident.
19:07It's part of a carefully balanced composition, where every element is placed with precision.
19:16Venus stands perfectly centred, framed by the winds on one side and the welcoming figure on the other,
19:25with a strong horizontal flow that guides the viewer's eyes from left to right.
19:32Even the curves of the shoreline and the folds of the drapery echo one another, creating a rhythm across the
19:39canvas.
19:42It perfectly depicts the moment from ancient mythology when Venus, the goddess of love and beauty,
19:49emerges fully formed from the sea foam.
19:53In the original story, she is carried ashore on a scallop shell, welcomed by the gentle winds and nymphs who
20:01celebrate her arrival.
20:06During the Renaissance, people were rediscovering and embracing the texts of classical antiquity.
20:13This renewed interest in ancient literature, philosophy and art inspired artists and thinkers
20:20to look back to the myths not just as stories, but as sources of wisdom.
20:29I think we have to consider the painting against the background of a movement in the 15th century known as
20:36humanism.
20:38And that is a rediscovery of interest in subjects such as poetry and rhetoric, that speech-making and
20:46grammar and so forth. People are starting to have a greater knowledge of classical stories and classical mythology.
20:54Authors such as Homer or Hesiod, their accounts, their poems and their literature was being
21:02reborn, you might say, and published and becoming quite familiar in the 15th century.
21:10The artists and the patrons are showing their awareness and their knowledge of classical mythology,
21:16but also they're showing their knowledge and awareness of classical visual sources as well.
21:20So for example, in the center, the image of Venus is based on a famous classical sculpture called the
21:27Venus Pudica. And actually there was a version of that classical sculpture in the Medici collection.
21:32We're not entirely sure whether it was in the Medici collection as early as the 15th century,
21:39but if it was, it's certainly something that Botticelli himself could be using
21:43as inspiration for the image of Venus in this painting.
21:47While it appears at first to be purely mythological,
21:51Botticelli weaves classical mythology with subtle threads of Christian symbolism,
21:56creating an image that reflects both pagan beauty and spiritual purity.
22:01I don't think it's purely mythological. I think there are Christian references in this,
22:06and I think it's a way of incorporating Christian references into art about pagan subject matter.
22:13I think this references lots of other Christian paintings, for example, the baptism of Christ.
22:19And if you look at a lot of images of the Madonna, the religious images of the Madonna,
22:24she quite often has this conch shell next to her because it's a symbol of baptism as well.
22:29So there are lots and lots of Christian references, and I think that's how he made it palatable.
22:34Venus is more than a goddess. She is an icon of love, feminine grace,
22:41and the Renaissance view of perfection. It is a painting that speaks across time,
22:47merging poetry, philosophy and faith into a single universal image.
22:54Few works are as beautiful or as lasting as the birth of Venus.
23:03Hello there.
23:13Look, I could remember this.
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