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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.
00:39He 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.
01:00I think there's the element to this painting that it is decorative.
01:04And 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.
01:19Forstan Muningali
01:21The birth of Venus
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 a shop and street vendors. Every single iPhone
02:11cover and tea towel and so forth is covered with this painting. And yet Botticelli, whilst
02:17he 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.
02:58Savonarola would rise to power in Florence after the Medicis. His regime was driven by religion
03:05and puritanism. And he's the mad monk who's going to burn all of the possessions in the
03:12squares in Florence and the bonfires of the vanity. And he's going to take over Florence
03:17and the Medici's are going to be ousted. A figure whose rise challenged their authority
03:24and condemned the very ideals Botticelli once painted so vividly.
03:29Eventually he gets too powerful and he is executed. And Botticelli is left behind in Florence,
03:35and then the Medicis come back.
03:39The Medicis returned to power in 1512 after Botticelli's death, but it was too late for his
03:45reputation. His association with Savonarola likely diminished his standing in Florence. So, as a result,
03:52Botticelli's work fell out of favour.
03:57And I think he fell out of favour with the Medici's for that specific reason. Plus, by this time,
04:03you've got Leonardo coming in, you've got Michelangelo coming in, and he just fell out of fashion.
04:09That's really as simple as it is.
04:15But how did Botticelli and this masterpiece regain the recognition it deserved?
04:21Let's jump forward in time to find out.
04:24Well, the Uffizi actually becomes a public museum in the 18th century. And when it does become a public
04:30museum, there's pretty much no Botticellian evidence. It's not until the 19th century that the decision was
04:36taken to create a sort of chronology of Italian art. Oh, 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 kept in storage,
05:09so loads of Botticelli is in storage in the 19th century. It seems absolutely crazy.
05:24Until a number of art historians and critics, and particularly artists, started to look at his work afresh.
05:33And one of those groups of artists is the Pre-Raphaelite group. They love the decorative
05:40aspect of Botticelli's paintings, those subtle colours, this ornamentation, this idealisation
05:47of feminine 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
06:00that whole 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
06:45tendency rather to overlook artists that came before. Overshadowed by the towering figures of the
06:52High Renaissance, Botticelli's delicate poetic style fell out of step. His mythological visions and
07:00spiritual grace were set aside as the world turned toward precision and anatomy. For a time,
07:08Botticelli 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 or largely thanks to
07:23artists themselves who see a reflection of many of their own ideals and aspirations in his magnificent paintings.
07:43I think she really has become the epitome of ideal female beauty. She is just such a
07:51magnificent homage to youth and beauty.
07:59I think there's nothing quite like this painting actually, and I think it really stands out. First
08:04of all, it's so huge, it's a very big painting. This is another one of those paintings that you need
08:09to see in real life just to realise how huge it is. This is the first time we see a
08:16full-scale nude in
08:18Western art outside of a religious context. And I do think the shock of that idea has passed down through
08:25the centuries,
08:26and 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 world.
08:42It's a very strange body. I want you to have a look, for example, at her left shoulder and her
08:51left arm. The proportion of that shoulder is really, really strange.
08:58It almost looks like that left arm is made out of plasticine as it has been stretched out of all
09:03proportion.
09:05She has very, very long limbs. And if you look at the nymph on the left-hand side, probably Chloris,
09:12and she's grabbing hold of Zephyr, the wind, have a look at her body, then have a look at her
09:18neck,
09:18and then have a look at her legs, and try and work out how those legs are attached to that
09:25body.
09:25It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. It's completely nonsensical. It's completely anatomically inaccurate.
09:34But somehow, it doesn't matter.
09:42I 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 is a mythological subject.
10:01So it's not about reality. It's different in that context. We can take the form of Venus,
10:07and 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,
10:29modestly covering herself in the ancient Venus Pudica pose.
10:33Her nudity is neither overtly erotic, nor entirely innocent.
10:43I think the key to this painting is sex.
10:45I think this is about sex, but not sex for pleasure. This is about sex for procreation.
10:51And 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,
11:00and she's going to make that island bloom and blossom as child bearers.
11:04So it's about sex as procreation.
11:16So what I'm going to do today, it's about being a young girl say.
11:32We think about what an ideal woman is supposed to look like today.
11:36Probably large breasts a very, very small waist.
11:40lots of long hair, long limbs.
11:43That's not so dissimilar from what an ideal woman
11:47was supposed to look like in the 15th century.
11:58During the Renaissance, everyone from poets to philosophers
12:02had something to say about the ideal woman.
12:05These weren't just abstract ideas.
12:07They shaped the art of the time.
12:11Writers such as Leon Battista Alberti,
12:14one of the era's greatest thinkers,
12:16believe that true beauty lay in symmetry,
12:19virtue and a quiet dignity.
12:21All qualities Venus seems to radiate.
12:26One of these quotes comes from the writings of Leon Battista Alberti,
12:31who wrote various treatises, one on architecture, one on painting,
12:35but 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.
12:57And 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,
13:14large the forehead, the torso and the hips, narrow the waist, big but in good proportion,
13:20the buttocks, the arms and the thighs, find the eyebrows, the fingers and the lips.
13:25It's quite some checklist.
13:27Now, nobody actually looked like this, but you could help nature by, for example,
13:32plucking your eyebrows or plucking the hair out of the front of your head.
13:36So a lot of Botticelli's women have very, very high foreheads
13:39because perhaps the models made that forehead higher
13:43by plucking or shaving the hair from the top of their head.
13:48You can't change nature by stretching your own proportions,
13:52but you can do it in a work of art.
13:55So somebody looking at this would see an ideal woman.
14:00She is almost improving our nature.
14:03So 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,
14:21a renowned Florentine noble celebrated in her time as the most beautiful woman in this city.
14:28Though she died young, her image seems to live on in Botticelli's work.
14:34Decades later, when Botticelli died,
14:36he was buried near her in Florence's church of Ognisanti,
14:41leading 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
15:14and his later works, they are completely different.
15:17The reason for this is because when Botticelli is painting a religious painting,
15:21as far as he's concerned, it's history.
15:23He's painting a history painting and he's showing realism.
15:26This painting is not about realism, and so he doesn't use realistic tones.
15:31He uses these beautiful pastel tones,
15:34which 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.
15:47We have to bear in mind that there has been some change to the intensity of the colours
15:52over the years due to exposure to the light.
15:55And so, for example, the blue of the sea would have been a lot more intense and vivid.
16:02And there would have been a sense, almost a reflection, because of the use of gold leaf.
16:08Now, you really have to almost squint when you're in front of the painting these days
16:12to see the use of gold.
16:13But there's a lot of gold in the painting.
16:15There's a lot of gold in the hair of Venus.
16:18The entire shell is tinged with this edge of gold.
16:23All of the flowers have these little details of gold in the stems and so forth.
16:28And in the wings of Zephyr on the left-hand side and Chloris, there are also gold details.
16:33And if we look at the central figure herself, she is painted in this alabaster colour.
16:39She has an outline.
16:40She doesn't blend in naturally.
16:42There's no naturalism about this painting.
16:44He wanted us to understand that this is otherworldly,
16:48and so he uses otherworldly colours.
16:58Now, Botticelli, trained as a goldsmith, by the time we get to the 1480s, 1490s,
17:03when he's at his height, the use of gold is seen as a little bit anachronistic,
17:07a little bit old-fashioned.
17:08But Botticelli doesn't really care about that.
17:11He loves the decorative effects of gold.
17:14So when we're coming back to this question of the colours,
17:17they're quite decorative colours.
17:19They're almost like the colours you might find in a tapestry or a fresco,
17:23a decorative fresco or tapestry.
17:25I think that there's the element to this painting, that it is decorative,
17:29and the colours and the composition aid that.
17:34Before Botticelli even picked up the brush,
17:38the birth of Venus began with careful planning,
17:43sketched out as an underdrawing on canvas,
17:46then layered with a smooth ground to prepare the surface.
17:51I think it's a technical masterpiece.
17:54There's no blending in this painting at all
17:56because it's made with egg tempera,
17:58so it's a completely different technique.
18:05But unlike many Renaissance artists
18:08who built their scenes with dramatic shadows and perspective,
18:12Botticelli chose a different path.
18:14His figures are softly lit,
18:16with 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.
18:29And what's super interesting about tempera
18:32is that it does keep its colours,
18:34and it keeps its colours because the egg binds it,
18:37the egg dries and binds it.
18:39It's made with egg and water and pigment.
18:41And once that egg dries, it keeps it tight.
18:44And so it's almost like a fresco.
18:46The colours seep in and are held forever.
18:49When you look up close,
18:50you see it's all about cross-hatching.
18:52It's not actually about blending paint.
18:55And technically, that was a difficult thing to do.
18:57So 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,
19:10where every element is placed with precision.
19:16Venus stands perfectly centred,
19:19framed by the winds on one side
19:21and the welcoming figure on the other,
19:25with a strong horizontal flow
19:27that guides the viewer's eyes
19:29from left to right.
19:33Even the curves of the shoreline
19:34and the folds of the drapery echo one another,
19:37creating a rhythm across the canvas.
19:42It perfectly depicts the moment from ancient mythology
19:46when Venus, the goddess of love and beauty,
19:49emerges fully formed from the sea foam.
19:53In the original story,
19:55she is carried ashore on a scallop shell,
19:58welcomed by the gentle winds and nymphs
20:01who celebrate her arrival.
20:06During the Renaissance,
20:08people were rediscovering and embracing
20:10the texts of classical antiquity.
20:13This renewed interest in ancient literature,
20:16philosophy and art
20:18inspired artists and thinkers
20:20to look back to the myths
20:22not just as stories,
20:23but as sources of wisdom.
20:29I think we have to consider the painting
20:32against the background
20:33of a movement in the 15th century
20:36known as humanism.
20:38And that is a rediscovery of interest
20:41in subjects such as poetry
20:42and rhetoric,
20:44that speech-making
20:45and grammar and so forth.
20:47People are starting to have
20:48a greater knowledge of classical stories
20:51and classical mythology.
20:54Authors such as Homer or Hesiod,
20:57their accounts, their poems
20:59and their literature
21:00was being reborn, you might say,
21:04and published
21:06and becoming quite familiar
21:07in the 15th century.
21:10The artists and the patrons
21:12are showing their awareness
21:14and their knowledge of classical mythology,
21:15but also they're showing their knowledge
21:17and awareness
21:18of classical visual sources as well.
21:20So, for example, in the centre,
21:22the image of Venus
21:24is based on a famous classical sculpture
21:26called the Venus Pudica.
21:28And actually, there was a version
21:29of that classical sculpture
21:31in the Medici collection.
21:32We're not entirely sure
21:34whether it was in the Medici collection
21:37as early as the 15th century,
21:38but if it was,
21:40it's certainly something
21:41that Botticelli himself
21:42could be using
21:43as inspiration
21:44for the image of Venus
21:46in this painting.
21:47While it appears at first
21:49to be purely mythological,
21:51Botticelli weaves classical mythology
21:53with subtle threads
21:55of Christian symbolism,
21:56creating an image
21:57that reflects both pagan beauty
21:59and spiritual purity.
22:01I don't think it's purely mythological.
22:03I think there are Christian references
22:05in this
22:06and I think it's a way
22:07of incorporating Christian references
22:10into art about pagan subject matter.
22:13I think this references
22:14lots of other Christian paintings,
22:16for example,
22:17the Baptism of Christ.
22:19And if you look at a lot of images
22:21of the Madonna,
22:22the religious images of the Madonna,
22:24she quite often has this conch shell
22:25next to her
22:26because it's a symbol
22:27of baptism as well.
22:28So there are lots and lots
22:29of Christian references
22:30and I think that's how
22:32he made it palatable.
22:34Venus is more than a goddess.
22:37She is an icon of love,
22:39feminine grace
22:40and the Renaissance view
22:42of perfection.
22:44It is a painting
22:45that speaks across time,
22:47merging poetry,
22:48philosophy and faith
22:49into a single universal image.
22:54Few works are as beautiful
22:56or as lasting
22:57as the birth of Venus.
23:01Four,
23:01at first,
23:06and thought
23:07Disney.
23:10You
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