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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.
01:19Let esistens.
01:20From one page
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 reason
02:27is 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 the
02:44political 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. Eventually he gets too powerful
03:31and he is executed. And Botticelli is left behind in Florence and then the Medicis come back.
03:39The Medicis returned to power in 1512 after Botticelli's death, but it was too late for his reputation.
03:46His association with Savonarola likely diminished his standing in Florence. So, as a result, Botticelli's
03:53work fell out of favour.
03:57And I think he fell out of favour with the Medicis for that specific reason. Plus, by
04:02this time, 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.
04:16But how did Botticelli and this masterpiece regain the recognition it deserved? Let's jump forward
04:22in 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 Botticellian 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
05:23crazy.
05:24Until a number of art historians and critics, and particularly artists, started to look at
05:32his work afresh. And one of the 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
05:51like 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
06:20were interested 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
06:39height of the Golden Age? It's Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. And then there becomes
06:45this tendency rather to overlook artists that came before.
06:50Overshadowed by the towering figures of the High Renaissance, Botticelli's delicate poetic
06:55style fell out of step. His mythological visions and spiritual grace were set aside as the world turned
07:03toward precision and anatomy. For a time, Botticelli was little more than a footnote in art history.
07:11A 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.
07:42I think she really has become the epitome of ideal female beauty.
07:50She is just such a magnificent homage to youth and beauty.
07:59I think there's nothing quite like this painting actually. And I think it really stands out.
08:03First of all, it's so huge. It's a very big painting. This is another one of those paintings
08:09that you need to see in real 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.
08:21And I do think the shock of that idea has passed down through the centuries.
08:26And that's what's made it so iconic.
08:33But in many ways, this is a paradox.
08:36In many ways, this is reflective of how we see beauty in the modern world.
08:40Because 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.
08:52The proportion of that shoulder is really, really strange.
08:58It almost looks like that left arm is made out of plasticine as it's been stretched out of all proportion.
09:05She has very, very long limbs.
09:08And if you look at the nymph on the left-hand side, probably Chloris, and she's grabbing hold of Zephyr,
09:15the wind.
09:15Have a look at her body, then have a look at her neck, and then have a look at her
09:20legs.
09:20And try and work out how those legs are attached to that body.
09:25It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
09:29It's completely nonsensical. It's completely anatomically inaccurate.
09:35But 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.
10:05We can take 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,
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.
10:46I think this is about sex, but not sex for pleasure.
10:49This is about sex for procreation.
10:51And I think the idea is that Venus is just about to step off that shell.
10:55She'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.
11:32We think about what an ideal woman is supposed to look like today.
11:36We 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.
11:43That's not so dissimilar 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 woman.
12:05These weren't just abstract ideas. They shaped the art of the time.
12:11Writers such as Leon Battista Alberti, one of the era's greatest thinkers,
12:16believe that true beauty lay in symmetry, virtue, 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. And 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.
13:09Long 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. Now, nobody actually looked like this, but you could help nature by,
13:30for example, plucking your eyebrows or plucking the hair out of the front of your head. So,
13:36a lot of Botticelli's women have very, very high foreheads because perhaps the models made that
13:42forehead higher by plucking or shaving the 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 modeled 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 live
14:32on in Botticelli's work. Decades later, when Botticelli died, he was buried near her in Florence's church of
14:40Ognisanti, leading to the long-held belief that he had asked to rest forever beside the woman who may
14:46have 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
15:41period.
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,
16:02and there would have been a sense almost of reflection because of the use of gold leaf. Now,
16:09you really have to almost squint when you're in front of the painting these days to see the use of
16:13gold. But there's a lot of gold in the painting. There's a lot of gold in the hair of Venus.
16:18The entire
16:19shell is tinged with this edge of gold. All of the flowers have these little details of gold in the
16:27stems and
16:27so forth. And in the wings of Zephyr on the left hand side and Chloris, they're also gold details.
16:33And if we look at the central figure herself, she is painted in this alabaster colour. She has an
16:40outline. She doesn't blend in naturally. There's no naturalism about this painting. He wanted us to
16:45understand that this is otherworldly, and so he uses otherworldly colours.
16:58Now, Botticelli trained as a goldsmith. By the time we get to the 1480s, 1490s, when he's at his height,
17:04the 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, the birth of Venus began with careful planning,
17:43sketched out as an underdrawing on canvas, then layered with a smooth ground to prepare the surface.
17:51I think it's a technical masterpiece. There's no blending in this painting at all,
17:56because it's made with egg tempera, so it's a completely different technique.
18:05But unlike many Renaissance artists who built their scenes with dramatic shadows and perspective,
18:13Botticelli 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, so people were painting with tempera.
18:29And what's super interesting about tempera is that it does keep its colours, and it keeps its colours
18:36because the egg binds it. The egg dries and binds it. It's made with egg and water and pigment.
18:41And once that egg dries, it keeps it tight. And so it's almost like a fresco. The colours seep in
18:48and are held forever. When you look up close, you see it's all about cross-hatching. It's not actually
18:53about blending paint. And technically, that was a difficult thing to do. So I think in that sense,
18:58Botticelli 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.
19:25Venus stands perfectly, with 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. During 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 to look back to the myths,
20:22not 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
20:36as humanism. And that is a rediscovery of interest in subjects such as poetry and rhetoric, that speech
20:45making and grammar and so forth. People are starting to have a greater knowledge of classical stories and
20:52classical mythology. Authors such as Homer or Hesiod, their accounts, their poems and their literature
21:01was being reborn, 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,
21:15but also they're showing their knowledge and awareness of classical visual sources as well. So,
21:20for example, in the center, the image of Venus is based on a famous classical sculpture called the Venus
21:27Pudica. And actually, there was a version of that classical sculpture in the Medici collection. We're not
21:33entirely sure whether it was in the Medici collection as highly as the 15th century, but if it was,
21:40it's certainly something that Botticelli himself could be using as inspiration for the image of Venus
21:46in this painting. While it appears at first to be purely mythological, Botticelli weaves classical
21:53mythology with subtle threads of Christian symbolism, creating an image that reflects both pagan beauty
21:59and spiritual purity. I don't think it's purely mythological. I think there are Christian references
22:05in this and I think it's a way of incorporating Christian references into art about pagan subject
22:12matter. I 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, she quite
22:24often
22:24has this conch shell next to her because it's a symbol of baptism as well. So there are lots and
22:29lots
22:29of Christian references and I think that's how he made it palatable. Venus is more than a goddess.
22:37She is an icon of love, feminine grace and the Renaissance view of perfection.
22:44It is a painting that speaks across time, merging poetry, philosophy and faith into a single universal image.
22:54A few works are as beautiful or as lasting as the birth of Venus.
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