IB Prized Writing Sevenoaks School IB Prized Writing 2014 | Page 94

Zoe Dawson - Visual Art hands  liberality  and  magnificence,  the  feet  comeliness  and  modesty.  The  whole,  then,   is  temperance  and  honesty,  charm  and  splendor.”  Far  from  being  the  goddess  of  lust,   Venus  to  Ficino  is  a  “moralized  planet”   [ibid]  signifying  a  virtue.  His  list  of  virtues  are   similar  to  the  “children”  of  the  planet  Venus,  bringing  in  astrological  conception.  This   description  has  “fused  the  two  traditions  by  which  the  middle  ages  had  transformed   the  ancient  Olympus-­‐  the  moral  allegory  and  the  astrological  lore”   [18].   Fundamentally,  the  message  that  was  passed  on  from  Ficino  to  Pierfrancesco  was   Venus  as  a  notion  of  beauty  as  a  gateway  to  the  divine.   [ibid]  This  neoplatonic  ideal   can  be  used  to  interpret  Botticelli’s  Birth  of  Venus  also,  as  it  came  not  long  after,  to  a   member  of  the  same  family.  The  Medici  were  a  strong  Christian  family,  and  the   neoplatonic  interpretation  allows  the  idea  of  the  Christian  divine  to  merge  with   classical  mythology.  This  would  have  given  Botticelli  an  ‘excuse’  to  paint  the  Goddess   for  a  family  who’s  commissions  were  usually  Christian  based.  This  neoplatonic   mixture  of  pagan  virtues,  moral  parables,  and  astrological  knowledge  is  hidden  in   the  meaning  of  the  painting;  yet  there  is  not  a  multitude  of  evidence  within  the   painting  for  this.  The  lights  and  tones  of  the  painting  present  a  pale  Venus,  with  hair   (created  using  gold  leaf)  gleaming  in  a  heavenly  way.  This  perhaps  suggests  birth,   the  woman  arriving  shining  and  perfect  as  though  untouched  by  the  world,   glimmering  with  light  tones  and  minimal  shadow  in  the  way  that  beauty  would  look   untouched,  as  it  was  born.       Although,  according  to  E.  H.  Gombrich,  and  other  art  historians,  there  is   neoplatonic  symbolism  amongst  the  painting,  it  is  not  necessarily  obvious  when   standing  in  front  of  it  at  the  Uffizi  gallery.  The  question  as  to  the  symbolism  of  Venus,   and  her  significance  as  more  than  the  goddess  of  love,  is  an  interesting  one,  though  it   is  not  clear  to  me  whether  Botticelli  succeeded  in  presenting  this  philosophical     93 17