Many poets in history praised the beautiful goddess Venus. Polizzi Arnold, the court poet of Medici, said: Venus walks in the moonlight, as solemn as a queen and as warm as a spring breeze. On her way, everything is sprouting and flowers are in full bloom. Venus in myth is a symbol of beauty; It is also the embodiment of the source of all life. Botticelli's Venus is the goddess representing the source of life. At the top right of the picture is Fengshen, who embraces the spring god, who in turn embraces the flower god, who decorates flowers and scatters them to the earth; In the middle of the picture stands the goddess Venus, and above her head flies little love god Cupid holding the arrow of love; On the right hand side of Venus are three beautiful gods who dance hand in hand, symbolizing "gorgeous", "virtuous" and "happy" respectively, bringing joy to the world; On the left of the picture is Mercury, the special envoy of Zeus, who has a pair of flying legs and a double snake staff for peace. When his gesture comes, the haze of winter will be dispelled immediately, spring will come to the earth, all flowers will bloom, and all trees will win glory. This is a happy theme depicting the return of spring. However, the modality of the characters in the painting has no joyful atmosphere, like the northwest wind blowing in spring, which is covered with a layer of spring cold and sadness; A thoughtful Venus, like anyone else, entered her inner world; The dance of the three beautiful gods seems to be dancing on orders, and there is a feeling of taking part in accidental amusement, which makes the viewers puzzled. Since the Renaissance, the spirit of humanism has penetrated into literary and artistic creation. Painters often rely on religious myths and images of gods to express their thoughts and feelings about society, nature and life and convey their ideals. In Botticelli's artistic image, there is a fear of reality. At that time, the painter was weak and sick, and he took care of his illness to paint. The artistic image created by this mentality is naturally melancholy and sad. Sandro botticelli (1445- 15 10) was an Italian painter during the Renaissance. "Spring" was written in 1478, at the peak of his 37-year-old artistic career.
Material of spring
The work is based on the fable poem of the famous poet Polly Tian at that time-on an early spring morning, in the beautiful and quiet fruit forest, Venus, the dignified and charming goddess of love and beauty, was in the center, waiting for a grand ceremony of spring with a leisurely and elegant expression. On her right, the touching three goddesses of Hui Mei, dressed in gauze skirts as thin as cicadas' wings, bathed in sunshine, are dancing hand in hand-"Beauty" shines with human ornaments, "Youth" turns away shyly, and "Happiness" wriggles her waist happily, bringing joy to the world. Next to them was Mercury, the messenger of the gods, dressed in red and carrying a sword. He waved his wand to disperse the dark clouds in winter. On the left of Venus are the goddess of flowers, the goddess of spring and the goddess of wind. Flora, dressed in garlands and costumes, came with graceful steps, scattering flowers on the earth, symbolizing that the natural season of "Spring comes back to the earth and all trees win glory" is coming soon. Little love god flew over Venus, blindfolded and shot his golden arrow of love. The work shows the image of the gods full of spring joy. This kind of praise for human nature has an extraordinary aesthetic feeling. But in those solemn and confident images, there is always a nameless sadness buried in the painter's heart.
Botticelli's artistic achievements are embodied in his elegant style, bright and dazzling colors, smooth and light lines, and delicate and tranquil poetic style, which has influenced several generations of artists and still exudes charming brilliance. In terms of painting techniques, the traditional egg white painting was adopted in spring, instead of the oil painting techniques popular in Flanders at that time. The gorgeous decoration effect on the screen is more intense. Because dried egg white will make the color form a hard layer, which is transparent, so we can feel the pure and transparent effect close to watercolor painting in this painting.
In the history of painting, there are many works depicting spring, but none of them can be compared with Botticelli's Spring. It can be said that this painting perfectly shows the beauty and elegance of spring. In this painting, Botticelli adopted a flat decorative technique in composition, and arranged many characters in proper positions. On the screen, nine people are arranged in a row from left to right, without overlapping and interspersed, and appropriate actions are arranged according to their different roles in the painting. Venus, as the goddess of the protagonist, is positioned a little later than others. The picture is like a stage play with a golden brown grove in the background. Botticelli's performance here is the scene of spring described in the long poem "Calendar" by the Roman poet Otis.
We look from the right of the picture to the left: Saif Juras, a passionate westerly wind, fluttered in and chased the earth fairy Gloria. When he arrived, the rightmost tree had been bent. Gloria, the fairy, tried to get rid of the pursuit of Zephyr, but in the end she didn't escape the arms of Zephyr. Brilliant flowers overflowed from Caroline's mouth and fell in succession. Floating on Flora, the goddess of flowers, formed a beautiful coat. Like nature, it used to be a white land, and in a blink of an eye, it was full of flowers and vitality. The Calendar has this description: "I, formerly Gloria, now people call me Ferola." Botticelli described the poems of Ovatios in the form of painting here. Caroline is the fairy of the earth, and the god of the west wind is the spring breeze. Spring breeze blows, the earth blooms, and a beautiful flower god is born. This process also shows the richness of spring on the road of life
The three beautiful gods depicted at the left end of the picture are dancing hand in hand with tulle like rosy clouds in spring. This can be said to be a typical example of female beauty in the Renaissance. Botticelli described their images as very similar, with slight differences. Among the three, the first beauty from left to right has the largest dynamic range, loose hair and a unique brooch on her chest. Her clothes are particularly gorgeous, undulating inside and outside. The whole posture shows her strong inner impulse. These characteristics show that she is the embodiment of "love desire". On the contrary, the one in the middle, without any ornaments, is extremely simple and has a serious expression. There is no doubt that she is the embodiment of purity. Beauty is born in the contact between simple and quiet "purity" and gorgeous and passionate "love desire" Among the three beauties, the confrontation between "purity" and "lust for love", and the clothes on "purity" left shoulder fall off the lower body, suggesting the temptation of love, and the author shows the awakening of love and the pursuit of beauty here. This naturally leads to the protagonist of the work-Venus, the incarnation goddess of beauty and love. She is a little taller among the two groups of characters. Cupid's arrow flying above just points to the god of purity. A work in spring, at the same time, it is a battle song that eulogizes Venus' love victory.
The work "Spring" is also called "The Prosperity of Venus". In medieval religious paintings, only the Virgin Mary was generally arranged under the arch. Botticelli borrowed this form here. Behind Venus, Botticelli used branches and the background sky to consciously leave such an arch in the tree. The dark background Woods suddenly opened around her, highlighting the leading role of Venus. She is carrying a dress in her left hand, and her right hand is slightly raised, so she is dignified and elegant.
All Botticelli's portraits of the Virgin are full of sad expressions.
The virgin is the mother of Jesus, that is, the mother of God. Her son, Jesus, is destined to accept the most cruel death penalty in the world. Jesus knows his future fate. Therefore, the religious theme of the Virgin Mary has been described by painters of all ages, so as to convey the noblest and most tragic sentiments: love, pain, dignity, sacrifice and tolerance are intertwined. In this circular composition, the angels are surrounded by the little Jesus held by the Virgin Mary. Two of them raised golden crowns symmetrically on both sides, and the golden light of the holy spirit at the top shone on the heads of the characters. Another angel was holding an ink bottle and a Bible. The Virgin Mary dipped in water to write, and looked at a golden and peaceful field through a gap. The characters are full of Botticelli's unique "charming" expression, and there is no joy in the whole picture, only solemnity, seriousness and sadness, which indicates the tragic fate of Jesus in the future. Botticelli's figures are famous for their elegance, moderate proportion, perfection and the aesthetic feeling of ancient Greek sculptures. In artistic language, he inherited and developed Lippi, a teacher, and was good at using smooth and harmonious line modeling to form a highly perfect expression and artistic skills. 1500, egg color? Oil painting,108.5 * 75cm, National Gallery of Britain.
The Mysterious Birth is Botticelli's only surviving painting with his signature. It is generally believed that this painting was painted by Botticelli for his personal prayers or for people close to him. Therefore, this painting is definitely unconventional, and its content is not only to show traditional events, such as the birth of Jesus, the visit of shepherds and the Magi. More importantly, this painting is an illusion of events revealed by St. John in the Revelation. Botticelli clearly expressed the unreality of this painting. He added Latin and Greek explanations to the painting, and adopted the usual methods commonly used in medieval art, such as using contradictory proportions to achieve symbolic purposes.