A Greek & Roman Goddess, and How She Was Born

THE BIRTH OF VENUS

A Pompeian mural of Venus (Aphrodite) Anadyomene

The Birth Of Venus depicts the Roman goddess Venus, as having emerged from the sea as a full grown woman. Venus Anadyomene literally translates "Venus Rising from the Sea".  The goddess Venus had two aspects to her: She was an earthly goddess who inspired physical love and she was a heavenly goddess inspired intellectual love. The way Botticelli posed his Venus is reminiscent of the Venus de' Medici, a marble sculpture from the Medici collection which Botticelli had studied. Venus is the Roman goddess based on the Greek goddess Aphrodite. All Roman gods and goddesses, as well as Roman sculpture and art were based on Greek Originals.

Venus Anadyomène by Antonio Lombardo, c.1516, Wilton House (Victoria & Albert Museum , London)

Antonio Lombardo (1458-1516) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor who created sculptures that mostly decorated churches and tombs. Because Venus was born of the water, a lot of painters - especially throughout the Renaissance- portrayed her "wringing out her hair".

Venus Anadyomene by Titian, c.1525. National Gallery of Scotland

Here, in this painting by Titian, we know it is is Venus rising from the sea by the fact that she is wringing out her hair, and also from the shell on the bottom left of the painting. The shell is smaller than most shells portrayed in Venus Anadyomene paintings, as it is most likely just an identifier or clue that it is Venus. The market value of this painting is estimated to be over £20m (about $32m).

Sandro Botticelli, c.1486 Uffizi Gallery in Florence

Of course, there is the famous tempera on canvas masterpiece painted by Botticelli. It now hangs in the Uffizi in Florence, and I had the opportunity to see it in person there years ago, and I still remember where it is hanging. If you were even an Art History student in University, then you too probably spent a whole month studying this painting.

Francois Boucher, 1740

The Birth of Venus as painted by Boucher in the 18th century is an overtly glorified version of the Rococo style. Boucher is one of the most famous French Rococo artists, which showed many cherubs, clouds, and women in their works. The way the light comes from the Heavens and hi-lights Venus so that she glows shows what a master Boucher was at painting with light. Also, the movement in this painting is everywhere; in the bodies of the cherubs ('putti') twisting the ribbon in the clouds, to the frantic wave crests in the water to the men and women all crowded together -almost wrestling amongst each other. It's amazing how this painting still has a sense of peace about it.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, c.1848 Musée Condé, Chantilly France

Ingres, a French Neoclassical painter, was most famous for his portraits but considered himself to be a painter of history in the tradition of Poussin. Although he was a neoclassical painter, his version of Venus above evokes a sense of Baroque and Romantic stylings. Ingres did have the Romantic spirit of the time, although he rebuffed this notion, being his nemesis was Delacroix.

Alexandre Cabanel,  1863 Musée d'Orsay, Paris

The Birth of Venus painted by the French artist Alexandre Cabanel now resides in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.  There is a slightly smaller version, which Cabanel painted 12 years later in 1875, which is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Napoleon III purchased this painting after it was shown in the Paris Salon of 1863. That same year Cabanel was made a professor of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, both of which were distinct privelage to artists of the time. Cabanel made a point to oppose the current fashion of the Impressionist style, and this refusal to accept changing styles ultimately became the demise of the French Academy of Painters.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1879 Musée d'Orsay, Paris

This painting of the Birth of Venus became one of the most famous paintings that artist Bouguereau created. The canvas is almost 10 feet tall and 7 feet wide and is in the permanent collection of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Eugène Emmanuel Amaury Pineux Duval, 1862

Eugène Emmanuel Amaury Pineux Duval, who went by Amaury Duval, first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1833. Duval was not always received well by critics, especially French Poet Charles Baudelaire, basically saying that his style looked contrived.

Arnold Böcklin, 1868

Arnold Böcklin was a symbolist Swiss painter who originally started as a landscape painter, but after being exposed to Classical and Renaissance Art, became interested in allegorical and mythological themes. He also included a lot of classical architecture in his works, and was obsessed with death, which sometimes created a fantastical, strange result in his pieces. I can see that in his version of Venus above. By all accounts it should be "beautiful" but the colours and the treatment of the water almost give her a ghost like appearance.

Henri-Pierre Picou, 1874. Galerie Nataf

Picou, also a French Academic painter, made is Paris Salon debut in 1847. Picou was a fashionable painter towards the close of the second French Empire, and was a co-founder of the Neo-Grec School, which was inspired by the 18th century excavations at Pompeii. This later became knows as Greek Revival Style and the Birth of Venus makes a perfect subject for Picou. See her emerging from her shell?

Salvador Dalí, c.1970's

I am not going to even try and dissect (no pun intended) this one because I was once told in Art School by my professor that I have no right to even attempt surrealism, not until you have mastered the classics! So I am going to apply that to my own little critique here. Haven't a clue. Not going there. But there is his Venus -- with an egg, a melted clock, and what looks like San Jose in the background.

Andy Warhol, c.1984

Why not end with a Warhol? That's an exclamation point in bold print. Although it's not my favourite work by him, I think it lack's in originality, it does showcase what he did best. Taking apart classics and re-inventing them to make it applicable to the current time. I guess only Art History buffs will recognize her without her shell!