Gothic Mystic Backgrounds

The Birth of Venus: Gods and Heroes series: Modern gothic ...

This image is an alternative version of the well-known Italian Renaissance painting ‘Birth of Venus’ by Sandro Botticelli. It depicts the goddess Venus, emerging from the sea as a young woman, arriving at the seashore. No single text provides the precise content of the original painting. Art historians have found a platonic interpretation to be the most appropriate way to understand it. For the members of the Florentine Platonic Academy - she was an earthly goddess who aroused humans to physical love or she was a heavenly goddess who inspired intellectual love in them, therefore the contemplation of physical beauty allowed the mind to better understand spiritual beauty. So, looking at Venus in a pose traditionally held by Virgin Mary might at first raise a physical response in viewers that then lifted their minds towards the Creator (which is quite unlikely as we already know). Meaning. The Florentine Renaissance, which is Botticelli’s time, is characterized by the returning of classic Greek’s mythology in art. ‘The Birth of the Venus’ is an excellent illustration, as it shows a motive from the classical Greek folklore, though having a philosophical view – that a female beauty is the origin of God.

Not everyone was agreeing with such interpretation. Italian Dominican priest and leader of Florence monk Girolamo Savonarola 1497 carried out his infamous “bonfire of vanities” to destroy the trappings of luxury and immoral excesses that he preached against, like makeup, jewelry, hairpieces, and “lewd” paintings. He was known for his book burning, destruction of what he considered immoral art, sexually charged sculptures (which he wanted to be transformed into statues of the saints and modest depictions of biblical scenes), and hostility to the Renaissance. He vehemently preached against the moral corruption of the clergy as well. Many fine Florentine Renaissance artworks were lost in Savonarola’s notorious bonfires — including paintings by Sandro Botticelli, which he is allegedly to have thrown into the fires himself. Thankfully for admirers of today, the ‘Birth of Venus’ painting was spared the flames. It remained safe in a Medici villa outside Florence. The rigorous Father Savonarola was excommunicated and executed in the same place where the "Bonfire of the Vanities" had been lit, and in the same manner that Savonarola had condemned other criminals himself during his own reign in Florence.

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