Death in the Garden of Venus: Remarks about Botticelli’s Mythological Paintings

Erminald Bertel
University of Innsbruck
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9006-8222

Volume 7, October 2024

Abstract The most widely accepted interpretation of Botticelli’s La Primavera is that it was a wedding present to Semiramide Appiani and Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici. In contrast, earlier art historians believed it a metaphoric representation of Simonetta Vespucci’s premature death. Both of the seemingly incompatible accounts leave some details unexplained. The present article points out these inconsistencies – for example, a conspicuous deviation from Ovid’s narrative in the Fasti; the problem of the somewhat detached figure of Mercury, whose linkage to the rest of the scene is obscure; the partially contradictory plant symbolism and, finally, the strikingly different character of the so-called Zephyroi in La Nascita di Venere on the one hand and La Primavera on the other. Particular attention is paid to the disputed connection between the two paintings. One can construct a coherent narrative for the wedding present by reading La Primavera from right to left but, with partial reference to Plato’s Phaedo, a similarly coherent interpretation by reading La Nascita di Venere and La Primavera from left to right. The possibility of a double meaning was briefly raised by Ernst Gombrich but then dismissed. Here it is argued that accepting this idea resolves the inconsistencies mentioned above, accords with Botticelli’s sharp-witted genius and does justice to the intuition of early art historians, in particular Aby Warburg and Emil Jacobsen.

Keywords Botticelli; La Primavera; Warburg; Plato; Double meaning

[pdf]

Bibliography

Acidini, Christina, ‘Für ein blühendes Florenz. Botticellis mythologische Allegorien’, in Botticelli: Bildnis, Mythos, Andacht, ed. by Andreas Schumacher (Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2010), pp. 73-98.

Ancona, Mirella Levi d’, Botticelli’s Primavera: A Botanical Interpretation Including Astrology, Alchemy, and the Medici (Olschki-Verlag, 1983).

Borenius, Tancred, Italian Painting Up to Leonardo and Raphael (Avalon Press and Collins, 1946).

Cattabiani, Alfredo, Florario: Miti, leggende e simboli di fiori e piante (Edizione Oscar Saggi, 2021).

Centanni, Monica, ‘26 aprile, giorno di primavera: nozze fatali nel giardino di Venere. Una rivisitatione della lettura di Aby Warburg dei dipinti mitologici di Botticelli’, in La Rivista di Engramma, 105 (2013), 106-147, <https://www.engramma.it/eOS/index.php?id_articolo=1342> [accessed 6 January 2025].

Debenedetti, Ana und Caroline Elam (eds), Botticelli Past and Present (UCL Press, 2019).

Gallati, Barbara, ‘An Alchemical Interpretation of the Marriage between Mercury and Venus’, in Botticelli’s Primavera: A Botanical Interpretation Including Astrology, Alchemy, and the Medici, ed. by M. Levi d’Ancona (Olschki-Verlag, 1983) pp. 99-121.

Giannini, Federico, and Ilaria Baratta, ‘Le spezie vegetali della Primavera di Sandro Botticelli’, in Finestre sull’Arte (2017), <https://www.finestresullarte.info/opere-e-artisti/specie-vegetali-della-primavera-di-sandro-botticelli> [accessed 6 January 2025].

Gillies, Jean, Botticelli’s Primavera: The Young Lorenzo’s Transformation (iUniverse, 2010).

Gillies, Jean, ‘The central figure in Botticelli’s Primavera’, in Woman’s Art Journal, 2(1) (1981), 12-16.

Gombrich, Ernst H., Symbolic Images: Studies in the Art of the Renaissance (Phaidon Press, 1978).

Holberton, Paul, ‘Classicism and invention: Botticelli’s mythologies in our time and their time’, in Botticelli Past and Present, ed. by Ana Debenedetti and Caroline Elam (UCL Press, 2019), pp. 53-72.

Jacobsen, Emil, ‘Allegoria della Primavera di Sandro Botticelli’, in Archivo Storico dell’Arte, 2^nd series, Anno III, fasc. 5 (1897), 321-340.

Jacobsen, Emil, ‘Merkur als Psychopompos: Kleiner Nachtrag zu Botticellis Frühling’, in Preussisches Jahrbuch, 102 (1900), 141-143.

Kline, Anthony S., Poetry in Translation, <https://www.poetryintranslation.com/
PITBR/Latin/OvidFastiBkFive.php> [accessed 6 January 2025].

Kline, Jonathan, ‘Botticelli’s Return of Persephone: On the Source and Subject of the Primavera’, in Sixteenth Century Journal, 42(3) (2011), 665-688.

Miziołek, Jerzi, ‘Jacopo del Sellaio’s adaptation of the Primavera’, in Botticelli Past and Present, ed. by Ana Debenedetti and Caroline Elam (UCL Press, 2019), pp. 73-90.

Montanari, Giacomo, ‘Il Giardino delle Hesperidi: La Primavera di Botticelli riletta secondo Ovidio’, il capitale culturale, 11 (2015), 71-97; <https://rivisteopen.unimc.it/index.php/cap-cult/article/view/924> [accessed 7 January 2025].

Ovidius, Publius Naso, Fasti.

Plato, Phaedo.

Politiano, Angelo, Stanze de messer Angelo Politiano cominciate per la giostra del magnifico Giuliano di Pietro de Medici.

Pozilli, Paolo, Luca Vollero, and Anna Maria Colao, ‘Venus by Botticelli and Her Pituary Adenoma’, in Endocrine Practice, 25 (2019), 1067-1073.

Quint, David, The Stanze of Angelo Poliziano translated by David Quint (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993).

Roberts, Alison M., ‘Feminine Alchemy, Egyptian Hermes, and Botticelli’s Primavera: The Quest for the Golden Fruit’, in Quaderni di Studi Indo-Mediterranei, 14 (2022), 267-304.

Schumacher, Andreas (ed.), Botticelli: Bildnis, Mythos, Andacht (Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2010).

Toussaint, Stéphane, Le songe de Botticelli (Éditions Hazan, 2022).

Warburg, Aby, Sandro Botticellis ‘Geburt der Venus’ und ‘Frühling’ (Leopold-Voss-Verlag, 1893).

Wind, Edgar, Heidnische Mysterien in der Renaissance (Suhrkamp-Verlag, 1984).

Zöllner, Frank, ‘Zu den Quellen und zur Ikonographie von Sandro Botticellis “Primavera”’, in Wiener Jahrbuch zur Kunstgeschichte, 50 (1997), 131-158.

Zöllner, Frank, Botticelli (Prestel-Verlag, 2009).