Mars and Venus (Botticelli)  From Wikipedia, the free
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Jump to: navigation, search Venus and Mars, c 1483. Tempera on
panel, 69 cm x 173 cm  Mars and Venus is a c. 1483 painting by
the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli. It shows the
Roman gods Venus and Mars in an allegory of beauty and valor.
The youthful and voluptuous couple recline in a forest setting,
surrounded by playful satyrs. The painting is typically held as
an ideal of sensuous love, of pleasure and play.  This work was
probably a piece of bedroom furniture, perhaps a bedhead or
piece of wainscoting, most probably the 'spalliera' or backboard
from a chest or day bed. The wasps ('vespe' in Italian) at the
top right suggest a link with the Vespucci family, though they
may be no more than a symbol of the stings of love.  A lost
Classical painting of the marriage of Alexander and Roxana was
described by the 2nd-century Greek writer, Lucian. It showed
cupids playing with Alexander's