collecting colours over a cup of coffee...

Find lost art

Monday, May 17, 2010

Renaissance of sorts

As you would find on the Header, we started this site with a view to make ourselves more acquainted with the different painting schools and painters. Assorting paintings here over the last few years has been immensely fruitful as well as enjoyable. It has not only given us a good fundamental grasp of the history but also enabled us to appreciate and judge art , both the skill and the context.

With that purpose served, it would only be pointless to assort a painting everyday. Instead we propose to spread it out over random days to upload paintings that we find interesting, either the painting itself or its artistic background. We will also share along information in the form a brief missive of why we find it interesting.

Thank you.


Today being the day of 500 years of Sandro Botticelli’s death, I’m kicking off the venture by uploading what could arguably be one of the greatest paintings of renaissance and perhaps of all time. The Birth of Venus.

The Birth of Venus which Botticelli drew from the Venus Medici has become , to use a modern term, gold standard to represent  beauty esp. feminine beauty. It is believed that the Botticelli painted Venus entirely from memory, modelling her after his love interest  Simonetta Vespucci nine years after her death. Simonetta was a great beauty of her times and was married to a nobleman Marco Vespucci. Well, given her beauty it is said that she courted a number of men including Botticelli. However, it isn’t clear if they did have a relationship or an affair. But it is said she had such a tremendous impact on Botticelli that he painted her portraits including Birth of Venus after her death. She died at a young age 22 , suspected of pulmonary Tuberculosis.[1]  He remained unmarried throughout his life and after his death was buried near Simonetta’s grave as per his request. Details, as of any such medieval affairs often tend to be hazy and hence controversial.

[1] I am reminded of John Keats , another young victim of Pulmonary Tuberculosis. He died aged 25  studying medicine . Interestingly Keats has been buried in Rome, Italy where he died.  Quite strangely both Keats and Simonetta - young victims of TB -  were key figures in two important artistic movements in human history , namely, Renaissance and Romanticism.

Following the Rainbow | Louvre | | Tate |