The plot and symbolism of Botticelli's painting spring. "Spring" by Botticelli - wedding gift

Sandro Botticelli. Spring. 1478 Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Few people have known about Botticelli’s “Spring” for... 450 years!

At first it was kept by the descendants of the Medici. Then I got to the Uffizi Gallery. But... You won’t believe it - it lay in storage for 100 years!

And only at the beginning of the 20th century it was put on public display thanks to the fact that it was seen by a famous art critic. This was the beginning of fame.

Now it is one of the main masterpieces of the Uffizi Gallery. And one of the most famous paintings.

But “reading” it is not so easy. It seems to be about spring. But there are a lot of characters here.

Why are there so many of them? Why didn't Botticelli depict one girl as Spring?

Let's try to figure it out.

Sandro Botticelli. Spring (with transcript). 1478 Uffizi Gallery, Florence

In order to read the picture, divide it mentally into three parts:

The right side consists of three heroes who personify the first spring month of MARCH.

The god of the western wind Zephyr begins to blow at the very beginning of spring. This is where the reading of the picture begins.

Of all the heroes, he is the most unattractive in appearance. Blueish skin tone. My cheeks are about to burst from tension.

But this is understandable. This wind was unpleasant for the ancient Greeks. It often brought rain and even storms.

As with people and divine creatures, he did not stand on ceremony. He fell in love with the nymph Chloris, and she had no chance of escaping from Zephyr.

2. CHLORIDE

Zephyr forced this gentle creature in charge of flowers to become his wife. And in order to somehow compensate for her moral worries, he made a real Goddess out of the nymph. So Chloris turned into Flora.

Flora (nee Chloris) did not regret marriage. Even though Zephyr took her as his wife against her will. Apparently the girl was mercantile. After all, she has become much more powerful. Now she was responsible not only for flowers, but in general for all vegetation on Earth.

Francesco Melzi. Flora. 1510-1515

The following five heroes make up the APRIL group. These are Venus, Cupid and the Three Graces.

The goddess Venus is responsible not only for love, but also for fertility and prosperity. So she's here for a reason. And the ancient Romans celebrated a holiday in her honor just in April.

Son of Venus and her constant companion. Everyone knows that this obnoxious boy is especially active in the spring. And he shoots his arrows left and right. Of course, without even seeing who he was going to hit. Love is blind, because Cupid is blindfolded.

And Cupid will most likely end up in one of the Graces. Who was already looking at the young man on the left.

Sandro Botticelli. Spring (fragment). 1478 Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Botticelli depicted three sisters holding each other's hands. They represent the beginning of life, beautiful and tender due to their youth. And they also often accompany Venus, helping to spread her covenants to all people.

"MAY" is represented by only one figure. But what a one!

7. MERCURY

Mercury, the God of trade, disperses the clouds with his staff. Well, good help for Vesna. He is related to her through his mother, the galaxy Maya.

It was in her honor that the ancient Romans gave the month the name “May”. And sacrifices were made to Maya herself on May 1st. The fact is that she was responsible for the fertility of the earth. And without this there is no way in the coming summer.

Why then did Botticelli portray her son, and not Maya herself? By the way, she was lovely - the eldest and most beautiful of the 10 galaxies of sisters.

Sandro Botticelli. Mercury (fragment of the painting “Spring”). 1478 Uffizi Gallery, Florence

I like the version that Botticelli really wanted to depict men at the beginning and end of this spring series.

After all, Spring is the birth of life. And without men in this process there is no way (at least in the time of the artist). It was not for nothing that he depicted all women as pregnant. Establishing fertility in the spring is very important.

Sandro Botticelli. Detail of the painting “Spring”. 1478

In general, Botticelli’s “Spring” is saturated with symbols of fertility. Above the heads of the heroes is an orange tree. It blooms and bears fruit at the same time. Not just in the picture: it can actually do that.

Sandro Botticelli. Detail of the painting “Spring”. 1478 Uffizi Gallery, Florence

And what a carpet of five hundred real-life flowers is worth! It's just some kind of flower encyclopedia. All that remains is to sign the names in Latin.

"Spring" by Sandro Botticelli(1478, Uffizi Gallery, Florence) is one of the most famous works of the Italian Renaissance. The painting was commissioned by Duke Lorenzo de' Medici on the occasion of the wedding (according to another version, the birthday) of his nephew. All the heroes depicted on it are mythological characters. In the center is the goddess Venus, to her left are the three Graces (Beauty, Chastity and Pleasure) and their leader Mercury. On the right is the god of the warm spring wind Zephyr, overtaking the nymph Chloris, and the goddess of flowers Flora. What is their relationship? What connects them? And why did Botticelli need all these heroes to talk about spring - a symbol of new life, love?

“This is the dialectic of love embodied in movement”

Marina Khaikina, art critic:“The picture was created according to the laws not of drama, but of musical and rhythmic ones. And therefore it is very difficult to tell what is happening here, to build a plot. But let's try. On the right side of the picture we see two events at once: Zephyr’s abduction of the nymph Chloris and her subsequent transformation into the goddess Flora, who symbolizes spring. However, the central position in the picture is not occupied by Flora, but by another heroine - Venus. She is not just the goddess of love and beauty. Neoplatonists, with whose ideas Botticelli was well acquainted, endowed Venus with the highest virtues - intelligence, nobility, grace, and identified her with Humanity, which was synonymous with culture and education. The movement of Venus is barely noticeable, but it is directed from earthly love, personified by Flora, to heavenly love, which, apparently, is symbolized by Mercury. His posture and gesture indicate that he is a conductor to the Mind reigning in the celestial spheres. His hand next to the fruit hanging on the tree is a motif traditionally associated with the Tree of Knowledge. It is very likely that Botticelli illustrated here the Neoplatonic dialectic of love - the path from earthly love to divine love.

Love, in which there is not only the joy and fullness of life, but also the sadness of knowledge and the stamp of suffering - we cannot help but see it on the face of Venus. In Botticelli’s painting, this dialectic of love is embodied in the musical, magical rhythm of movement, dance, now fading, now accelerating, but endlessly beautiful.”

"Hymn to living human desire"“There are only two men in the picture, their images are fundamentally different. Zephyr (on the right) is a dark and scary, demonic tempter. Mercury (left) is narcissistically beautiful. But it is Zephyr, alive and active, who touches the woman and looks at her (none of the characters in the picture have direct eye contact). But Mercury has turned away from everyone and contemplates the sky. According to myth, at this moment he disperses the clouds. It’s as if he wants to get rid of what moves the clouds - the wind. But the Wind is precisely Zephyr seducing Chloris. Mercury is trying to free space from the movement of wind and life, from the sexual attraction of a man to a woman.

Next to him are three Graces, but there is no physical connection between him and the girls: grace Pleasure stands with his back to Mercury. Chastity's gaze is turned to Mercury, but there is no contact between them either. In a word, in this entire group there is no hint of the awakening of Spring or sexuality. But it is this group that Venus blesses. She here is not the goddess of love, but the Christian symbol of the Mother, the Madonna. There is nothing feminine or sexual about her, she is the Goddess of spiritual love and therefore favors the leftist group, devoid of sensuality.

And here’s what we see on the right: Zephyr takes Chloris by force, and the nymph girl turns into a woman, Flora. And what happens next? Flora no longer looks at Zephyr (unlike Chloris), she is not interested in a man, she is interested in flowers and children. Chloris was a mortal girl, and the goddess Flora gained divine immortality. It turns out that The idea of the picture is this: you can be immortal and omnipotent only by giving up sexuality.

On a rational level, the symbolism of the painting encourages us to feel the greatness and divinity of motherhood, the narcissistic confidence of Mercury, the self-sufficiency of our inner Graces. Botticelli calls to curb your “wild” desires, attractions that are associated with Zephyr, to abandon them and thus gain immortality. However, unconsciously he writes the opposite, and the very atmosphere of the picture speaks about this. We live together with Zephyr and Chloris their passionate love affair, literally feeling with our skin that only such sexual attraction can open the vicious circle of the Graces and release pleasure from the narcissistic trap. To be alive, mortal, feeling, to experience different experiences (fear and pleasure), even at the cost of renouncing Divine immortality - in my opinion, this is the main hidden meaning of Botticelli’s message.

A hymn not to the Divine, rational, symbolic and chaste, but to a living human desire that conquers narcissism and the fear of one’s own mortality.”

Sandro Botticelli borrowed the plot of the painting “Spring” from two ancient Roman poets - Ovid and Lucretius. Ovid told about the origin of the goddess of spring and flowers, Flora. Once upon a time, the young beauty was not a goddess, but a nymph named Chloris. The wind god Zephyr saw her and fell in love with her and forcibly took her as his wife. Then, to atone for his mad impulse, he turned his beloved into a goddess and gave her a delightful garden. It is in this garden that the action of Botticelli's great painting takes place. As for Lucretius, the great master of Renaissance painting found the idea for creating the composition “Spring” from him.

The figures depicted in the painting contain many meanings. First of all, they symbolize the spring months. Zephyr, Chloris and Flora are March, since the first breath of the Zephyr wind brings spring. Venus with Cupid hovering above her, as well as graces whirling in a dance - April. The son of the goddess Maya Mercury is May.

History of creation

Botticelli created one of his main masterpieces by order of the almighty Florentine Duke Lorenzo Medici. He needed it as a wedding gift for his close relative Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco. Therefore, the symbolism of the painting is closely related to the wish for a happy and virtuous family life.

Venus is presented here primarily as the virtuous goddess of conjugal love, which is why her appearance is similar to that of the Madonna. Graceful graces are the embodiment of female virtues - Chastity, Beauty and Pleasure. Their long hair is intertwined with pearls, symbolizing purity. Young Flora walks with a leisurely gait, throwing beautiful roses on her way. This is exactly what was done at weddings. A winged Cupid, blindfolded, hovers above the head of the goddess of love, Venus, because love is blind.

Almost all the female characters in the picture, primarily Venus and Flora, outwardly resemble the untimely death of the first beauty of Florence, Simonetta Vespucci. There is a version that the artist was secretly and hopelessly in love with her. Perhaps it was thanks to this reverent, chaste love that Botticelli was able to create such a sublime canvas.

The fate of a masterpiece

For a long time, “Spring” was kept in Pierfrancesco’s house. Until 1743, Botticelli's masterpiece belonged to the Medici family. In 1815, it entered the collection of the famous Uffizi Gallery. However, at that time the name of Sandro Botticelli was almost forgotten, and no attention was paid to the painting. Only in the second half of the 19th century, the English art critic John Ruskin rediscovered the work of the great Florentine, making it available to the general public. Today, “Spring,” along with another Botticelli masterpiece, “The Birth of Venus,” is one of the pearls of the gallery.

Art of Italy 15th century. Revival.
A world masterpiece, the painting “Spring” was created by the artist Sandro Botticelli in the late 70s of the 15th century. Painting size 203 x 314 cm, wood, tempera. This work was painted by Botticelli for the Villa Castello near Florence, owned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici. The year of its execution is usually considered to be 1478 - the work was completed shortly after the villa was purchased for fifteen-year-old Lorenzo. This relative of the Magnificent was then receiving a thorough education, and the head of the Platonic Academy, Ficino, also took a friendly part in his upbringing. The painting, intended for the personal chambers of the future Renaissance connoisseur, was designed to delight the eyes and at the same time influence the soul of its contemplator.

Botticelli depicted Zephyr in the picture pursuing the nymph Chloris, from their union Flora arises; then we see Venus, the dance of the Graces and, finally, Mercury, who, looking upward, removes with his caduceus the veil of clouds that prevents contemplation. What is the content of the picture? Researchers have offered several interpretations. The theme of the composition is spring with its accompanying ancient deities. The center of the construction is Venus - not the embodiment of base passion, but the noble goddess of flowering and all goodwill on earth; this is a neoplatonic image.

Expanding this context, scientists argued that the work of the Florentine artist reflects the idea of the generation of beauty by the light of divine love and the contemplation of this beauty, leading from the earthly to the superterrestrial. “Spring” was also associated with a moralizing horoscope compiled by Ficino for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco: he was recommended to choose the planet Venus-Humanitas (humanity), endowed with all moral virtues and indicating the path to higher spheres, as a guide in self-improvement. Note that all these facets of content do not deny, but rather complement each other. But let’s not exaggerate the importance of the meaningful outline, for the picture was painted by an artist who transformed everything with his animated imagination.

Venus, the central figure of the composition, stands under the canopy of trees in this enchanted space of the spring forest. Her dress made of the finest fabric with golden threads of decoration and a luxurious scarlet cloak, symbolizing love, indicate that before us is the goddess of love and beauty. But other features also appear in her fragile appearance. The bowed head is covered with a gauze blanket, the kind Sandro Botticelli liked to dress his Madonnas in. Venus's face with questioningly raised eyebrows expresses sadness and modesty; the meaning of her gesture is unclear - is it a greeting, timid defense or blissful acceptance? The character resembles the Virgin Mary in the subject of the Annunciation (for example, in the painting by Alesso Baldovinetti). The pagan and Christian are intertwined into a spiritualized image. In other figures of the composition, associations with religious motifs are also captured. Thus, the images of Zephyr and the nymph Chloris echo the medieval image of the devil, who does not allow the soul into Paradise.

The Graces, companions and servants of Venus, are virtues generated by Beauty, their names are Chastity, Love, Pleasure. Botticelli's depiction of the beautiful triad is the very embodiment of dance. Slender figures with elongated, smoothly curving forms are intertwined in a rhythmic sequence of circular movement. The artist is extremely inventive in his interpretation of hairstyles, conveying hair simultaneously as a natural element and as a decorative material. Grace's hair is collected in strands, sometimes finely curly, sometimes falling in waves, sometimes scattering over her shoulders, like golden streams. Light bends and turns of figures, dialogue of glances, graceful joining of hands and placement of feet - all this conveys the progressive rhythm of the dance.

The relationships of its participants reflect the classical formula and at the same time the Neoplatonic understanding of Eros: Love leads Chastity to Pleasure and holds their hands together. In Botticelli's image the idea of mythological splendor comes to life, but his images are colored with genuine purity. It is no coincidence that the dance of the Graces is compared to the round dance of angels in Paradise in the composition “The Last Judgment” by Fra Angelico. Mercury's gaze is dreamily directed to the sky. He tries to break the density of clouds that interfere with vision. Botticelli gives Mercury the type of thin youthful figure characteristic of the taste of Florence of those years, as in Verrocchio’s David, but its outlines become melodious and its face becomes spiritual.

“This is the dialectic of love embodied in movement”

Love, in which there is not only the joy and fullness of life, but also the sadness of knowledge and the stamp of suffering - we cannot help but see it on the face of Venus. In Botticelli’s painting, this dialectic of love is embodied in the musical, magical rhythm of movement, dance, now fading, now accelerating, but endlessly beautiful.”