Arcadópolis
Nudity. This work is shown blurred, as in the Museum.Show work
Venus and Mars
Sandro Botticelli, c. 1485
What you see
Two reclining figures stretch across this long, low picture. On the left, Venus, dressed in white and wide awake, watches Mars, who sleeps soundly on the right, bare-chested with a white cloth over his hips. Between them, four little fauns with horns and goat legs get up to mischief: one hides inside the helmet, another blows a conch shell by Mars’s ear.
The light is even and clear, picking out the white fabric and the gold trim on Venus’s gown. Behind them, dark shrubs frame a strip of field and sky. Don’t miss the faun in the lower right corner peeking out from inside the breastplate, and the grin of the one carrying the lance.
About Sandro Botticelli
Sandro Botticelli worked in Florence for the powerful Medici family. His elegant figures, with hair that seems to float in the wind, brought ancient myths to life as never before. He also painted in the Sistine Chapel, years before Michelangelo.
More by Sandro Botticelli
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