Oil Paintings Reproductions

About The Artist - Sandro Botticelli (March 1, 1444/45 - May 17, 1510)

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, popularly known as Sandro Botticelli, an Italian painter, belonged to the Early Renaissance (Quattrocento) period.

About The Painting - Primavera

Botticelli was a painter during, what is now known as the Golden Age in Western Art. Belonging to the Early Renaissance period, Botticelli's work is marked by grace and fluidity of form. Two of his most famous works, The Birth of Venus and Primavera, are one of most popular and well-recognized masterpieces and remarkable examples of Florentine art.

The Primavera is housed in Uffizi Gallery of Florence. Primavera actually means arrival of spring in Italian. A large-format painting, Primavera is a significant illustration of Renaissance classicism, imagery, and human form. The painting depicts classical gods in little clothing and life-sizes. The complexity of the subject's philosophical symbolism requires the viewer to have deep knowledge of literature during the Renaissance period and ability to fuse them together to understand.

The Primavera is a pictorial version showing highly-idealized forms with bodies that may at times seem too attenuated while being elegant, grace in the 16th century Mannerism style. Venus forms the center of the image and is set slightly back from the other gods. Just above Venus is Cupid and he is throwing his arrows of love at the Charites or Three Graces, who are enjoying themselves as they dance elegantly.

The Grace on the right side of the Primavera has the face of Caterina Sforza. While Mercury, on the left, guards the garden of Venus, the goddess of love in Greek Mythology. Mercury is symbolically clad in a red clock that seems to be covered with flames also wears a helmet and wields a sword, characterizing his role as the guardian of the Love Garden.

The messenger of Gods can be identified by his winged shoes and the caduceus staff that he uses to set the two snakes apart; the snakes have been depicted as winged dragons. The God of the Winds, Zephyrus, is shown pursuing the nymph Chloris in a forcible manner, as Flora, the Spring Goddess, walks next to her scattering flowers.

The Primavera is a profoundly humanistic painting that reflects modern cultural influences as well as expresses many modern literatures beautifully.