The triumph of spring is one of the most important works of Sandro Botticelli, the famous artist active in Florence during the second half of the 15th century. You can visit this painting at the Uffizi Gallery, probably the most important museum of Florence.
In this picture are contained the new values that circulated in Florence during the period characterized by the figure of Lorenzo the Magnificent. This value are amenable to the Neo – Platonism: a new philosophical movement that is based on the idea of absolute beauty and love.
The characters represented are from the right: Zephyrus, the god of winds, that runs after Chloris nymph because of his love for her; Flora, the Goddess of spring; Venus; Cupid; the three Graces and Mercury , the God of Wars.
There are a lot of interpretations about the identity of the characters and their aim in this work also because the subject of the spring it isn’t very usual in the history of art. However we can have certainty that this work was commissioned for celebrated a new golden age in that reigned beauty, peace and love.
A curiosity about this work is that the woman in the center of the representation is the same woman that Botticelli stroked in one other famous work, the birth of Venus. Through a deepened study we know that the woman is Simonetta Vespucci, the lover of the Lorenzo the Magnificent’s brother, Giuliano.
Pictures Courtesy of Luca, beautiful didbygraham