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3.2: Botticelli’s La Primavera

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    Botticelli’s La Primavera
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    Artist: Sandro Botticelli
    Medium: Tempera on panel
    Art Historical Time Period: Italian Renaissance

    La Primavera, painted around 1482, is a masterpiece filled with mythological figures in a lush garden setting. The painting was commissioned by the Medici family, possibly as a wedding gift, to celebrate themes of love, fertility, and the rebirth of spring. It depicts Venus, the goddess of love, at the center, surrounded by other figures, including Mercury, the Three Graces, and Flora. Botticelli used flowing lines and delicate colors to create an ethereal and harmonious composition.
    This artwork is innovative for its combination of classical mythology with Renaissance ideals of beauty and nature. La Primavera influenced Renaissance artists by showing how mythological themes could be used to convey humanistic ideas. Its emphasis on nature and allegory also inspired later art movements, such as the Pre-Raphaelites, who admired its dreamlike quality. Today, the painting is celebrated for its timeless beauty and symbolic depth

    Vocabulary

    • Allegory A symbolic representation of ideas or themes.
    • Ethereal Light, delicate, and otherworldly.

    • Tempera A type of paint made with pigment and egg yolk.

    Student Authors

    • Camila Navarro ’26 and Eduardo Cortez ’24

    Citations

    • Hartt, F., & Wilkins, D. G. (2010). History of Italian Renaissance Art. Pearson.

    • Lightbown, R. (1978). Sandro Botticelli: Life and Work. Abbeville Press.

    • Stemp, R. (2006). The Secret Language of the Renaissance. Duncan Baird Publishers.

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    3.2: Botticelli’s La Primavera is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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