Definition

One of my favourite art historian, Richard Leeman, told us one day “we look at the famous painting ‘Birth of Venus’ from Sandro Botticelli and we can converse for hours about Neo-Platonism in art, write several essays on its impact or not in the artist’s life, in art history or for contemporary artists… but we should never forget this is also a beautiful naked woman, who is still pleasant to look at, and that even centuries after being paint”.

I think this is a pretty good description for this chef d’oeuvre as it shows how powerful and ambiguous  an image can be.

Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus (c. 1486)