Botticelli’s Primavera

Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, later nicknamed Botticelli, was born in Florence in 1445, and was the leader of the poetic current in later Quattrocento Florentine art. His name is derived from his older brother, Giovanni, who was a pawnbroker and was called Il Botticello, which means “The Little Barrel."  He was apprenticed to a goldsmith before he trained with Fra Filippo Lippi and Andrea del Verrocchio in the early 15^th century. Lippi and Botticelli became so close that before Lippi died, he entrusted him to train his son Filipino Lippi. Around 1470, he became an independent painter. In Florence, Botticelli was a protégé of several members of the powerful Medici family.

Due the emergence of the High Renaissance style at the turn of the 16^th century, Botticelli fell out of fashion and died in anonymity May 17, 1510, in Florence. Botticelli was almost unknown for hundreds of years after his death. His works were rediscovered late in the 19^th century by the Pre-Raphaelites, who were a group of artists in England.

Primavera was painted for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici when Vasari later saw this work and documented that it was in Pierfrancesco de' Medici’s villa at Castello.

It is a over-life-sized allegorical painting and measures 10’ 4” by 8’ ¼”. It was painted in 1482 and is now in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

On the right on the painting is Zephyrus, the west wind, who abducts the nymph Chloris, rapes, and marries. She is transformed into Flora, who positioned next to Chloris. Flora is the goddess of flowers and the personification of spring. On the left hand side of the painting is Mercury, who is the youth with winged sandals and was the messenger of Jove. Next to him are the Three Graces, who are symbols of the beauty and grace that Venus offers to the world. Above the Three Graces is Cupid, who is blindfolded shooting a blazing golden arrow in their direction. Cupid is there in honor of Flora becoming the goddess of spring, as well as to represent the birth of spring and the rejuvenation of flowers and the earth. In the center is Venus, who represents the moral qualities that a cultivated Florentine patrician would possess.

Despite being familiar with the new revelations of the renaissance, including linear perspective and anatomy, Botticelli seems to have reverted back to a double scale. The figures have been elongated much like they were in the Mannerist style. They appear almost weightless and their weight does not bend any of the plants they step on. It is as if they are light enough for the wind to carry them above the ground. Also, the figures move parallel to the picture plane, with more emphasis placed on line than on modeling. None of the figures move freely in the space, but appear to be interwoven with the rich vegetation of the setting.

Line seems to be a dominating feature to his works. Botticelli used a combination of curvilinear and smooth line to depict the figures in motion. He painted Primavera on a smooth surface. Masaccio believed that no line exists in nature; therefore, the only lines in his paintings were created when two things overlapped. Also, the lines are so distinct that everything is differentiated. There is not confusion of which appendage belongs to which figure. Nothing, with exception to the trees, seems to emerge from obscurity. Thus, it is hard to believe that Botticelli is two generations in training away from Masaccio through Fra Filippo Lippi.

Because of her centrality, the eye is originally drawn to Venus. She embodies the restraint that characterizes Botticelli’s elegant style.  Botticelli has abandoned symmetry and Venus is placed slightly to the right of the center. Surrounding Venus is a cut away of the leaves of the orange trees in the shape of angel wings or nimbus.

Also, Venus is fully clothed unlike antique representations in which she is nude. She is more decorously clothed and wears a headdress of a Florentine married woman. She stands with her belly trusted forward, a posture that people of the fifteenth century thought beautiful. She is dressed in a loose white robe that is braided underneath her chest and it is embroidered with golden rays of flames. The sleeves are puffed with a white shift and held together with a gold band. Around her neck is a golden chain set with pearls, the gems of purity, and the necklace also hangs a pendant. The entire costume is gracefully exotic; neither classical nor contemporary.

Armed and helmeted, Mercury poses as if he is Donatello’s David. He is the only figure that does not have a specific association with spring as a classical god, but as an astrological deity who rules over May as Venus rules over April.

The long limbed figures of the Three Graces move with melodious grace, their golden hair and almost transparent clothing undulate around them. The Grace on the right has hair of paler gold intertwined with a band of pearls. The second grace is shown with her back turned to us portrayed with the same refined sensuality. The last Grace, she at whom Cupid aim his flaming dart, has hair of a deep gold. All three of the Graces wear a diaphanous robe that clings to their curvaceous, slender bodies that ripple through the wind as they dance around in acircle. There is also a glare on the pearls there is a shadow of the pendants on one Grace's chest and one on another's gown. The elongation coupled with its large scale gives the figures a monumental yet poetic grace that Botticelli is known for. The proportions of the figures are so exaggerated the women, as well as idealized faces and long flowing blonde hair, look very idealized.

It is worth mentioning that sin is depicted by the figures being hunched over like animal, thus reverting back to pagan theology in which base figures were depicted with having animal characteristics. The harsh line and gesture imparts feeling of urgency and hostility as Zephyrus hovers over Chloris’s body.

Moreover, the figures seem to mimic their surroundings. For example, the bent trees emphasize the hunched over Zephyrus and Chloris, the straight orange trees mimic the upright figures of the Three Graces and Mercury, and the scarceness of oranges around the soaring Cupid.

Botticelli’s use of expression and gesture is masterful. Zephyrus towers over Chloris and has a look on his face as if his sole intent is to capture her. As he places his left hand on her rib cage and his right on her shoulder, she turns her head back and upturns her eyes with utter fear. Flowers disperse from her mouth and her hair is still in mid air. Her hands are painted with such tenseness and her neck muscle wrench from her neck. Flora looks at the viewer seemingly oblivious to the event that just happened to her and she dispels flowers from her floral print dress on to the ground.

Additionally, the parted lips of Mercury imply breath as he intensely stares at the storm he is chasing away. There is a calm assurance in his face due to his upward gaze, which implies he is more than capable of dispelling it.

Botticelli had a meticulous attention to detail. For example, every strand of hair is painted on all of the figures. He even painted the loose hairs of the Three Graces and a braided head band encircling the crown of their head. He also depicted threaded detail and jewels of the dresses, as well as a tapestry style design for Mercury’s garment.

            The jewel tone colors of this work are used to create an otherworldly effect. Botticelli’s use of tempera (a painting medium in which pigment is mixed with egg yolk) instead of fresco has led a preserved vividness of color. Because it was painted on gesso (a preparation of plaster of Paris and glue used as a base for low relief or as a surface for painting), that surface helped the vibrant color remain preserved.

Botticelli has shown his ability to paint sheer objects, for example, Mercury raises his caduceus to catch and dispel a translucent storm of clouds trying to enter the garden. Also, the Three Graces gowns drape their bodies and the sheer white material is flowing everywhere but clinging to their bodies. He has masterfully painted the nude figure underneath the folds of drapery, as well as mastered creating folds of transparent material. The folds not only overlap its own dress, but they drape over the other Graces gowns.

The choice of depicting the figures ivory skin (with an exception to the blue skin of Zephyrus) as opposed to flesh colored skin gives the impression that these figures are beyond the realm of earthly skin. Moreover, their ivory skin is contrast with the vibrant yellows and pinks of the flowers, and jewel-toned, vibrant garments of the figures.

Additionally, the light source of this work is ambiguous and shadows are barely visible. The only tangible shadow is on Zephyrus who emerges from the trees to rape Chloris and the shadows created by the folds of drapery of the figures garments.

Surrounding the figures is a dark grove of orange trees with their branches intertwined. The trees are decorated with golden fruit, which fill the upper portion of the picture. They are in a meadow of short grass, so green that it often seemed black. The garden boasts no fewer than forty-two variety’s of plants common to Tuscany. Some of the plants that were painted were coltsfoot, forget-me-nots, small grape-hyacinths, cornflowers, irises, periwinkles, grape-plantains, borage, pinks, anemones, and daisies.

The trees are black for the most part which gives a sense of obscurity. This darkness in the background and inability to pin point location gives the sense that these figures are in a world that transcends time and earthly location. The anonymity of a certain geographic location add to the ambiguity if the scene.

Between trunks hint of a distant landscape that display Botticelli’s use of atmospheric/aerial perspective, which is the perception of depth by using less focus and bluer, lighter, and duller hues for the distant objects.

This work embodied the rarified ideal of perfection and poetry that was missing in the renaissance in that time. There is nothing weak or hesitant about Botticelli’s style.  The patterns and lines are energetic, which are united with lightning from the side that emphasizes the sculptural relief of every feature, lock of hair, and jewel.  All surfaces are smooth, masses firm, no brushwork visible. There is nothing trivial about his works or no detail undone. In Primavera, as in all of his works, exemplifies the beauty in art.