Primavera Interpretation

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Botticelli’s Primavera can be labeled as one the most notable interpretative challenges of art history, due to the plethora of differing interpretations of its meaning. Some interpret the Primavera as a mythological depiction surrounding a wedding in the painting’s patron’s family, others believe it is an allegorical representation of the arrival of spring or a symbolic portrayal of Neoplatonic philosophies concerning the nature of love. Although scholars disagree on what exactly Botticelli trying to express in Primavera, most do agree on the identity of the figures in the painting which include mythological figures based primarily on the works of the Greek poet, Ovid. Although the exact meaning will remain unknown, considering differing interpretations can assist in understanding the notions presented and can aid in analysing the findings accordingly.

Primavera is a 2.03m x 3.1m tempera panel painting by the famous Italian Early Renaissance painter, Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli and is currently housed by the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, Italy. D’Ancona suggests that the painting was produced around 1482, and was commissioned for a member of the Medici family, a powerful political and banking house in Florence. . Such large format paintings were not unusual in private residences of affluent families. Primavera was part of a decoration in Pierfrancesco’s house in Florence, where it was hung or fixed above a lettuccio, which is a kind of settle that stood and fixed against the wall in the chamber next to Lorenzo’s bedroom. Moreover, D’Ancona supported this idea by stating that the painting was framed in a white frame, and white is an appropriate colour for weddings. Likewise, Venus e...

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...ing stands Mercury. As Wind asserts, "The crux of any interpretation of the Primavera is to explain the part played by Mercury. By tradition he is 'the leader of the Graces'; but while that would seem to explain his place next to them, it is hard to reconcile with his disengaged -- not to say, indifferent, attitude". The mention of the wind brings us again to the last section of the painting. At the extreme right three figures recall Ovid's Fasti since Zephyr, the west wind, impregnates Chloris. "However, he made amends by making her Queen of flowers." As Dempsey notes, "the meaning of the Ovidian model is transformed, for Ovid does not literally describe a transformation in the Fasti, but Botticelli has nevertheless imagined the event as an Ovidian metamorphosis and thereby rendered, in true Ovidian fashion, the meaning of the event in the actions themselves".

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