"Spring", Botticelli

This outstanding work of the great Botticelli was written for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco Medici, cousin of Lorenzo the Magnificent.

Art historians disagree about the exact dating of the work. The painting is believed to have been painted between 1477 and 1482.

It is also somewhat difficult to interpret numerous allegorical symbols... According to the most common interpretation, the painting depicts the reign of Venus, glorified by ancient poets and the close writer of the Medici court, Angelo Poliziano.

The picture is read from right to left: the winged god of the winds Zephyr, in love with the nymph Chloris, overtakes her to forcibly marry her. Repented of what he had done, he turns her into Flora, the goddess of nature and spring. Venus is depicted in the center, symbolizing the humanity that reigns over people. The group on the left is the three dancing graces. The scene is closed by Mercury, scattering the clouds with his magic wand.

Thus Venus, incarnation humanity, separates carnal love and materialism (group on the right) from love of spiritual and moral values ​​(group on the left). Under "humanity" was understood the ideal of a human person - highly moral, confident in their strengths and capabilities and listening to the needs of others.

During the Renaissance, this ancient concept was carefully studied by the humanist philosophers of the Neoplatonic school at the Medici court. Neoplatonism, a philosophical and aesthetic trend, followed the theories of the Greek philosopher Plato. Neoplatonic conceptions of ideal beauty and sublime "platonic" love had a huge impact on the culture and worldview of Renaissance figures, including Botticelli.

Thus, the work also reflects the high intellectual level of the Medici dynasty and their love for culture and art.

Botticelli depicted with amazing accuracy the various varieties of flowers and herbs that could be found in the vicinity of Florence in the spring. The masterful use of colors, the sophistication of the figures connected by the inner movement, the poetry of the composition make this work enchanting and unique.

Dedicated to the work of Botticelli, you can admire his masterpieces "Spring" and "The Birth of Venus".

"Spring" by Sandro Botticelli(1478, Uffizi Gallery, Florence) - one of the most famous works of the Italian Renaissance. The painting was commissioned by Duke Lorenzo Medici on the occasion of his nephew's wedding (according to another version - birthday). All the heroes depicted on it are mythological characters. In the center is the goddess Venus, to the left of her are the three Graces (Beauty, Chastity and Pleasure) and their leader Mercury. On the right is the god of the warm, spring wind Zephyr, overtaking the nymph Chlorida, and the goddess of flowers Flora. What kind of relationship are they in? What connects them? And why did Botticelli need all these heroes to talk about spring - a symbol of new life, love?

"This is the dialectic of love, embodied in movement"

Marina Khaikina, art critic:“The picture was created according to not dramatic laws, but musical and rhythmic ones. And therefore it is very difficult to tell what is happening here, to build a plot. But let's try. On the right side of the picture, we see two events at the same time: the abduction of the nymph Chlorida by Zephyr and her subsequent transformation into the goddess Flora, which symbolizes spring. However, the central position in the picture is not occupied by Flora, but by another heroine - Venus. She is not just a goddess of love and beauty. Neoplatonists, with whose ideas Botticelli was well acquainted, endowed Venus with the highest virtues - intelligence, nobility, grace, and identified with Humanity, which was synonymous with culture and education. The movement of Venus is barely noticeable, but it is directed from earthly love, personified by Flora, to heavenly love, which, apparently, is symbolized by Mercury. His posture and gesture indicate that he is a guide to the Reason that reigns in the heavenly spheres. His hand next to a fruit hanging from a tree is a motif traditionally associated with the Tree of Knowledge. It is very likely that Botticelli Here he illustrated the neo-Platonic dialectic of love - the path from earthly love to divine love. Love, in which there is not only joy and fullness of life, but also the sadness of knowledge and the stamp of suffering - we cannot but see it on the face of Venus. In Botticelli's painting, this dialectic of love is embodied in the musical, magical rhythm of movement, dance, now dying down, now accelerating, but endless beauty. "

"Hymn to living human attraction"

Andrey Rossokhin, psychoanalyst:“There are only two men in the picture, their images are fundamentally different. Zephyr (he is on the right) is a dark and terrible, demonic tempter. Mercury (left) is narcissistically beautiful. But it is Zephyr, alive and mobile, who touches the woman and looks at her (none of the characters in the picture have direct eye contact anymore). But Mercury turned away from everyone and contemplates the sky. According to the myth, he disperses the clouds at this moment. He seems to want to get rid of what drives the clouds - from the wind. But the Wind is exactly the Zephyr that seduces Chlorida. Mercury tries to free space from the movement of wind and life, from the sexual attraction of a man to a woman.

There are three Graces next to him, but there is no bodily connection between him and the girls: the grace of Pleasure has its back to Mercury. Chastity's gaze is turned to Mercury, but there is no contact between them either. In a word, in this whole group there is not even a hint of the awakening of Spring, sexuality. But it is this group that Venus blesses. She is here - not the goddess of love, but the Christian symbol of the Mother, the Madonna. There is nothing feminine-sexual in her, she is the Goddess of spiritual love and therefore is supportive of the left group, devoid of sensuality.

And here is what we see on the right: Zephyr takes Chlorida by force, and the nymph girl turns into a woman, Flora. And what happens then? Flora no longer looks at Zephyr (unlike Chlorida), she is not interested in a man, she is interested in flowers and children. Chlorida was a mortal girl, and the goddess Flora gained divine immortality. It turns out that the idea of ​​the picture is this: you can be immortal and omnipotent only by giving up sexuality.

On a rational level, the symbolism of the picture encourages us to feel the greatness and divinity of motherhood, the narcissistic confidence of Mercury, the self-sufficiency of our inner Graces. Botticelli calls to curb your "wild" desires, attractions that are associated with Zephyr, to abandon them and so get immortality. However, unconsciously, he writes the opposite, and the very atmosphere of the picture speaks about it. We live together with Zephyr and Chlorida their passionate love affair, literally feeling with our skin that only such sexual attraction can open the vicious circle of Graces and release pleasure from the narcissistic trap. To be alive, mortal, feeling, to experience different experiences (fear and pleasure), even at the cost of renouncing Divine immortality - in my opinion, this is the main hidden meaning of Botticelli's message. A hymn not to the Divine, rational, symbolic and chaste, but to a living human attraction that overcomes narcissism and the fear of one's own mortality. "

The story of one masterpiece

"Spring" by Sandro Botticelli

Here is Spring, and Venus is coming, and Venus is winged
The messenger comes ahead, and Zephyr follows, in front of them
Flora-mother walks and, scattering flowers on the way,
It fills everything with paints and a sweet smell ...
The winds, goddess, run before you; with your approach
The clouds are leaving heaven, the earth is a magnificent master
Spreads a flower carpet, the waves of the sea are smiling,
And the azure of the firmament shines with an overflowing light.

In Florence, in the Uffizi Gallery, among the manymasterpieces painting Italian Renaissance contains one of the most famous paintings in the world - "Spring" by Sandro Botticelli. Hundreds of articles, many thousands of pages, have been written about this wonderful work, created 500 years ago, in 1478. Our today's conversation is about her.

Images paintings are inspired byantique poetry and have a mythological connotation. However, this is not only a poetic allegory. Botticelli put a complex philosophical meaning into his work. In order to reveal the main idea of ​​"Spring", let us turn to its content andcompositional construction.

The movement in the picture is directed from right to left. From the top right corner, a bluish-green figure in a flowing cloak invades. We recognize by the swollen cheeks and wings - this is the wind. The tree trunks bent from his flight. Tenaciously he grabbed the nymph running to the left. She turned her frightened face to him, and touched the third figure with her hands, as if asking for protection. But she, as if not noticing, walks to the lower edge of the picture, looking at the viewer, and with the gesture of the sower taking a new handful of seeds, she lowers her right hand into the folds of her dress, overflowing with roses. This girl with the thin face of a teenager, with a wreath on her golden hair, in a long dress embroidered with flowers, was often called Spring. In fact, this is the goddess of flowers and plants Flora.

The artist needed three figures to tell the myth of how the spring wind Zephyr, with his love, turned a nymph named Chloris (which means “green” or “greenery”) into the goddess of flowering. About how nature blooms in spring. And how poetically the transformation is shown! Together with the breath, flowers fly from the open lips of the nymph, they fall from under her hand, cover her hem with a small pattern. It seems as if flowers growing in the meadow shine through the fabric. The third figure from the right is the already transformed Chloris in her new appearance. She became a goddess in a luxuriant robe. And how wonderful the embroidered patterns of her dress (for example, on her collar) come to life and become real flowers, reminding the audience about what real things this beautiful fairy tale tells about ... Three right figuressymbolize the first month of spring, for the first breath of Zephyr was considered its beginning.

The fourth on the right, slightly in the back, is Venus in the painting. She is shown to be simple, quiet, and humble. This is not a brilliant beauty at alltsa goddess, accustomed to command. We would not have guessed that this is Venus, if Cupid with a bow and a fiery arrow (Cupid is the son of Venus) did not hover in the air above her head. And if the trees filling the background of the picture did not part around it in a semicircular gap, showing that this is the semantic center of the picture. Leaning her head to one side, she looks in our direction thoughtfully, a little probingly. With a movement of her right hand, as if stopped in the air, Venus blesses the group of Graces. A caring gesture, protective. It draws our attention, making it better to feel clearrhythmic pause in the center of the picture and then sends our gaze to the left.

Venus and her companions Graces symbolize the second month of spring - April. The ancient Roman poet Ovid wrote in the poem "Fasti", and the 15th century poets repeated after him that April was named after Aphrodite, this is the Greek name for Venus.

Finally, the lastthe character paintings - Mercury (extreme figure on the left). A worthy companion of Graces, as he is the deity of reason and eloquence, the inventor of the arts. But the most important thing is that in the ancient Roman calendar, the spring month of May was dedicated to Mercury. It is named after the mother of Mercury - Maya. This month was considered the end of spring and the beginning of summer. Perhaps that is why Mercury, which serves as a symbol of May in the picture, has its back turned to other spring deities.

The world depicted in the painting by Botticelli is unusual and mysterious. The fabulous trees are already covered with ripe fruits, and the meadow is still full of spring flowers. Each figure of "Spring" has its ownhorizon ... We look at them from above, then slightly from below. It may seem that some of them are standing on the side of a hill, but at another moment the meadow underfoot seems level. Meanwhile, a gap in the trees, passing through the whole picture in a wavy strip, on the right side of it shows the sky where we would expect to see the continuation of the meadow surface. It seems that Botticelli deliberately abandons the achievements of the Renaissanceperspectives for the sake of creating an atmosphere of excitement and pathos.

The compositional rhythm of "Spring" is frequent, stifled. The artist arranged a number of figures in a wave-like manner, then moving them closely, then increasing the interval, surrounding with a dark background of greenery and creating another, fractional rhythmflowers and ornaments ... The contours and folds are dominated by up toloosely steep diagonals rising to the left, and almost no contour lines.

In most figures, gaze and gestures are disjointed, as if they are shown at a moment when the previous movement is still continuing by inertia, and attention is switched to a new object. So, for example, the middle Grace is still moving in the round dance of her friends, but already forgets about it, immersed in the contemplation of Mercury. It seems that the movements and gestures in the picture are forgotten at the same moment by those who perform them, or by those to whom they are addressed. Moments likethe lines, rekleyrepent among themselves, but do not connect, but dissociate. Hence the mood of deep contemplation, thanks to which a theme more important than the underlying theme enters the picture.allegory , - the theme of spiritual life.

Maiden friendship, the birth of love, the dreamy cultivation of life (the theme of the image of Flora), tender care (the meaning of the gesture of Venus), the slow ascent of thought to sky-high heights (the theme of Mercury) - all this is shown by the artist with heartfelt clarity and purity. Venus gesture away from Zephyr to Graces and Mercuria and the modesty of her clothes can be understood as a preference given to the spiritual in a person.

"Spring" by Botticelli was written for a young man from the most influential Medici family in Florence. Some art critics believe that the painting was supposed to strengthen the adolescent's attachment to those moral ideals that his educators instilled in him. Venus in Botticelli's "Spring" most likely symbolizes not just love and beauty, but "humanitas" - a worthy belonging to humanity, humanity. It is useful to recall here that the word "grace" in the Italian language refers not only to beauty, but also to kindness, mercy.

Botticelli's painting is closely related to the culture of Italy in the 15th century. The movements of her characters are reminiscent of some of the dances of the time. In terms of its theme, the selection of characters, it echoed the costumed processions that took place in Florence every spring, and was therefore generally understood in that era.

In conclusion, I would like to say a little about such aspects of the content of "Spring" that were clear only to the most educated contemporaries of the artist. Botticelli twice showed Flora-Chloris in the picture. But this is not the only repetition in the picture. In the 15th century, Grazia saw three different manifestations of a single deity - Venus; believed that the Graces were herself! Scientists argue a lot about names and differenceschiach Graziy at Botticelli; it turns out that one of the Graces in the 15th century was often called by the Italians "Verdura" (greenery, youth). Doesn't it sound like the translation of the name Chloris? Some poets directly identified Venus with Flora. As for Mercury, he, besides everything, was considered the god of the wind and in this capacity he was called ... Zephyr! So, in the composition of eight figures, only two generalized poetic symbols are shown: one, personifying the wind, spirit, mind, the other - love, nature, flowering.

One and the same spirit flies to the earth, becomes the force of love, leading to the comprehension and creation of the blossoming beauty of the world - and it also turns to heaven (note the movement of Mercury, dispersing the clouds with a rod and looking for a magic fruit among them). The circle closes to repeat itself from the beginning. Reason appears in the painting "Spring" in union with love, attraction - the beginning and the main source of knowledge according to the teachings of the Florentine philosophers, Botticelli's contemporaries ...

A. BARANOV

Sandro Botticelli's painting Spring was a wedding gift from Lorenzo Medici to his second cousin Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco Medici. He was going to marry Semiramis, a girl from the noble Appiani family. "Spring" was supposed to hang over the inlaid sofa-chest - lettuccio. The picture is actually not only about spring and love, it is a kind of illustration to the instruction compiled for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco by the famous Florentine philosopher Marsilio Ficino. In it, he calls on an obstinate young man to fix his gaze on Humanitas ("humanity", "humanity") as the highest virtue.

Ficino considers the goddess Venus to be the embodiment of humanity. “We must fix our eyes on Venus,” writes Ficino, “that is, Humanity. This serves as a reminder to us that we cannot possess anything great on earth without possessing the people themselves, from whose mercy all earthly things proceed. People cannot be caught on bait other than Humanity. Therefore, be careful and do not neglect her. " The painting hung for a long period of time in the Medici mansion in Florence. In 1815, she entered the Uffizi Gallery. For a long time it was not exhibited, and only since 1919, when the art critic Giovanni Tucci drew attention to it, it becomes the pearl of the main exhibition.

1. Venus... The goddess of love stands in the middle of an orange grove (orange is a symbol of chastity), in an arch of myrtle and laurel, holding her right hand in a blessing gesture. She is wearing a veil of a married woman (an allusion to the marriage theme). “She,” writes Ficino, “is a nymph of the greatest beloved, born of heaven and more than others beloved by God the Most High. Her soul and mind are Love and Mercy, her eyes are Dignity and Magnanimity, her hands are Generosity and Magnificence, her legs are Goodness and Modesty. The whole is Moderation and Honesty, Pleasantness and Greatness. O wondrous beauty! How beautiful to behold. My good Lorenzo, a nymph so noble is completely surrendered to your power (the marriage theme is played up again. - Author's note). If you marry her and call her yours, she will make your years sweet, and you yourself the father of excellent children. "
2. Three graces. These are the companions of Venus. Ficino calls them Feeling, Intelligence and Will. “And since,” he writes, “it [feeling] is not an act of thought, one of the graces is painted with a face facing us, as if moving forward and not going to go back; the other two, since they relate to intellect and will, which are characterized by the function of thinking, are portrayed with the face turned back, like one who is returning. "
3. Mercury. The messenger of the gods is depicted in winged sandals. He was the son of the nymph Maya, after whom the month of May is named in Latin, in which the wedding of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco took place. With the help of a caduceus (a rod entwined with snakes), he disperses the clouds so that nothing darkens the spring mood of the garden of Venus. It is believed that Botticelli portrayed Lorenzo Medici, the customer of the painting, in the image of Mercury.
4. Zephyr and the nymph Chlorida. This is an illustration to an excerpt from Ovid's poem "Fasta" - the western wind Zephyr chases after Chlorida and takes possession of her: “One spring, I caught Zephyr's eyes; I left, / He flew after me: he was stronger than me ... / Yet Zephyr justified violence, making me a wife, / And I never complain about my marriage. " After marriage, Chlorida (a periwinkle curls from her mouth - a symbol of true love) turned into the goddess of Spring and flowers, which Botticelli depicts right there, thereby using the technique of simultaneity - the simultaneous depiction of successive events.
5. Spring. The following lines from “Fast” refer to it: “Spring is the best time: / There are all trees in green, all the earth is green. / A prolific garden blooms in the fields, my dowry is given ... / My husband adorned my garden with a beautiful floral dress, / So saying to me: "Forever be you the goddess of flowers!" / But to count all the colors on the flowers scattered everywhere, / I could never: there is no number of them ”. In Botticelli's painting, Spring is scattering roses, as was customary at rich Florentine weddings. Her dress is embroidered with red and blue cornflowers - symbols of friendliness and good nature. You can also see strawberries in a wreath around the neck of Spring - a symbol of tenderness, chamomile - a symbol of loyalty and buttercup - a symbol of wealth.
6. Cupid. Companion of the goddess of love. He is blindfolded (love is blind) and aims a fiery arrow at one of the graces. Perhaps Botticelli portrayed himself in the image of Cupid.
Photo: BRIDGEMAN / FOTODOM

15th century Italian art. Revival.
A world masterpiece, the painting "Spring" was created by the artist Sandro Botticelli in the late 70s of the 15th century. The size of the painting is 203 x 314 cm, wood, tempera. This work was painted by Botticelli for the Villa Castello near Florence, owned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco Medici. The year of its execution is usually considered 1478 - the work was completed shortly after the villa was purchased for the fifteen-year-old Lorenzo. This relative of the Magnificent was then receiving a thorough education, and the head of the Platonic Academy, Ficino, also took a friendly part in his upbringing. The painting, intended for the personal chambers of the future Renaissance connoisseur, was designed to delight the eyes and at the same time affect the soul of its beholder.

Botticelli in the picture depicted Zephyr chasing the nymph Chloris, Flora arises from their union; then we see Venus, the dance of Graces and, finally, Mercury, who, looking upward, removes the veil of clouds with a caduceus that impedes contemplation. What is the content of the picture? Researchers have offered several interpretations. The theme of the composition is spring with accompanying ancient deities. The center of construction is Venus - not the embodiment of base passion, but the noble goddess of flowering and all goodwill on earth; it is a neoplatonic image.

Expanding this context, scientists argued that the work of the Florentine artist reflects the idea of ​​the generation of beauty by the light of divine love and of the contemplation of this beauty, leading from the earthly to the supermundane. "Spring" was also associated with the moralizing horoscope compiled by Ficino for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco: he was recommended to choose the planet Venus-Humanitas (humanity) as a guide to self-improvement, endowed with all moral virtues and showing the way to the higher spheres. Note that all these facets of content do not deny, but rather complement each other. But let's not exaggerate the significance of the content canvas, for the artist painted the picture, transforming everything with his animated fantasy.

Venus, the central figure of the composition, stands in the shade of trees in this enchanted space of a spring forest. Her dress made of the finest fabric with gold threads of jewelry and a luxurious crimson cloak, symbolizing love, testify that we are facing the goddess of love and beauty. But in its fragile appearance other features also appear. The bowed head is covered with a gas blanket, in which Sandro Botticelli loved to dress his Madonnas. The face of Venus with questioning raised eyebrows expresses sadness and modesty, the meaning of her gesture is unclear - is it a greeting, a timid protection or a benevolent acceptance? The character resembles the Virgin Mary in the "Annunciation" plot (for example, in the painting by Alesso Baldovinetti). Pagan and Christian are intertwined in a spiritualized image. In other figures of the composition, associations with religious motives are also caught. So, the images of Zephyr and the nymph Chloris echo the medieval image of the devil, who does not let the soul into Paradise.

Graces, companions and maids of Venus, are the virtues generated by Beauty, their names are Chastity, Love, Pleasure. Botticelli's image of the beautiful triad is the very embodiment of dance. Slender figures with elongated, smoothly curving shapes are intertwined in a rhythmic sequence of circular movement. The artist is extremely inventive in the interpretation of hairstyles, conveying hair both as a natural element and as a decorative material. Grace's hair is gathered in strands, now finely curly, now falling in a wave, now scattering over the shoulders, like golden streams. Light bends and turns of figures, dialogue of gazes, graceful connection of hands and setting of feet - all this conveys the progressive rhythm of the dance.

The relationships of its participants reflect the classic formula and at the same time the neo-Platonic understanding of Eros: Love leads Chastity to Pleasure and holds their hands together. In the image of Botticelli, the idea of ​​mythological splendor comes to life, but his images are painted with genuine purity. It is no coincidence that the dance of Graces is compared to the round dance of angels in Paradise in the composition "The Last Judgment" by Fra Angelico. The gaze of Mercury is dreamily directed to the sky. He tries to break the density of clouds that interfere with sight. Botticelli gives Mercury a type of a thin youthful figure, typical for the taste of Florence of those years, as in Verrocchio's David, but its outlines acquire melodiousness, and its face - spirituality.