The Birth of Venus sources and interpretations. Many art historians who specialize in the Italian Renaissance have found Neoplatonic interpretations, of which two different versions have been articulated by Edgar Wind and Ernst Gombrich, to be the key to understanding the painting. Botticelli represented the Neoplatonic idea of divine love in the form of a nude Venus. For Plato – and so for the members of the Florentine Platonic Academy – Venus had two aspects: she was an earthly goddess who aroused humans to physical love or she was a heavenly goddess who inspired intellectual love in them. Plato further argued that contemplation of
Annunciation (Botticelli, Glasgow) Annunciation (Botticelli, Glasgow) The Annunciation is a painting created by Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. It is a tempera on panel and measures 49.5 cm tall and 58.5 cm wide. It is in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, Scotland. Its date is not certain though a majority of the critics consider it early, noticing certain elements reminiscent of Verrocchio. Van Marle, however, dates it circa 1490. On the lower part there is a note that indicates that it came from the Florentine Church of Saint Barnabas. The atmosphere is achieved through the succession of columns and sections