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
Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Botticelli, Milan) He does not apply the rules of naturalism to the painting. Instead, he focuses on his own personal preference of geometry. This very style of geometry had an influence on third generation renaissance painters to come. Sandro Botticelli was a second generation renaissance painter born Allesandro di Mariano Filipepi in 1445. His nickname was Botticelli meaning little barrel. The renaissance began in fourteenth century Italy. Dramatic changes in art, architecture, and sculpture took place during this time. Botticelli has been noted as one of the most powerful painters of the lyrical current. In his later works, Botticelli developed a more