The Birth of Venus (Bouguereau) composition, resembles a previous rendition of this subject, Sandro Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus", as well as Raphael's "The Triumph of Galatea". "The Birth of Venus" was created for the Paris Salon of 1879. It was awarded the Grand Prix de Rome, and was purchased by the state for the Musée du Luxembourg. The painting is now in the permanent collection of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. At the center of the painting, Venus stands nude on a scallop shell being pulled by a dolphin, one of her symbols. Fifteen putti, including Cupid and Psyche, and several nymphs and centaurs
Sandro Botticelli Filippino Lippi, son of his master. In June of that year he was commissioned by the judges of commercial cases to paint two panels from a set of the Seven Virtues for their court; for some reason, only one, "Fortitude" (now in the Uffizi Gallery) was finished. Botticelli both matched his style and composition to the other panels by Piero del Pollaiuolo, and tried to outshine him "with fanciful enrichments so as to show up Piero's poverty of ornamental invention." There is often uncertainty in distinguishing between the contributions of Botticelli, the Lippis, and other pupils and imitators of Botticelli.