Early Italian Renaissance Art

            The well-known painting the Birth of Venus by Sandro Boticelli is an example of Early Italian Renaissance art. The painting revolves around Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, being blown to shore in a scallop shell. The overall effect given by the Birth of Venus is a strong sense of movement and energy. This strong sense of movement and energy can be found in the use of colors, lines, and overall composition.

            Sandro Boticelli created a lot of movement through his use of colors. First off, we can see a large array of greens, blues, and whites creating the sea. The contrast used between the dark greens and blues between the light greens, blues, and white give the viewer the sense that the water has ripples in it and is in fact moving Venus towards shore. The ripples in the water suggest the sea to be alive and full of energy. The garments worn by each figure all have a large amount of contrast in their colors, which help create movement within the painting. By use of darker blues and blacks on the garments there is a sense of creases and shadows that make it look like the wind is blowing the garments all about. The contrasts in the colors used on the garments appear to be very naturalistic. In reality if one were to be wearing a dress on a windy day the garment would be blowing against the person showing their form underneath the garment, giving us a sense of their body, just as Botticelli chose to do in this painting. The wind would cause the garment to overlap on top of itself creating shadows and dimension in the garment just as we see here. We also see a great amount of movement in the hair of Venus. By making it look like the hair was being hit by sun in some areas it appears that the hair is blowing in the wind.

            By use of lines in the painting we are given not only a sense of movement among the figures, but a sense of energy as well. Starting out with Venus, though she isn’t showing a large amount of movement with her actual body, her stance looks as if she possibly just shifted her weight. The lines of her body give a great suggestion of curve. With Zephyr the lines of his body suggest him to be leaning in towards Venus at an angle. As for the woman greeting Venus on land we can see a curve in her body as well as she is standing on her tip toes, readily awaiting to wrap the garment in her raised hands around Venus. The lines of the woman and man on either side of Venus are at strong diagonals facing inward. The diagonal of movement starts at their feet and leads us all the way to the serene face of Venus.

            The composition of the Birth of Venus is one that does not seem to be too complex however it appears to be well thought out. Boticelli uses atmospheric perspective in the background and a great amount of movement in the waves that lead our eye from the background to the foreground. We then see three figures on the sides of Venus that are in such dynamic postures that it appears that there is a large amount of movement and energy happening around Venus. The composition of this painting leads the viewer’s eye to the calm face of Venus, who appears to be unfazed by all the movement, energy, and chaos taking place around her. The composition of the painting makes Venus be the centralized figure making it quite obvious that she is the main figure of the painting. It can also be seen that Venus is the main figure of the painting because we can see that just about every where else in the painting there is movement and energy and then as your eyes make it to Venus we see a much more calm figure that almost appears to be in a trance or experiencing a day dream. This composition is very effective then because it leaves the viewer looking at the gaze of Venus and wondering how, with all the chaos happening around her, she is in such a serene state.