THE FINAL CADENCES: THE BIRTH OF VENUS – THE BIRTH OF LOVE AND BEAUTY

Venus is one of the main goddesses in the ancient pantheon. According to the ancient legend, after the coition of Uranus (Father Heaven) and Gaia (Mother Earth) the Titans were born, one of whom Cronus/Saturn (Time) cut off with a sickle the reproductive organ of his father (O tempora, o mores! – Oh, what times! Oh, what customs?), and threw it away into the sea… So, out of the foam, produced by the dropped object, emerged magnificent Venus – the goddess of love, beauty, wedlock, and joy…
Simultaneously with the birth of Venus, there emerged the rose, her sacred flower, which also symbolizes love…
Zephyr with its spring winds is carrying the shell with Venus over the waves to the shore, where one of the four Horae, the goddesses of the seasons and the natural portions of time, reaches out to cover her with a cloak… On her neck, she is wearing an evergreen myrtle garland, a symbol of not just love, but love eternal… It is Spring, the time of awakening and renewal of nature… And what is love, if it is not an eternal spring? As usual, everything is very interconnected… For example, Zephyr (the god of the west wind and son of Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn) fell in love with the nymph Chloris (associated with spring, flowers and new growth), and abducted her… She agreed to become his wife, and thus joined the principal race of gods… under the name of the goddess Flora, the mistress of the plant kingdom… Can you imagine spring without her?

Venus by Botticelli is an embodiment of the ideal, to whose beauty the whole Florence of the XV century was taking its hat off… However, the beauty ideals have undergone considerable changes since those times… Nevertheless, the issue of love, beauty, wedlock, and joy… is lasting and existing forever… without end!

This painting was meant not only to paraphrase a brilliant masterpiece, but also to show respect, love, deep admiration, and pay tribute to the memory of all those geniuses, who passed away in obscurity, one of whom was Sandro Botticelli… And let it never be repeated again! We live not only in a free world, but also in a fair one… Genius, unlike Talent, definitely does not need our approval and appreciation, but this is something what really we need!