Art Compare and Contrast - Birth of Venus and Raphael’s Galatea

Both of these works were produced during the Renaissance, an era of rebirth. During this “rebirth”, art emerged with unique refinement under the influence of new philosophical ideas. These new philosophies functioned to uphold and value the beauty of classical forms of Ancient Greece, while maintaining humanistic values of expanding knowledge and moral duty. As both of these pieces are narrated utilizing the iconography found within poetry and literature(Benner), such contemporary works were made possible by those of status and wealth who were privileged enough to cover commision. What’s interesting to notice is how both patrons and respected artists have influenced the characteristics of their work in a manner that makes each piece distinguishable to their time within the Renaissance(Benner).

In the Early Renaissance, when the Birth of Venus was produced, Sandro Botticelli had been known for his ties to Neoplatonism, which he expressed in a stylized way to appease to beauty rather than realism. These tendencies that were carried out by Botticelli had been in an effort to provide meaning and reference to antiquity, which we can notice in the females’ “Venus Pudica” (modest pose) which is a reference to Praxiteles’ Aphrodite of Knidos(Hood).

As the predecessor of the High Renaissance, the composition of Botticelli’s Venus is elegant and decorative, produced on canvas which was a change in traditional wood paneling of the Late Medieval. This change to a cheaper medium could suggest that the Birth of Venus was intended to achieve resilience that wood panelling failed to do against warping in the humid climate(“Botticelli’s Birth of Venus”).

Laying on a flat plane and incorporating abstracted body proportions and strong line(like the rippling ocean), which characterized much of his Neoplatonic works, features the first female nude since antiquity! As a commissioned artist for the De’Medici family who sponsored the Florentine Neoplatonic Academy, the symbolism within this piece is suggested to serve as a source of meditation and guide on spirituality(Hood). As Venus was the God of love and beauty(“Venus”), by noticing her physical beauty(accentuated by her idealized depiction), viewers are then led to appreciate a spiritual beauty and thus a divine beauty(Analysis and Interpretation of Birth of Venus by Botticelli.)

Unlike the Birth of Venus which incorporated copious