The archive / Renaissance / The Birth of Venus
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The Birth of Venus
Sandro Botticelli · 1445–1510
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3 variations + a matched story print, every standard frame ratio. 300 DPI · sRGB · personal-use license.
Museum-quality giclée on Hahnemühle German Etching — heavyweight 310gsm, acid-free, velvety matte. Made to order & shipped.
Sizes in the download
Ready-to-print files at every size below — each drops straight into a standard frame at 300 DPI, nothing cropped:
Each of these also prints big-wall at 150 DPI — up to about 36″ on the short side (so the 36×24″ becomes 54×36″), for a step-back view. Or print the borderless master, the full-resolution scan, sharp to about 18×24″.
The work
The goddess of love steps ashore.
Botticelli shows Venus, the goddess of love, arriving on the island of Cyprus, born of the sea and blown to land by the winds, Zephyr and perhaps Aura. The wind figures derive from an antique Hellenistic gem owned by Lorenzo the Magnificent.
Look closer
It glints with real gold.
Botticelli made heavy use of gold as a pigment for the highlights that run throughout the picture, including in Venus's hair. Modern scientific examination has also revealed a number of pentimenti, changes the artist made as he worked, to the hair of Venus and of the flying wind-couple.
Why it matters
Painted on canvas, not panel.
The picture is worked on two pieces of canvas sewn together before painting, over a gesso ground tinted blue, a cheaper support than the wood panel used for its companion piece, the Primavera. The two paintings stayed together at the Medici Villa of Castello, where Vasari recorded them by 1550, until 1815, when they were transferred to the Uffizi.
The file & the facts
- Title
- The Birth of Venus
- Artist
- Sandro Botticelli
- Year
- c. 1485
- Medium
- Tempera on canvas
- Original
- 172.5 × 278.5 cm
- Collection
- Uffizi Gallery, Florence
- Rights
- Open access · personal use
- File
- 300 DPI · sRGB · JPEG
