The Birth of Venus

This work, one of the most famous in the world, represents Venus, goddess of beauty, allegory of universal fertility, born from the waves of the sea (Venus is known as anadyomene). Aerial, the young woman is standing in a shell, on which she hardly seems to rest. She is also modest Venus, hiding her penis behind her long hair animated by the wind. His posture, in contrapposto, recalls ancient sculpture. It seems that the model was Julien de Medici's mistress, the work's commissioner. As usual in works of Neoplatonic inspiration, the painter, in a system of double reading, confronts several levels of reality, ideal and natural.