- [Female Narrator] We're in probably the most

crowded gallery at the Uffizi

here in in Florence.

This is the room that contains Botticelli's

fabulously beautiful Birth of Venus.

- [Male Narrator] And you can hear the hub-bub around us.

But it's interesting that

the Birth of Venus is a painting

that we actually know very little about.

We don't know who it was painted for.

We don't know where it was originally intended to be seen,

the subject, a full length, nude female

is highly unusual especially for the 15th century.

- [Female Narrator] We do see nudes in medieval art

and even in renaissance art before this.

But the nudes are usually Adam and Eve.

- [Male Narrator] And beginning in the 15th century

artists do begin to experiment with introducing

heroic male nudity within a biblical context.

Think for instance of Donatello's David.

But here we have something exceptional.

This is an almost life size, full-length, female nude.

That is fully pagan in its subject matter.

- [Female Narrator] Pagan and undoubtedly

the Goddess of love.

Although the artists of the renaissance are looking back

to ancient Greek and Roman sculpture

many of which were nudes,

they've in the past transformed them into

a Christian biblical subject.

Here Venus remains Venus.

- [Male Narrator] In fact nudity in Christian art

was often an expression of something traumatic.

We see Christ almost nude on the cross.

Or we see the sinful being led into hell.

What makes this painting so exceptional

is that it is perhaps one of the first

almost life size representations of a female nude

that is fully mythological in its subject matter.

- [Female Narrator] She covers her body very much the way

Eve covered hers when she was expelled

from the Garden of Eden

but here we have a gesture of modesty.

Not one of shame.

Venus floats on a seashell.

She's born from the sea.

- [Male Narrator] And because

we're talking about classical mythology

she can be born fully grown.

- [Female Narrator] And here she is blown

by the west wind Zephr and we see his body

entwined with the body of Chloris.

- [Male Narrator] On the right we see an attendant

who is ready to wrap the newborn goddess.

Although all of these figure clearly represent

Botticelli's incredibly sophisticated understanding

of the human body.

Look at the wonderful sway of Venus.

Or the complex intertwining of the two figures on the left.

And despite the fact that we see a very deep space

the canvas feels flat.

And this is the result of a number of things.

For one thing, the emphasis on pattern.

Botticelli has strewn the left side of the canvas

with flowers which are very close to the foreground.

On the right side we have flowers again but now,

they're part of the dress worn by the attendant

and part of the cloth that she carries.

The rhythmic alteration of light and dark

in the scallop shell

seems to push the back forward.

And even the little v's that refer to the waves of the sea

create a sense of two dimensionality.

So that the entire canvas,

although depicting a deep space

is also so heavily patterned

that it reminds us of its own two dimensionality.

- [Female Narrator] And the figures all

occupy the same plane.

That is one figure isn't behind another

or deeper in space than another

and so it does read very flatly

but I would also argue that although Botticelli does have

an understanding of human anatomy

and we can see that clearly in the body of Venus

or in the figure of the west wind,

or the way that we see the drapery

wrapping around the figure of the nymph on the right

the figures are weightless,

they don't stand firmly on the ground

the way that often expect

renaissance figures to stand

and the figure of Venus forms this serpentine shape

that actually I think would be an impossible to stand.

- [Male Narrator] Certainly when you're surfing to shore

on a seashell.

Look for example,

the way that the artist has highlighted her golden hair

with actual lines of gold.

Gold that also appears in the foliage to the upper right

and can be seen in the trunks of the trees

that form the grove at the right.

- [Female Narrator] Venus tilts her head slightly,

her hair blows in the wind

and surround the curve of her body

and is brought down in front of her

to cover her modestly.

Although there may be meaning behind this painting

that connects classical mythology to certain Christian ideas

via a philosophy called Neoplatonism,

what we're looking at essentially

is still a beautiful and erotic image.

This is a celebration of both beauty and of love.

And we can think about that in both a secular context

and a Christian one.

(piano jazz outro)