Simbologia di Venere e Marte - Sandro Botticelli - I SIMBOLI NELL'ARTE.

Sandro Botticelli painted Venus and Mars in 1483 The opera is housed in London at the National Gallery On August 15 of that year in Rome Pope Sixtus IV consecrated the Sistine Chapel and dedicated it to the Assumption The Love of Orlando by Maria Matteo Boiardo is published Raffaello Sanzio Martin Luther and Francesco Guicciardini are born Most likely the work was commissioned for the wedding o Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco cousin of the Magnificent and Semiramide Appiani from the maternal branch of Simonetta Vespucci's original family a woman of incomparable beauty and muse to various artists of the Medici court The beautiful young woman whose face is that of Venus born from the sea's foam by Botticell It is indeed celebrated in many poetic works and even the Magnificent dedicated delicate verses to it in his Selve d'Amore This painting originally decorated the headboard of the wedding bed of Lorenzo and Semiramide Noble or well-connected families in Florence invested a great deal in decorating and furnishing the bridal chamber As it was the seat of the origin of the family lineage and thus of the subsequent dynastic power To create his work Botticelli seems to have combined refined literary references From Lucretius Ovid and Lucian allude to Neoplatonic doctrines In the writings of Marsilio Ficino to represent a domestic allegory on marriage In the painting we see a man asleep while a young woman lying next to him in the opposite position watches him Behind them a row of young men play noisily In the distance on the right a walled city is visible surmounted by a dome according to art historian Cristina Acidini President of the Academy of the Arts of Drawing could represent Florence as seen from the western plain In the Peretola area where the Vespucci had a property The woman depicts the face of Simonetta Vespucci She died seven years earlier in 1476 at the age of 23 as a result of a rapid illness In his memory Lorenzo wrote a sonnet where he imagines a new shining star that symbolizes Simonetta's eternity The man lying with his eyes closed has the features of Giuliano de' Medici The brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent killed at only 25 years old during the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478 Just two years after Simonetta's death Between the two a delicate love story was born that became legendary among future generations In the spring Giuliano is depicted by Botticelli as Mercury While Simonetta is depicted as the central grace looking towards him and towards whom Eros is about to shoot an arrow of love In this painting the two lovers are depicted as Venus goddess of love and beauty and a symbol of the feminine principle Mars the god of war and a symbol of the masculine principle The opera has always fascinated art lovers even because of the complex symbolism underlying it Over the centuries numerous possible interpretations have been applied to it Some claim that the painting depicts Mars weary from the labors of love Therefore an allegory of the fact that love always triumphs over war Mars is indeed a symbol of conflict and destruction while Venus is a symbol of harmony and concord Marte has laid down his arms and is sleeping while Venus depicted in the attire of Venus Victrix It represents order the cosmos which disarms disorder chaos transforming its terrible weapons into toys The critic Plankett claims that the painting is a pictorial re-creatio of a passage by Lucian concerning the marriage of Alexander and Roxana In which some cupids were playing with the warrior's spear and armor Some attribute the work to an inspiration drawn from Lucretius' De Rerum Natura Finally those who saw in the painting the allegory of marriage conceived as an institution which the male force symbolized by Mars If one surrenders to the beauty and sweetness of femininity symbolized by Venus It is possible that various meanings overlap and coexist symbolized by the same elements For example it is not foreign to the world frequented by the Medici and their court The Neoplatonic approach inspired by Marsilio Ficino and his Academy Founded in Florence in 1462 on the commission of Cosimo de' Medici Ficino was also an astrologer and alchemist and it is not certain that his influence It is unlikely that this influenced Botticelli to include some basic elements of alchemy in the painting Representing the fauns and their legendary passionate nature the first phase of the work the Nigredo In Venere the Purification of Matter the second phase of the work called Albedo In Mars the third phase the Rubedo which determines creation The Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Long Life which make one immortal To allegorically represent that love the true Philosopher's Stone is achieved after a transformation and elevation of the soul and naturally representing the Elixir of Long Life as the immortality of love Symbolizing the feeling experienced by Giuliano and Simonetta as a wish for the newlyweds The sleep of Mars might not be a consequence of the toils of love but rather could represent the moment just before awakening Thanks to the loving influences of Venus represented by the shell played at his ear by a little satyr Marte is the man of power too preoccupied with his affairs of war conquest and politics and in reality does not really live They lie dormant but can awaken and truly savor existence only through the love of Venus who awaits them to enjoy it with them The beauty and surrender to life On Giuliano's stomach appears what if it were a scar e sign of the attack that cost him his life could imply the sleep of dea And the next awakening in another dimension where Simonetta already is waiting with anticipation for her to awaken To continue an immortal life together with him again As for the elements present in the work they too are rich in dense symbolism The weapons that the satyrs possess and use do not appear merely as a literary reference They intend to evoke the famous armor of Giuliano de' Medici In fact Giuliano was passionate about tournaments and in 1475 In the tournament in Santa Croce he wore a wonderful armor With precious stones and with the chased helmet of the Verrocchio school The jousting lance is a clear reference to the emblem adopted by Giuliano de' Medici It is also possible to distinguish on the helmet worn by one of the small fauns the burning broncone that is the emblem of the bronconi The other emblem that according to Vasari Giuliano would have worn during the joust Having won he received a portrait of Simonetta painted by Botticelli and a banner decorated with the inscription La Saint-Père It was the term used to describe the young Vespucci Moreover among the symbols referring to Lorenzo the Magnificent one of the most important is the flowering laurel trunk or broncone With the French motto Le Temps Reviens alluding to the famous passage from the fourth eclogue of Virgil The two figures are surrounded by laurel and myrtle hedges symbolizing respectively immortality and eternal marital love But the laurel also refers to the broncone's achievement It symbolized that Lorenzo Laurentium the laurel just like the evergreen laurel It grows even more vigorously after being pruned would bring a new golden age to Florence It would have continued the Medici dynasty with even more vigor despite the tragic mutilation of its genealogical tree Laurel thus symbolized renewal The continuity triumph and immortality of the Medici dynasty The wasps buzzing around the sleeper 's head evoke his fighting spirit They represent the awakening and according to Ernest Gombrich an allusion to the Vespucci family Wasps are integrated into the landscape according to a frequent use of fragmented heraldry whereby the elements of the coat of arms were disassembled It is inserted into the work in a divided manner but still made reference to it Under the body of the warrior god a satyr holds a fruit in his hand David Bellingham claims it is Datura stramonium a plant that contains a powerful psychoactive and aphrodisiac substance It causes hallucinations and induces orgiastic behavior In this case the object that Mars is holding with his finger could be the pestle of the mortar used to prepare the nightshade It would be an allusion to alchemical practices There is another interpretation that instead considers it to be a donkey melon whose fruit has the particularity that When it is ripe with the slightest touch it lets out liquid and seeds with a clear analogy to male orgasm But their alchemical meanings must be traced back to the action of the two principles the masculine and the feminine With the final production of the metaphorical philosopher's stone that is the longed-for lineage We should also not forget that in alchemy Venus represents copper and Mars represents iron The metal object in Mars' hand could refer to the fact that the bride Semiramide Piani belonged to the family It dominated Piombino and the rich Elban mines and thus symbolized the dowry she brought to her husband Marte is iron which becomes steel when tempered and according to alchemists it is very rich in sulfur Its salt iron bisulfide is a pyrite a beautiful yellow mineral that resembles gold Ancient people who combined iron and copper sulfate believed that the iron turned into copper Always solid but more beautiful because the iron is coated with copper acquiring its color From the union of Venus and Mars of sweetness with strength of the feminine with the masculine Indeed harmony is born The myrtle and laurel that surround them evoke the concept of the immortality of their love May it be wished for Lorenzo and Semiramide by Giuliano and Simonetta symbols of eternal love