Sandro Botticelli, 'Venus and Mars', about 1485

Venus and Mars

Sandro Botticelli

Not on display

About the work

Overview

Venus, the goddess of love, looks over at her lover Mars. She is alert and dignified, while he – the god of war – is utterly lost in sleep. He doesn‘t even notice the chubby satyr (half child, half goat) blowing a conch shell in his ear.

This picture was probably ordered to celebrate a marriage, and the unusual shape suggests it was a spalliera, a panel set into the wall of a room. These panels were ordered to decorate the semi-public reception room known as a camera (a sort of bedchamber).

Botticelli’s picture is colourful and amusing but was also very fashionable – the cultures of Ancient Greece and Rome were admired by the elite in Renaissance Florence. Mars’ well-defined body refers deliberately to ancient sculptures. It might have had another function: women gazing upon beautiful male bodies were thought to be more likely to give birth to boys, essential for continuing the family line.

In-depth

Venus, the goddess of love, is relaxed and regal as she props herself up on a cushion in a grassy glade. She gazes into the distance ignoring the semi-naked – and snoring – god of war, Mars. His muscular body is as limp as his drooping finger, his head tipped back in sleep; we can almost see up his nose. Botticelli’s message here is clear: love has conquered war. Venus is victorious in this sexual encounter, while Mars is utterly lost in sleep.

The myth was popular among Florentines who knew the story of the love affair well. Venus was in fact married to the god Vulcan, an unattractive blacksmith. When he heard that Venus had been unfaithful to him, he made a fine net of chains to catch her in the act. The net was so delicate that the two beautiful gods did not know that they had been captured until it was too late. Vulcan invited all the gods from Mount Olympus to come and laugh at the trapped lovers.

Botticelli has approached the story with a sense of humour, including lots of playful details intended to amuse his client. Mars is so deeply asleep that he is unaware that four childish satyrs are playing with his armour: one has stolen his lance and helmet, which covers his whole face; another has wriggled into the cuirass (body armour) under his elbow. He is not woken by the sound of the conch shell, which one of the mischievous creatures blows into his ear. The noise and commotion have disturbed a wasps‘ nest, and a swarm of the fat insects buzz around Mars’ head – he sleeps through it all. The shell was a symbol of Venus, who was born from the sea, which is just about visible in the distance.

Botticelli was well known for the mythological paintings he made for his most grand patrons, the Medici, the ruling family of Florence. Botticelli’s association with Lorenzo de‘ Medici, known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, meant that he was in touch with all the contemporary scholars and poets who came and went in the Medici court. Lorenzo de’ Medici was keen on classical culture and he surrounded himself with people who were well versed in these subjects.

It’s perhaps unsurprising, then, that an ancient account which matches the imagery of the playful satyrs in this picture exists. It is the Roman writer Lucian’s description of a painting showing the marriage of Alexander the Great to Roxana. In that picture little cupids (symbols of love) play with the warrior Alexander’s armour, two lifting his spear and another creeping into his breastplate. Botticelli has changed the cupids into satyrs, which might show his knowledge of a poem by the scholar and poet Angelo Poliziano, who was tutor to the Medici children. Poliziano’s poem, written at around the same time this painting was made, mentions ‘little goat-footed satyrs’. They were companions of a sleeping shepherd who inhabited a dream-like place of love and pleasure. Perhaps Botticelli was inspired by this poem, which he may well have known. This possible combination of sources of inspiration reflect the artist’s broad knowledge of contemporary and ancient culture.

Botticelli also shows off his knowledge of ancient sculpture, so fashionable in Florence at the time. He has painted Mars as a fit and muscular warrior, his body resembling a classical nude sculpture, just toppled. Mars‘ left foot is caught in the pink cloth. This unusual detail might be a deliberate reference to a well known and admired ancient sculpture, the Sleeping Hermaphroditus.

While Mars is nude, Venus is covered. The braids of her hair are attached to her dress, forming a border that is secured with a jewel – making her dress impossible to remove. Perhaps Botticelli intended to emphasise her chastity, despite her infidelity. Her blonde hair, pale skin and red lips are a nod to the contemporary ideal of female beauty as represented in poetry. Venus here is more like a contemporary Florentine beauty, or perhaps even an image of the Virgin Mary, than a classical sculpture – and quite different from the naked goddess that Botticelli painted in his picture The Birth of Venus (Uffizi, Florence).

This contradiction hints at the context of the painting. Panels of this shape are known as spalliere after the Italian word spalla (’shoulder’). Works like this hung at shoulder height or above and were often part of the furnishing of the rooms of a newlywed couple within the groom’s family home. Commissioned to celebrate a marriage, spalliere were some of many images – including religious works – that would have hung in the camera, the bedchamber. This was a semi-public space, not an intimate bedroom, where the couple might see visitors. The pictures that decorated it had to be impressive, interesting and sometimes – as in this case – entertaining. They also had to be appropriate for the space, which is why Venus is covered up. If she is supposed to refer to the new bride here, chastity was an essential virtue.

Mars' state of undress can be explained in this context too: the camera was where the couple would meet to sleep together in the hope of producing an heir. It was thought that looking at an image of a beautiful man would help a woman to conceive a boy – the most desirable heir, because a boy would continue the family line and carry the family name. The picture’s function is also hinted at by the myrtle bush behind Venus – it was a traditional symbol of marriage.

But whose marriage could this panel have commemorated? The wasps might provide a clue: vespe is the Italian for wasp, and Botticelli might have been making a pun on the name of the noble Florentine family, the Vespucci, who were patrons of his. The sixteenth-century writer and painter Giorgio Vasari notes that the Vespucci palace in Florence was decorated with paintings inset into the walls, but this was at a later date. It has even been suggested that the woman may be modelled upon Simonetta Vespucci, a renowned beauty whom Botticelli painted – but she died in 1476. Whoever the picture was painted for, they were certainly wealthy and keen to show off their taste and education. By the 1480s, Botticelli was at the peak of his maturity as an artist, particularly in demand for mythological subjects.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Venus and Mars
Artist: Sandro Botticelli
Artist dates: about 1445 - 1510
Date made: about 1485
Medium and support: egg tempera and oil on wood
Dimensions: 69.2 × 173.4 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1874
Inventory number: NG915
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Alexander Barker
Frame: 16th-century Italian Frame

Provenance

Bought not later than 1869 by Alexander Barker in Florence. Exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1871 (No. 60). Purchased at the Barker Sale, 6 June, 1874 (lot 88). Cleaned Pictures Exhibition at the National Gallery, 1947/8 (No. 28).

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2010

Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries

The National Gallery (London)

30 June 2010 - 12 September 2010
2024

National Treasures

The Fitzwilliam Museum

10 May 2024 - 10 September 2024

Bibliography

1874

J.W.C. Carr, 'The National Gallery', Art Journal, 1874, pp. 257ff
1874

Christie, Manson & Woods, Catalogue of the Renowned Collection of Works of Art, Formed by that Distinguished Connoisseur, Alexander Barker, Esq., London, 6 June 1874 - 11 June 1874
1898

J.P. Richter, Lectures on the National Gallery, London 1898
1906

F. Wickhoff, 'Die Hochzeitsbilder Sandro Botticellis', Jahrbuch Preußischer Kulturbesitz, XXVII, 1906, pp. 198-207
1908

H. Horne, Allessandro Filipepi, Commonly Called Sandro Botticelli, Painter of Florence, London 1908
1925

Y. Yashiro, Sandro Botticelli, London 1925
1925

E. Tietze-Conrat, 'Botticelli and the Antique', The Burlington Magazine, XLVII/270, 1925, pp. 124-9
1926

W. Bode, Botticelli, Stuttgart 1926
1937

E. Strong, 'Terra Mater or Italia?', Journal of Roman Studies, XXVII/1, 1937, pp. 114-26
1938

J. Mesnil, Botticelli, Paris 1938
1939

E. Panofsky, Studies in Iconolgy: Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance, New York 1939
1945

E.H. Gombrich, 'Botticelli's Mythologies: A Study in the Neoplatonic Symbolism of His Circle', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, VIII, 1945, pp. 7-60
1946

R.L. Douglas, Piero di Cosimo, Chicago 1946
1947

P. Hendy, An Exhibition of Cleaned Pictures of 1947: (1936-1947), London 1947
1950

E. Wind, 'The Eloquence of Symbols', The Burlington Magazine, XCII/573, 1950, pp. 349-50
1951

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
1958

R. Salvini, Tutta la pittura del Botticelli, Milan 1958
1960

M. Levey, 'Botticelli and Nineteenth Century England', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXIII/3-4, 1960, pp. 291-306
1961

M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
1964

J. Pope-Hennessy and R. Lightbown, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London 1964
1966

M. Meiss, 'Sleep in Venice: Ancient Myths and Renaissance Proclivities', Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, CX/5, 1966, pp. 348-82
1967

C. Bo and G. Mandel, L'opera completa del Botticelli, Milan 1967
1967

E. Wind, Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance, London 1967
1970

W. Welliver, 'The Meaning and Purpose of Botticelli's Court of Venus and Mars and Venus', Art Quarterly, XXXIII, 1970, pp. 347-59
1971

V. Juřen, '"Pan terrificus" de Politien', Bibliothèque d'humanisme et renaissance, XXXIII, 1971, pp. 641-5
1972

E.H. Gombrich, Symbolic Images: Studies in the Art of the Renaissance, London 1972
1978

R. Lightbown, Sandro Botticelli, London 1978
1978

C. Gould, 'Sandro Botticelli: A Discriminating Assessment: Review of Lightbown', Apollo, CVIII, 1978
1984

E. Callmann, 'Botticelli's Life of Saint Zenobius', Art Bulletin, LXVI/3, 1984, pp. 492-6
1984

P. Holberton, 'Botticelli's "Hypnerotomachia" in the National Gallery: A Problem in the Use of Classical Sources in Renaissance Art', Illinois Classical Studies, IX/2, 1984, pp. 149-82
1985

D. Sutton, 'Aspects of British Collecting, IV: The Age of Robert Browning', Apollo, CXXII/282, 1985, pp. 96-110
1986

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
1990

C. Caneva, Botticelli: Catalogo completo dei dipinti, Florence 1990
1990

G. Cornini, Botticelli, Florence 1990
1990

C. Gizzi, Botticelli e Dante, Milan 1990
1991

J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
1991

D. Thiébaut, Botticelli, Paris 1991
1992

R. Cocke, 'Botticelli's Primavera: The Myth of Medici Patronage', Apollo, CXXXVI, 1992, pp. 233-8
1992

C. Olsen, 'Gross Expenditure: Botticelli's Nastagio degli Onesti Panels', Art History, XV/2, 1992, pp. 147-70
1993

S. Fermor, Piero di Cosimo: Fiction, Invention and Fantasìa, London 1993
1994

M. Calvesi, 'Venere e Marte di Botticelli: Una dolce sconfitta', Art e dossier, IX/86, 1994, pp. 26-9
1995

U. Bischoff, Die 'Cassonebilder' des Piero di Cosimo: Fragen der Ikonographie, Frankfurt am Main 1995
1995

P. Joannides, 'Late Botticelli: Archaism and Ideology', Arte Cristiana, LXXXIII/768, 1995, pp. 163-78
1995

J.L. De Jong, 'Ovidian Fantasies: Pictorial Variations on the Story of Mars, Venus and Vulcan', in H. Walter (ed.), Die Rezeption der Metamorphosen des Ovid in der Neuzeit, Berlin 1995, pp. 161-71
1996

M. Rohlmann, 'Botticellis "Primavera": Zu Anlaß, Adressat und Funktion von mythologischen Gemälden im florentiner Quattrocento', Artibus et historiae, XVII/33, 1996, pp. 97-132
1997

B. Sewell, 'Why I Can't Climb into Bed with This Venus', Evening Standard, 1997
1998

A. Grömling and T. Lingesleben, Alessandro Botticelli, 144/45-1510, Cologne 1998
1999

P.L. Rubin and A. Wright, Renaissance Florence: The Art of the 1470s, (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 20 October 1999 - 19 January 2000), London 1999
2000

P.L. Rubin, 'The Seductions of Antiquity', in C. Arscott and K. Scott (eds), Manifestations of Venus: Art and Sexuality, Manchester 2000, pp. 24-38, 177-83
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2001

C. Dempsey, Inventing the Renaissance Putto, Chapel Hill, NC 2001
2001

C.A. Luchinat, Botticelli: Allegorie mitologiche, Milan 2001
2002

M. Autin Graz, Children in Painting, Milano 2002
2002

I. Tognarini, L'identità e l'oblio. Simonetta, Semiramide e Sandro Botticelli, Milan 2002
2002

R. Beach and K. Jakobsen, Modern British Art, (exh. cat. Offer Waterman & Co., 2002), London 2002
2003

A. Chioetto and D. Comerlati (eds), Botticelli: From Lorenzo the Magnificent to Savonarola, Milan 2003
2003

E. Guidoni, '"Venere e Marte" di Sandro Botticelli: Una nuova interpretazione', Studi giorgioneschi, VII, 2003, pp. 7-14
2004

M. Ruvoldt, The Italian Renaissance Imagery of Inspiration: Metaphors of Sex, Sleep, and Dreams, Cambridge 2004
2004

M. Calvesi, 'Venere effimera e Venere perenne, 1: Botticelli, Bronzino, Rubens, Piero di Cosimo, Lotto', Storia dell'arte, 2004, pp. 5-44
2004

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2005

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2005

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2006

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2008

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2008

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About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

Insights

Caroline Campbell, Director of Collections and Research, discusses Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli's painting 'Venus and Mars', an intriguing mythological scene depicting Venus, the goddess of Love, and Mars, the god of War. She looks at some possible classical sources for this work of art, and explores the reasons why it might have been painted for Botticelli's patron in Florence.

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