Rose
The Birth of Venus, 1483-1485
Sandro Botticelli
Tempera on Panel
Uffizi Gallery
Sandro Botticelli
Tempera on Panel
Uffizi Gallery
As one story goes Venus was born to the world as the goddess of beauty, as she lifts a foot to step off her gilded shell, the winds shower her with roses that had flowered for the first time, while the orange blossom on the tree in the middle ground is also fringed with gold. Another story says, roses grew from Aphrodite’s tears and the blood from her lover – Adonis.
The genus Rosa has more than 150 species spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from Alaska to Mexico and including Northern Africa and the Middle East (Persia), and China. It is said that garden cultivation of roses began about 5,000 years ago in China used for it medical uses, scent, and appearance.
However the rose came to be, Botticelli had painted ‘The Birth of Venus’ following the mythology that the flowers the symbolized her was roses and myrtle. The rose can be interpreted as love, confidentiality, and life. The rose that is painted could be Rosa Rubiginosa (Sweet-Brier), Rosa Canina (Dog Rose), or Rosa Gallica (French Rose). Each of these is native to Europe and Persia growing close to the Mediterranean Sea. These species had been known to produce in Italy.
This flowers in the painting are pink which is the longest known color of the rose, hence the genus name Rosa. The color also has to do with the meaning. Each shade of a rose has a meaning, in ‘The Birth of Venus’ the roses have two shades, first is light pink meaning gentleness and admiration, the second shade is darker which meaning love and romance.