The Birth of Venus is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli, now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It shows the goddess Venus arriving at the shore on a giant scallop shell, blown by the winds, as a nymph waits to cover her with a cloak. The work was probably made for a member of the Medici family and is thought to draw on classical literature and on the ideas of Neoplatonist thinkers of the Florentine court. It is celebrated as one of the first large-scale paintings of a classical nude since antiquity.
Before and after
- 14 February 1483Birth of Babur
- 6 April 1483Birth of Raphael
- 10 November 1483Birth of Martin Luther
- 1 January 1484Birth of Huldrych Zwingli
- c. 1485Painting of The Birth of Venus
- from 1485 to 1491Ottoman–Mamluk War
- 1485Birth of Hernán Cortés
- from 22 August 1485 to 24 March 1603House of Tudor
- 22 August 1485Battle of Bosworth Field
More in Art, literature & culture
- from 8th century to 13th centuryHouse of Wisdom
- 823 CEOrigins of Shingon Buddhism
- 12th centuryPublication of Primary Chronicle
- c. 1260sPublication of Poetic Edda
- 14th centuryPublication of Water Margin
- 1499Pietà (Michelangelo)
The era
This moment belongs to the Medieval world (500 CE to 1500 CE), kingdoms, faiths and trade routes. You can also browse everything in the 15th century.