The history of Botticelli´s The Birth of Venus painting is between fact and fable. It is said that Italian artist Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) was solicited by Lorenzo de' Medici´s younger brother in 1483 in Florence. Botticelli painted this Italian Renaissance masterpiece between 1484-85 but did not use classical models as inspiration for the figures in it, it was one of the most beautiful ladies in Florence called Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci who modeled to represent Venus.
The piece´s background is mythological from the ancient Greece, fulfilled with meaning through allegorical quotes to antiquity and it is inspired on the remarkable Latin Literature piece the Ovid's Metamorphoses. In the island of Cyprus, the goddess of passion and beauty is shown coming to life blown from the sea foam and standing on a giant scallop shell and helped by the god Zephyrus of the wind, and the breeze goddess Aura, compared her marbeled skin in pureness and perfection to a pearl.
His paintings gain momentum from Medicis' Florence family cultural boost on arts, philosophy and literature driving society to prosperity.
