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    Botticelli's Mythologies: A Study in the Neoplatonic Symbolism of His CircleAuthor(s): E. H. GombrichSource: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 8 (1945), pp. 7-60Published by: The Warburg InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/750165 .

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    BOTTICELLI'S MYTHOLOGIESA STUDY IN THE NEOPLATONIC SYMBOLISMOF HIS CIRCLE

    By E. H. GombrichThe history of Botticelli's fame has still to be written. In such a historythe fascination which his 'pagan' subjects exerted on his discoverers inthe nineteenth century would form an important part.' To generations ofart lovers these pictures provided the back-cloth, as it were, for the stage ofthe Florentine quattrocentond the colourful drama of the Renaissancewhich they saw enacted on it. As this dream begins to recede, the need for amore strictly historical interpretationof Botticelli'smythologiesbecomes moreapparent. We have become too much aware of the complex cross-currentsof the late fifteenth century to accept the picture of the period which theliterature on Botticelli still presents to us.2 The interpretation to be putbefore the reader in these pages tries to provide a hypothesismore in keepingwith the available evidence, some of which has not been considered before.It takes its starting point from sources which show that Marsilio Ficino wasthe spiritual mentor of Botticelli's patron at the time the 'Primavera' waspainted and that the Neoplatonic conception of the classical Gods was dis-cussed in their correspondence. While it does not aspire to give 'proofs' inmatters of interpretationwhere proofs cannot be given it tries to show that acoherent reading of Botticelli's mythologies can be obtained in the light ofNeoplatonic imagery.The examples from Ficino's writings quoted in support of these argumentsshould not obscure the fact that vast tracts of this literature still remain un-explored and that a further search may yield better and closer parallels.Though a polemic against earlier interpretationscould not be wholly avoidedit should not be taken to imply that anything like finality is claimed for thepresent attempt. There is, in fact, an important assumptionwhich this inter-pretation shares with all previous theories. It is an assumption which mayany day be overthrown by a lucky find: the hypothesis that Botticelli'smythologies are not straight illustrations of existing literary passagesbut thatthey are based on 'programmes'drawn up ad hocby a humanist. That suchprogrammes for paintings existed in the quattrocentoe can infer from con-

    1 For full bibliographical data on Botticelliup to 1931 see R. van Marle, Italian Schoolsof Painting, XII, The Hague, 1931, pp. 14 if.To this should be added the monographsby C. Gamba, Milan, 1936; L. Venturi("Phaidon edition"), Vienna, 1937; J.Mesnil, Paris, 1938 (with a bibliographieraisonnie); S. Bettini, Bergamo, 1942; S.Spender ("Faber Gallery"), London, 1946;P. Bargellini, Florence, I946. Among con-tributions not listed in ArtIndexI should liketo quote further C. Terrasse, Botticelli, LePrintemps, aris, 1938,T. del Renzio, "LustfulBreezes make the Grasses sweetly tremble,"Polemic, May 1946, and H. Stern, "Eustathe

    le Macrembolithe et le 'Printemps' de Botti-celli, L'Amourde l'Art, 1946 (IV).-R. Salvini,"Umanesimo di Botticelli," Emporium,anu-ary 1944 was not accessible to me.2For a comprehensive survey of recentdiscussions see A. Chastel, "Art et Religiondans la Renaissance Italienne, Essai sur laMethode." Bibliothiqued'Humanismeet Renais-sance, VII (I945), and P. O. Kristeller,"Humanism and Scholasticism in the Re-naissance" Byzantion, XVII, I944/45; twobooks not mentioned in these articles: C. E.Trinkaus, Adversity's Noblemen, New York,I940, and A. Dulles, Princeps Concordiae,Cambridge, Mass., 1941.7

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    8 E. H. GOMBRICHtemporarysources;but only one early example of this strangekind of literaturehas come down to us-Paride da Cesarea'sdetailed instructions to Peruginoconcerning the painting for Isabella d'Este'sStudiolo.1The chance of recover-ing similar documents for Botticelli's paintings is, alas, extremely slight. Intheir absence the reconstruction of these missing links between the works ofart and the modes of thought prevailing in the circles of the artist's patronwill always remain a precarious venture. Such conjecturescannot hope tocarry conviction with every one. They should nevertheless be more thanidle speculations if they throw light on new aspects of the problem in handand provoke discussion which may lead to a better understanding of theartist's intentions.2

    I. THE CPRIMAVERA'I,. PastInterpretations

    Anyone interested in problems of method can do no better than to studythe conflicting interpretationsof the 'Primavera'(P1. 9a) and the discussionswhich centred round them.3 We can save ourselvesa detailed recapitulationas each succeeding writer has usually pointed out the weak points in hispredecessor'sefforts; but the residue of these interpretations,both sound andfanciful, has come to cover the picture like a thick coloured varnish, and abrief analysis of its main ingredients is necessaryfor its removal.There is, in the first place, the suggestivepower of the name which Vasariconferred on the picture when he described it somewhat inaccurately as"Venus whom the Graces deck with flowers, denoting the Spring."4 Thishas led scholarsto garner from classical and Renaissance literature a numberof quotations mentioning Venus and Spring,5 forming in the end a veritable1F. Foerster, "Studien zu den Bildern imStudierzimmerder Isabella d'Este Gonzaga,"Jahrbuch der preussischenKunstsammlungen,XXII, i9oI, p. I66. For an English trans-lation see Julia Cartwright, Isabella d'Este,London, 1904, I, p. 331 f.2I should like to take the opportunity ofthanking the members of the Warburg Insti-tute who freely gave of their time to assistme in the preparation of this study, althoughtheir opinion on matters of interpretationsometimes differed from mine.3There is a brief summary in A. Venturi,Sandro Botticelli, Rome, I925; see also thebibliographies in J. Mesnil's monograph andin Van Marle, loc. cit.4Vasari, Milanesi, III, p. 312. "Venere,che le Grazie la fioriscono, dinotando laprimavera." We have no reason to attachovermuchimportanceto thisdescription,madesome 75 years after the picture was painted.Wherever we are able to check Vasari'sdescriptions from independent sources wefind that he was prone to muddle the subject-matter. Botticelli's biblical frescoes in the

    Sistine chapel did not fare better in thisrespect than did Michelangelo's ceiling orRaphael's stanze. An example more nearlycomparable to our own subject is Vasari'sdescription of Titian's Venus' feast. Vasaridid not know the source, Philostratus, whodescribes the votive offerings given to Venusby nymphs. He therefore took Titian'snymphs for allegories of Grace and Beauty.(Vasari, ed. cit., VII, p. 434.) The doublesignificance implied in Vasari's account ofBotticelli's picture "Venus . . . signifyingspring" is very likely a similar guess on thepart of Vasari. It conforms suspiciouslywellto the practice of the 'Mannerist' period andmilieu n which he moved. There is a Venus'signifying spring' (indicated by three signsof the Zodiac) by Angelo Bronzino whichVasari may have had in mind (E. Panofsky,Studies in Iconology, New York, 1939, quotedhereafter as Studies,p. 85).5 The most important of these quotationsfrom Lucretius, De RerumNatura,will be dis-cussed more fully in a different context (seebelow, p. 28).

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    BOTTICELLI'SMYTHOLOGIES 9anthology of charming songs of May and Love. Then there is, secondly, thespell which Poliziano's Giostrahas exercised over the interpreters ever sinceWarburg attempted to establish a connection between the poet's and thepainter'smodes of visualizing classical antiquity in terms of movement. In hisfamous doctor's thesis on the subject' Warburg not only proved a connectionbetween the 'Birth of Venus' and Poliziano's stanze;he also drew attention topassages in the same poem whose atmosphere and imagery were reminiscentof the 'Primavera.' In a more detailed comparison Marrai and Supino after-wards pointed out that the correspondencebetween the picture and the poemis really rather slight, but Poliziano's mellifluousstanzecontinued to be quotedside by side with Botticelli's painting which was even described as an 'illus-tration' to the Giostra.2This intimate fusion of the picture and the poem lentsupport to a legend which was particularlydear to the aestheticmovement andthus formed the third ingredient of the myth which grew round the picture.It is the legend of the 'Bella Simonetta.' If the 'Primavera' is inspired by theGiostra, here may be no need to say good-bye to the long cherished romancewhich linked Botticelli with the Swinburnianbeauty who died of consumptionat the age of 23 and was mourned by Lorenzo and his circle in verses ofPetrarchanhyperbole. The growth of this legend, due, in part, to an erroneousnote in Milanesi's Vasari edition, is less surprising than its persistence afterHorne and Mesnil had pointed out that there is no shred of evidence that1Sandro Botticelli's 'Geburt der Venus'und'Frlihling,'Leipzig, 1893, now reprinted inGesammeltechriften,Leipzig-Berlin, 1932, I,pp. I ff.2Three passages have mainly been quotedin this context. The firstcontains the descrip-tion of Giuliano's firstmeeting with his lady:

    "Candida e ella, e candida la vesta,Ma pur di rose e fior dipinta e d'erba:Lo inanellato crin del l'aurea testa,Scende in la fronte umilimente superba..."which is similar enough in atmosphere butnot in concrete details. Botticelli's 'Prima-vera' has no roses on her dress nor does herhair correspond to Poliziano's wonderfullines.

    "Ell' era assisasoprala verduraAllegra, e ghirlandetta avea contestaDi quanti fior creasse mai natura,De' quali era dipinta sua vesta.E comein primaal giovanposecura,Alquanto paurosa alz6 la testa:Poi con la bianca man ripreso il lembo,Levossi in pi6 con di fior pieno un grembo."

    The visual charm of these lines has againexerted such a spell that many readers weretempted to overlook the difference in the situ-ation there described from Botticelli's figure.Poliziano thinks of a timid nymph who sitson the grass, looks up as Giuliano approachesand walks away, her lap full of flowers. Fairmaidens binding wreaths in spring are, after

    all, not confined to these two examples inItalian literature and art. They belong tothe imagery of courtly love which finds itsreflection in many pictures of the Inter-national Style, such as the May fresco of theTorre del Aquila in Trent. The other stanza,often quoted, may point in a similardirection.In it Amor returns to his mother's domain:"Al regnoove ogni Graziasi diletta,Ove Belt&di fiori al crin fa broloOve tutto lascivo drieto a FloraZefiro vola e la verde erba infiora."

    Here again we have an elusive similarityto Botticelli's pictures. Zephyr and Floradwell in the Realm of Venus. But Poliziano'sdescriptionof this realm only starts in earnestafter the lines quoted and we soon see thatthe pair, together with Beauty and Grace,share their dwelling with such personifica-tions as Fear and Delight, Meagreness,Suspicion and Despair. Claudianus' LoveGarden, on which Poliziano modelled hisdescription, was also the archetype of allthe allegorical mediaeval gardens culminat-ing in the Romande la Rose,of which L. F.Benedetto found a 'faint echo' in the Giostra("Il 'Roman de la Rose' e la LetteraturaItaliana," Beihefte urZeitschriftfiirRomanischePhilologie,XXI, 91o). Perhaps it is no mereaccident that the figures of the Romande laRose also reminded Huizinga of Botticelli.

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    1o E. H. GOMBRICHBotticelli ever painted the young wife of Marco Vespucci.' Her connectionwith Giuliano's Joust, moreover, must be seen within the conventions ofchivalry, according to which "ladies were as indispensable to a joust aswere arms and horses" (Horne). The appeal of these interpretations, andtheir heated defence in the absence of any tangible evidence, provides anobject lesson in the romantic approach to the past, which regards history, notas an incomplete record of an unlimited number of lives and happenings, butrather as a well-ordered pageant in which all the favourite highlights andepisodes turn up at their cue.2 A famous picture like the 'Primavera' mustbe connected with the most famous patron of the age, Lorenzo il Magnifico;it must be inspired by the best remembered poem of the time, Poliziano'sstanze;it must commemorate the most picturesque episode of the period, thefamousJoust; and represent its most attractive protagonists, Simonetta andGiuliano. In its less crude form the romantic interpretation would admitthat the painting does not actually representhe event and illustrate he poem.It withdraws to positions more attractive and less easily disproved such asthe assertion that 'Spring' symbolizes the age of the Renaissance with itsspring tide of youth and delight3; or that it 'expresses' the spirit of the(Herfsttif der Middeleeuwen,Haarlem, 1921,p. 202). It seems to me that these aspects ofthe Giostrahave often been underrated. If itsimagery recalls that of Botticelli, this may berather that both belong to one broad currentof tradition than that one is the illustrationof the other. The character of this traditionand its imagery of spring and love has beenadmirably traced by C. S. Lewis, TheAllegoryof Love, Oxford, 1936, quoted hereafter asLewis, Allegory.1All Vasari says in his second edition (ed.cit., III, p. 322) is that a portrait of a womanbyBotticelli was supposed("si dice") to repre-sent "l'innamorata di Giuliano de' Medici."Probably Vasari referred to Giuliano'smistress, the mother of Pope Clement VII.Nevertheless "La Bella Simonetta" has beenidentified with nearly all the female beautiesin Botticelli's oeuvre. A. F. Rio, L'ArtChritien,Paris, I861, made a beginning withBotticelli's Judith. Then came Ruskin who,in AriadneFlorentina,printed a letter by aMr. Tyrwhitt on the moral aspect of paintingfrom the nude. The writer took it for grantedthat it was Simonetta who posed to Botticellias Venus, as Truth in the Calumny, andmany other figures and romanced about theprobable feelings of the painter on seeing her'undraped.' Then came the suggested con-nection with the Giostrawhich promptedscholars like Warburg, Bode, Yashiro andSeznec to accept or defend the legend to theexasperation of J. Mesnil, who exclaimed:"Et ce ne sont pas des prerapha6litesanglais

    ou des miss desocuvreesqui se sont livres a cesingulierjeu: ce sont desgravesdocteurs etpro-fesseurs ..." ("Connaissons-nousBotticelli?"Gazette des Beaux Arts, LXXII, 1930, IIp. 87). The outburstcame too late to preventvan Marle from writing "Botticelli was theartist who, in the Birth of Venus, illustratedin quite an idealized manner the love ofGiuliano for Simonetta, an echo of which, Ithink, he felt in his own heart" (op.cit., p. 6).2 This tendency, so delightfully parodiedin Sir Max Beerbohm's SavonarolaBrown,has produced the oddest theories on quattro-centoart. Only recently it has been main-tained that the two soldiers on the relief ofthe 'Resurrection of Christ' in the Bargello,ascribed to Verrocchio, representLorenzo de'Medici weeping over the murder of hisbrother Giuliano (Enrico Barfucci, Lorenzo iMedici e la SociethaArtistica del suo tempo,Florence, I945, p. I83).3 "Non mai altra pittura si potrebbe porrepiuidi questa a simbolo del rinascimento,"G. Fiocco, La Pittura Toscanadel Quattrocento,Novara, I945. Simonetta, too, was accordedthe same honour. To Giuseppe Portigliotti,Donne del Rinascimento, Milan, 1927, she ap-pears "come il simbolo della Primavera, alle-goria della fugace Giovinezza umana." Ifsuch statements were meant as rhetoricalmetaphors no objection could be raised. Butin history these metaphorshave a way of soli-difying into 'intellectual intuitions.' In theend only those documents of a period are con-sidered 'typical' which correspond to the

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    BOTTICELLI'SMYTHOLOGIES 11age' and its 'pagan' carnival for which Lorenzo'sgiovinezza ong has providedthe inevitable quotation.2These romantic constructionswould never have been as successfulas theywere had it not been for certain qualities in Botticelli's art, which easilylends itself to the most contradictory interpretations. In a lecture whichdeserves to be better known, L. Rosenthal pointed out more than fifty yearsago that Botticelli's art owed its vogue-then at its height-to this very factthat it allows us to project into the strangely ambiguous expressionsof hisfigures almost any meaning we wish to find.3 He might have added thatthis haunting character of Botticelli's physiognomies not only permits butdemands interpretations. These puzzling and wistful faces give us no restuntil we have built around them a story which seems to account for theirenigmatic expression. The literature on the 'Primavera'provides ample illus-tration of this interesting psychological fact. The gesturesand expressionsofits figureshave given rise to the most varied explanationsand the convictionwith which these contradictory readings were put forward never seemed todeter the next writer from putting his own musings on paper with similarassurance. Thus the whole gamut of emotions from sadness to joy has beenread into the pretty features of Venus. Some pondered over her "melancholy,"others detected in her face the typical symptomsof pregnancy or of consump-tion, while others described her as "smiling"or even "laughing." The gestureof her right hand was similarlymade to expressanything from the "welcomingof Spring" to "beating time to the dance of the Graces," from an expressionof "awe" to that paradox of a gesture "half blessing, half defensive." 4 Smallwonder, therefore, that the picture lent itself to such diverse interpretationsas 'The awakening of Simonetta in Elysium,' 'The Marriage of MenippeanSatire with Mercury,' 'The mystery of Womanhood,' 'The return of the'symbol,' and the most obvious circularinterpretations are expounded as serious"Geistesgeschichte."1"It expresses the springtime of theRenaissance in Florence, which was soon tobe overshadowed by disaster, plague andreligiousfanaticism." (Stephen Spender, loc.cit.) I have ventured elsewhere to plead forgreater precision in the use of the word"expression" ("Wertproblem und mittel-alterliche Kunst," KritischeBerichte urKunst-wissenschaft,VI, 1937).2E. Walser (Gesammeltetudien urGeistesge-schichteder Renaissance,Bale, 1932, p. I16)warned against overrating the significance ofthese songs which coloured the nineteenth-century view of the whole period.3L. Rosenthal, SandroBotticelliet sa riputa-tiona l'heurepre'sente, ijon, 1897. For thegeneral problem of varying interpretationsofphysiognomic expressionin art, see the stimu-lating book by Ferdinand Laban, DerGemuetsausdruckesAntinous, erlin, 1891. Theway in which observers later weave a story

    round a workof art to account for its puzzlingexpression was discussed by E. Kris, "DieCharakterkopfe des F. X. Messerschmidt,"Jahrbuchder KunsthistorischenammlungennWien, new series, VI, 1932. I was privilegedto take part in later researches by Dr.Kris into aspects of expression in art. Theproblem of projection, which is inseparablefrom these questions, I have attempted todescribe more fully in "Portrait Painting andPortrait Photography," Apropos,No. 3, 1945.4 W. Pater (1870): "He . . . paints thegoddess of pleasure . . . but never withoutsome shadow of death in the grey flesh andwan flowers."L. Binyon (1913): "In the Spring (Venus)reappears, how grave and with whatpensive eyes! as if aware of the pain thatcomes with birth and of the sorrow that isentwined with human rapture."Count Plunkett (I900) : ". .. the sad facedwoman, who may be the Venus Nutrix orthe Venus Verticordia, or her, to whomCaesarreared an altar. Her face is sweet and

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    12 E. H. GOMBRICHMedicean Spring,' or 'Two Gods conspiring to arrange the meeting oflovers.'1The conclusionto be drawn from these efforts is that the aestheticapproachof the impressionablecritic is no safer guide than the romantic vision of theimaginative historian in fathoming the secret of Botticelli's art. In the bestof cases expression in pictorial art remains an ambiguous language. Itselements need a context to acquire a well-defined meaning. In the case ofBotticelli this general difficulty is greatly increased by his peculiar historicalposition. With him we lack the guidance which the fixed formulae ofmediaeval art give us for the reading of gestures and situations, and hismastery of the intricacies of expressionhas not yet caught up with this newproblem.2 Botticelli may well have subscribed to Alberti's statement thatonly he who has tried to draw a laughing and a crying face can realize thedifficultyof distinguishingbetween the two.3 The beautiful pages which havereflective, as becomes the mother of thehuman race . . ."E. Gebhart(1907): "Sa main droite semblebenir; ses regards ne s'adressent &Lersonne. le r61eaustere de cette Venus ..."A. Schmarsow (1923): "Nur ihr neckischfibermiitiges S6hnchen mit dem gespanntenBogen tiber ihrem Kopf macht sie als Herrindes Reiches der Liebe kenntlich, sonsthilt dieErweckerin der Wonne sich im Augenblicknoch bescheiden, ja mit geneigtem Hauptund fastwehmiitig befangenenZiigen zuriick,sodass wir nicht wissen k6nnen, ob sie Marsals Genossen ihres Lagers im Walde ersehntoder das Schicksal ihres Adonis zuriick-traiumt . .."Marrai (1901) : "la Venere ...o incinta ...Si osservi 1'atto peculiare dell' incedere, lostesso portamento della Venere e anche ilpallore speciale del volto (la facies gestantis,volgarmente il visuccio) . . ."GiuseppePortigliotti (1927): "Nella Prima-vera specialmente si nota un affusolamentodel collo, una salienza dei cordoni muscolarie un accentuazione della fossetta sopraster-nale, che ci ricordano tante inferme di malsottile."W. Uhde (19O8): "der gesegnete Leib . . .sinnend hailt sie die Rechte empor, sinnendneigt sie das Haupt als lausche sie einerOffenbarung. .."E. Jacobsen(1898): "Die junge, in Traiu-men versunkeneFrau ... ist Simonetta, mitden geliebten, leidenden Ziigen ihrer letztenZeit ... jetzt verstehen wir auch die Seelen-bewegungen der wie in Traumgebildenversunkenen, in sich gekehrten,jungen Frau.Sie war ja todt, und jetzt lebt sie wieder ...Das Leben ist auf's Neue erwacht. Sie lebt!Sie lebt! Die neuen, allzumaichtigenGeffihle

    uiberwailtigen ie, abwehrend streckt sie denArm aus .. ."Mela Escherich (1908): "(Venus) ... derenhalb segnende, halb abwehrende Hand-bewegung ein tiefernstes Noli me tangereauszudriicken scheint .. ."E. Steinmann (1897): ". . . sie schreitetlangsam vorwaerts und das . . . Haupt einwenig zur Seite gesenkt blickt sie denBeschauer mit holdem Laichelnan . . ."E. Schaefer (1921): ". . . mit sinnendemLacheln blickt Venus aufihr ewigesReich .. ."J. Cartwright (1904): "(Venus) . . . ad-vances to welcome the coming of spring."A. Venturi (1925): "Venere, con stancodondolio di passo, avanza movendo la destracome a segnar il tempo alla danza delleGrazie .. ."R. Muther (I909): "Bliihende Zweige . .unter denen lachend die G6ttin der Sch6n-heit steht."1These are the titles given to the pictureby E. Jacobsen, F. Wickhoff,W. Uhde, G. F.Young (elaboratingan idea by Stillmann andbasing his interpretation on Lorenzo's joust-ing device 'Le Temps revient'), and StephenSpender who prefaces his interpretationwiththe disarming remark "Anyway, the pictureis easily understood as a charade . . . Boreas. . pushes forward the shy young lady . . .Venus presides ... and Cupid aims his arrowat the young man."2The preceding quotations would notseem to bear out Tancred Borenius' tributeto Botticelli for his "perfectmastery of humanexpression" (ItalianPaintingupto LeonardondRaphael,London, 1945).SL. B. Alberti, Kleine KunsttheoretischeSchriften,d. H. Janitschek, QIuellenschriftenarKunstgeschichte,I, Vienna, 1877, p. 12o.

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    BOTTICELLI'SMYTHOLOGIES 13been written by masters of proseon the emotional import of Botticelli'sfiguresremain purely subjectiveunless the context in which these figuresstand can beestablished by outside means.1 The 'iconological' approach of historicalscholarship has often come in for attack on the part of those who want todefend the autonomy of artistic seriibility. These attacks overlook the factthat it is only in the interaction of theme and treatment, of situation andgesture, that expression springs to life. Far from destroying the works of artof the past, these devious attempts to establish their concrete significanceonly help us to re-create their aestheticmeaning.2. The HistoricalApproach:Ficino'sLetter o Botticelli'sPatron

    The historian's task is to establishthe precise meaning of the symbolsusedby the artist. In the case of the 'Primavera' the attempts which have beenmade in this direction have met with a difficultynot less formidablethan thatof establishingthe precise meaning of the gesturesand expressions. Warburgand his followers have shown us how manifold were the meanings attachedto the classical divinities and how little is conveyed by a conventional labelsuch as the 'Goddessof Love.'2 To the Renaissance Venus is an 'ambivalent'symbol if ever there was one. The humanists were familiar with her con-ventional r6le no less than with the more esoteric meanings attached to herin the dialogues of Plato, who speaks of two Venuses, or in the poem ofLucretius, who addresses her as the embodiment of the generative power.Even in the popular mind Venus lived in a dual r6le. As a planet she ruledover merrymaking, spring, love, finery and the sanguine complexion, and insome or all of these capacities she was seen to drive through the streets ofFlorence in many a carnival pageant.3 At the same time she remained theallegorical figure of chivalrous poetry, dwelling in the symbolic gardens and

    1M. N. Nahm, AestheticExperience nd itsPresuppositions,New York, 1946, p. 270 f.,broaches this question in connection with aproblem of Botticelli iconography: E. Wind'sdiscovery of the true subject of the 'Derelitta'(Journal of the Warburg nstitute, IV, 1940-41).The effort and skill spent in interpretingthe expression of Botticelli's figures is pro-digious. The Mr. Tyrwhitt, who launched theSimonetta legend, discovered in the face ofBotticelli's nudes that the lady did not reallylike posing as a model. Only one moreexample may be quoted here because of itsgeneral implications. Vasari commends thehead of Botticelli's St. Augustine as being"expressive of the profound thought andquick subtlety such as is usually possessed bythose continually engrossed in difficult andabstruse questions." Of the same head L.Binyon wrote: "In 1478 the plague hadbroken out in Florence ... something of thetragic apprehension of life, so reiterated inthe daily circumstances of the streets . . .

    seems to have passed into the painter's visionof Augustine"(op.cit., p. 71). The con-nection with the plague shows to what lengththe 'physiognomic' interpretation of works ofart can go which sees in them an 'expression'of their period, even when they are con-trolled by a sensitivity as keen as Binyon's.2 See F. Saxl, "Die BibliothekWarburgund ihr Ziel," VortraegeerBibliothekWarburg,1921-22, and Warburg's annotations to hisBotticelli paper. Cf. also E. Panofsky,Studies,p. 142 ff. and C. S. Lewis, Allegory.3"Questa, che lieta innanzi all'altre viene,Vener si chiama, madre dell'amore,Qual con dolce cateneSerra duo cuor gentili in un sol core;...""Quest'altro 1'l angue che col bel pianetaDi Venere 6 congiunto in l'air puro;La primavera lietaRende 'lsuo stato tranquillo e sicuro;Fa suo gente quieta,Ridente, allegra, umana e temperata,Venerea, benigna e molto grata."

    2

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    14 E. H. GOMBRICHbowers of Romance.' While in the carnival songs she was praised and askedto make Florence her abode,2 the first mention of a painting of Venus in aRenaissance setting occurs in Filarete's imagined "Temple of Vice."3 Thereshe appears with Bacchus and Priapus some ten years before Botticelli'spicture was painted, and we are left in no doubt as to her significance:

    "Venus, wreathed with myrtle, rising from the foam with a dove anda shell and exclaiming: All of you, rich and poor, who possessthe attributeof Priapus,come into my bower, you will be well received."Filarete adds that, to be generallyunderstood, the speechesof these figureswere added in Latin, Italian, Greek, Hungarian, German, Spanish, French,and other languages. Had Botticelli not omitted a similar precaution manypages in these "and other languages" could have remained unwritten.The question as to what Venus signified 'to the Renaissance' or even 'tothe Florentine Quattrocento' is obviously still too vague for the historian toobtain a well-defined answer. It must be narrowed down to the question ofwhat Venus signified to Botticelli's patron at the time and occasion thepicture was painted. Thanks to the researches of Horne we can formulatethis question even more precisely. We know with reasonable certainty forwhom the picture was painted. Vasari saw it at Castello, the Villa whichbelonged in Botticelli's time to Lorenzo di Pierfrancescode' Medici (1463-I503), the second cousin of Lorenzo il Magnifico.4 The connection betweenLorenzo di Pierfrancesco and Botticelli is well established by a numberof documents and contemporary sources.5 Most of these sources refer to alater period, the time when Botticelli was engaged on the Dante drawingsfor him and on a number of other works no longer extant. They date fromthe time when Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco also patronized Michelangelo, whosent his well-known account of his arrival in Rome to the Medici throughBotticelli. Three of Botticelli's mythological paintings have been traced to

    C. S. Singleton, Canti CarnascialeschielRinascimento,Bari, 1936, pp. 253, 149.Cf. alsoNaldoNaldi'selegy:". .. Per Venerem totus quoniam renovaturet orbis,Arboribus frondes prosiliuntque suis.Laetaque diverso variantur prata colore;Floribus a multis picta relucet humus.Hanc igitur laeti, divamque sequamur ovantes,Matres, atque nurus, vir puer, atque senex,Laetius ut vitam suavem ducamus ab illa,Quilibet ut laetos transigat inde dies ..."

    "Elegia in septem stellas errantes sub humanaspecie per urbem Florentinam curribus aLaurentio Medice Patriae Patre duci iussasmore triumphantium," Carmina illustriumPoetarumItalorum, VI, Florence, 1720, p. 440.1For Italian examples see L. F. Benedetto,op. cit. For Dante's conception of Venus seeE. Wechsler, "Eros und Minne," VortrdgeerBibliothekWarburg, 921-22, p. 83; and H.Flanders Dunbar, Symbolism in Medieval

    Thoughtand its Consummationn the DivineComedy,New Haven, 1929.2"Ma Vener bella sempre in canti e'n feste,In balli e nozze e mostre,In varie foggie e nuove sopravveste,In torniamenti e giostreFard il' popol fiorito;Staran gallante e belleTutte donne e donzelle,Con amoroso invito,Terra sempre Fiorenza in canti e risoE dirassi: Fiorenza 6'1paradiso!"

    (CantiCarnascialeschi,d. cit., p. 132).3 Filarete, Trattato.. ed. W. v. Oettingen,Quellenschriftenfiirunstgeschichte,II, Vienna,189o,p. 505.4 Herbert P. Horne, AlessandroFilipepi...Botticelli, London, 1908, pp. 49 ff. and184 f.5 For an additional document, unknown toHorne, see J. Mesnil, Botticelli,note 152.

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    BOTTICELLI'SMYTHOLOGIES 15Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco's family through their location in the sixteenthcentury, namely the 'Primavera,' the 'Birth of Venus,' and 'Minerva and theCentaur'; and though the validity of these conclusions has not remainedunchallenged we hope to adduce new arguments in their support.' Thefigure of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco remains somewhat shadowy.2 We knowthat his relations with the Magnificowere not always of the best. His father,Pierfrancesco, the son of Cosimo's brother Lorenzo, had been a partner inthe Medici firm and had received a great fortune when the property of thetwo branches was divided. There were quarrels over the share of theirrespective heirs in the expenses to be borne in somejoint enterprises,and thefriendship can hardly have improved through Lorenzo il Magnifico beingcompelled to borrow very large sums from his wealthy cousin, who receivedjewellery to the value of 2I,ooo gold lire in pledge. We know that in one ofhis rappresentationeacreLorenzo di Pierfrancescodeploredthe lot of those "wholive under a tyrant." He was in close contact with Charles VIII, on whoseentry into Florence,when the Magnifico'sson fled, he and his brotherassumedthe name of Popolano without, however, joining the camp of Savonarola.3Later in life he was involved in a number of lawsuits which do not show hischaracter to the best advantage. As the ancestor of 'Lorenzaccio' his figurebecame shrouded in obscurity when Cosimo established his dynasty.Of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco'sliterary and artistic interest much has to beinferred. It has sometimesbeen mentioned that Poliziano praised his accom-plishments and dedicated one of his poems to him. But there is one sourcefor this central figure in Botticelli's life which has not yet been tapped byany of the painter's biographers. It is the Epistolariumf Marsilio Ficino, inwhich we find a number of letters addressed to Laurentiusminor, s he is calledin contradistinction to his powerful, older relative.4 The first of these lettersprovidesthe answerto our questionas to what Venus would signify to Lorenzodi Pierfrancesco at the time when the 'Primavera' was painted for him. Theletter bears no date but its content and form prove that it is addressed to aboy, "adolescens." Internal evidence suggests the winter I477-8, when therecipient was fourteen to fifteen years of age.5 This is the approximateperiod

    1The theory was challenged by C. F.Young, The Medici, I, app. VII, but anexamination of his seven points producesno convincing evidence against Horne'stheory, particularly since we now know thatBotticelli did some work for Lorenzo diPierfrancesco at Castello, thus disprovingYoung's contention that the Villa was neverowned by him. Recently R. Langton-Douglas (Pierodi Cosimo,Chicago, 1946) hascome out in defence of Lorenzo di Pier-francesco.2 The main facts known about Lorenzo diPierfrancesco are collected in Gaetano Pier-accini, La stirpe de'Medici di Cafaggiolo,Florence, 1924, I, pp. 353 ff. A number ofadditional documents are to be found in K.Frey, Michelangelo. seinLeben nd eineWerke,

    Berlin, I907, p. 221 f., and K. Frey, Michel-angelo B. QuellenundForschungen,Berlin, I907,p. 34 f.3 For Lorenzo'sr61e n these critical days ofFlorentine history see J. Schnitzer, GirolamoSavonarola, Munich, 1924, I, p. I56.4 All subsequent quotations are fromFicino's Opera Omnia, Basle, 1576. Thisedition contains letters to Lorenzo di Pier-francesco on pp. 805, 812, 834, 845, 905,90o8.5 Ficino, ed. cit., p. 805. For the date ofthe Vth book of the Epistolariumee P. O.Kristeller, SupplementumFicinianum, I, p. CI.,who puts the majority of its letters betweenSeptember 1477 and April 1478. This fitsin with the evidence about Naldi's move-ments (see below), who left Florence some

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    16 E. H. GOMBRICHin which the 'Primavera' has been placed on stylistic grounds and the factthat Botticelli's patron had hardly reached his teens at the time has oftenseemed inconsistent with the remaining evidence. Here, too, the letter andits circumstancesmay provide an explanation. It is no less interesting forthe fact that it may be less appealing than the love garden of Poliziano:

    "My immense love for you, excellent Lorenzo, has long prompted meto make you an immense present. For anyone who contemplates theheavens, nothing he sets eyes upon seems immense, but the heavens them-selves. If, therefore, I make you a present of the heavens themselveswhatwould be its price? But I would rather not talk of the price; for Love,born from the Graces, gives and accepts everything gratis; nor indeed cananything under heaven fairly balance against heaven itself.The astrologershave it that he is the happiest man for whom Fatehas so disposed the heavenly signs that Luna is in no bad aspect to Marsand Saturn, that furthermore she is in favourable aspect to Sol andJupiter, Mercury and Venus. And just as the astrologerscall happy theman for whom fate has thus arranged the heavenly bodies, so the theo-logians deem him happy who has disposed his own self in a similar way.You may well wonder whether this is not asking too much-it certainly ismuch, but nevertheless,my gifted Lorenzo, go forward to the task withgood cheer, for he who made you is greater than the heavens, and youtoo will be greater than the heavens as soon as you resolve to face them.We must not look for these matters outside ourselves, for all the heavensare within us and the fiery vigour in us testifiesto our heavenly origin.First Luna-what else can she signify in us but that continuousmotion of the soul and of the body? Mars stands for speed, Saturn fortardiness, Sol for God, Jupiter for the Law, Mercury for Reason, andVenus for Humanity (Humanitas).Onward, then, great-minded youth, gird yourself, and, together withme, dispose your own heavens. Your Luna-the continuous motion ofyour soul and body-should avoid the excessive speed of Mars and thetardiness of Saturn, that is, it should leave everything to the right andopportune moment, and should not hasten unduly, nor tarry too long.Furthermore this Luna within you should continuously behold the Sun,that is God Himself, from whom she ever receives the life-giving rays, foryou must honour Him above all things, to whom you are beholden andmake yourself worthy of the honour. Your Luna should also beholdJupiter, the laws human and divine, which should never be transgressed-for a deviation from the laws by which all things are governed istantamount to perdition. She should also direct her gaze on Mercury, thatis on good counsel, reason and knowledge, for nothing should be under-taken without consulting the wise, nor should anything be said or donefor which no plausible reason can be adduced. A man not versed inscience and letters is considered blind and deaf. Finally she should fixher eyes on Venus herself, that is to say on Humanity (Humanitas). Thistime in 1476, was back in 1477 and awayagain by April 1478. Cf. A. Della Torre,

    Storia dell'Accademialatonicadi Firenze,I902,p. 673-

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    BOTTICELLI'SMYTHOLOGIES 7serves us as an exhortation and a reminder that we cannot possess any-thing great on this earth without possessing the men themselves fromwhose favour all earthly things spring. Men, however, cannot be caughtby any other bait but that of Humanity (Humanitas).Be careful, therefore,not to despise it, thinking perhaps that "humanitas" is of earthy origin("forse existimans humanitatem humi natam").For Humanity (Humanitas) erself is a nymph of excellent comeliness,born of heaven and more than others beloved by God all highest. Hersoul and mind are Love and Charity, her eyes Dignity and Magnanimity,the hands Liberality and Magnificence, the feet Comeliness and Modesty.The whole, then, is Temperance and Honesty, Charm and Splendour.Oh, what exquisite beauty! How beautiful to behold. My dear Lorenzo,a nymph of such nobility has been wholly given into your hands. If youwere to unite with her in wedlock and claim her as yours she would makeall your years sweet.In fine, then, to speak briefly, if you thus dispose the heavenly signsand your gifts in this way, you will escape all the threats of fortune, and,under divine favour, will live happy and free from cares."The conception of the classical deities that we find in this letter from ahumanist to Botticelli's young patron could hardly be more bizarre. Ficinohas fused the two traditions by which the Middle Ages had transformed theancient Olympus-the moral allegory and the astrological lore.1 He drawsup a horoscope which is really a moral injunction. Far from being theGoddess of Lust, his Venus is a moralized Planet, signifying a virtue whosecomplex definition is represented to us, mediaeval fashion, as a commentaryon her anatomy. Venus stands for Humanitas which, in turn, embracesLove and Charity, Dignity and Magnanimity, Liberality and Magnificence,Comeliness and Modesty, Charm and Splendour. There are many currentswhich unite in this transformation, and make it possible for such a symbolto be fashioned out of the classical goddess of Love. We find in the back-ground the astrological conception in which the "children" of the PlanetVenus are of a friendly, amiable disposition, loving grace and finery,2but alsothat complex mediaeval ideal of temporal perfection, the ideal of "courtesy"which dominates the code of conduct in the Courts of Love.3 The ideaof Venus as a guide to the love of men and to all that adds dignity and graceto life could hardly have been formed without this distant background.But Ficino's language is that of the humanist. To him the supreme virtuewhich the young man should embrace is Humanitas,and the word callsup the Ciceronian ideal of refinement and culture, the virtue with whichthe Florentine merchants matched and outshone the courtly conventions of1 For a comprehensive survey and biblio-graphy of these traditions see Jean Seznec,La survivance es dieuxantiques,Studiesof theWarburgInstitute, XI, London, 1940o.2 F. Saxl in VortrdgeerBibliothekWarburg,

    1921-22, p. 6, and Journal of the WarburgInstitute,II, 1938, p. 73, gives a number ofcharacteristic texts.

    3 A German fifteenth century poet, MeisterAltswert, makes Venus, the Lady of Love,say:"Waz wildeist, dem bin ich gramIch halt mich an daz zam"

    See H. Kohlhausen, Minnekistchenm Mittel-alter, Berlin, 1928, p. 43.

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    18 E. H. GOMBRICHchivalry.' The enthusiasm, finally, with which this Venus is placed beforethe mental eye of the young Medici is Ficino's own. The author of thefamous Commentary on the Symposium ould have no difficulty in persuad-ing himself that, for a boy, the moral principlerepresentedby Venus, whetherwe call it Culture or Courtesy, Beauty or Humanity, was the proper guidetowards the higher spheres.2It is this notion of beauty as a gateway to the divine which explainsFicino's mode of expression, and also the importance he attached to hispaedagogiceffort. We know that he did not rest content with merely havingwritten this strange epistle. He took special precaution that its lesson shouldnot be lost on young Lorenzo. In the Epistolariumhe letter is followed by akind of covering note to two well-known scholars, both friends of Ficino,who appear to have been young Lorenzo'stutors at the time:

    "Marsilio Ficino to Giorgio Antonio Vespucci and to Naldi: I havewritten a letter to the younger Lorenzo about the prosperous fate oftenbestowed upon us by the stars which are outside us and also about thefree happiness we acquire by our own free will from the stars within us.Explain it to him, if it should prove necessary, and exhort him to learnit by heart and treasureit up in his mind. Great as are the things whichI promise him, those which he will acquire by himself are as great, ifonly he reads the letter in the spirit in which I wrote it."3The two men to whom this letter is addressedbelonged to Ficino's mostintimate circle. They are frequently mentioned in his writings. GiorgioAntonio Vespucci, born in 1434, was the uncle and teacher of Amerigo. Amember of a respected family, he was a humanist of considerable reputationwho earned his living by transcribing classical codices and giving privatelessonsin Greek and Latin. He was known for his piety and integrity. Laterin his life he took holy ordersand entered San Marco during the priorshipofSavonarola, of whom he became an ardent follower.41For Cicero's dual use of the term"humanitas" as denoting "urbanity" and"culture" see Forcellini, Lexicon,s.v. Forthe roots of Renaissance usage see K.Borinski, Die Antike in Poetik und Kunsttheorie,I, Leipzig, i914, p. Io8 f., and W. JaegeriHumanism and Theology (Aquinas Lecture),Milwaukee, I943, pp. 20 ff. and 72 f. ForFicino's usage see op. cit., p. 635, wherehumanitas is opposed to crudelitas as thevirtue which bids us love all men as membersof one family.2 The most famous exposition of the theoryof the two Venuses and the two forms offuror kindled by them is in Ficino's Com-mentary on the Symposium econd Speech,section VII. Ficino, ed. cit., p. 1326. There isa German translation by Paul Hasse, 1914,and an English translation by SearsReynolds Jayne, in University of MissouriStudies, XIX, I, Columbia, I944. For the

    hierarchy of the Divine furores of whichVenus represents the first, see for instanceFicino, ed. cit., p. 830. "Cum vero divinifuroris species, (ut Platoni nostro placet)quatuor sint, Amor, Vaticinium, Mysterium,Poesis. Atque amor Veneri, vaticiniumApollini, mysterium Dionysio, po6sis Musisattribuatur." The idea that the enthusi-asm, represented by Venus, is proper toyouth, is more fully developed in Ficino'sletter describing Lorenzo il Magnifico'sspiritual development and his ascent, in thecourse of his life, on the ladder of enthusiasms(ibid., p. 927). Ficino was not the first tointroduce this idea to Florentine thought.See Warburg, Ges. Schriften, I, p. 328.3 Ficino, ed. cit., p. 8o6.4 Della Torre, op. cit., pp. 772 ff. For asupposed portrait of Giorgio Antonio Ves-pucci see R. Langton Douglas' article inthe Burlington Magazine, February, 1944. For

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    BOTTICELLI'SMYTHOLOGIES 19Naldo Naldi, the other addressee of Ficino's letter, was a humanist ofdifferent moral fibre. Born in 1435, he is chiefly remembered for his poeticefforts to curry favour with the Medici and other powerful men. By his own

    admission, his repeated attempts to draw the attention of Lorenzo il Magnificoto his person were not, at first, well received. In fact he left Florence twiceto sing the praise of princes and great men in Forli and Venice, and not until1484 did he receive one of the coveted salaried positions in Florence. In theliterary cdterie f the humanistshis Latin poetry was warmly praised, and bothPoliziano and Ficino speak highly of him.1These were the two men on whom devolved the task of keeping theinjunctions of the admired mystagogue before the eyes of their young scholarwho had not reached the age at which he could understand them withoutexplanation. They were to kindle his enthusiasm for the divine beauty ofVenus-Humanitas. n the 'Primavera' we have a picture of Venus which,from entirely differentevidence, was thought to have been painted for Lorenzodi Pierfrancescoat exactly the period when this situation arose. Is it possibleto avoid the conclusion that these sets of facts have a bearing on each other?If the 'Primavera' was painted for young Lorenzo, who had just been calledupon to follow the alluring beauty of that fair nymph Humanitaswho wasVenus, can we still see the picture in the light of 'pagan' love and spring?Are we not forced to connect the sources and to trace the origin of this com-mission, so momentous in the history of art, to the circumstancesrecorded inthe documents?We know that the Villa di Castello was bought for Lorenzo in I477.2Theidea of its decoration was naturally connected with such a purchase. In itselfthe thought of having Venus and her followers represented in the privateapartments of a noble house would not have seemed far-fetchedto Lorenzo'stutors or guardians. They must have known tapestriessuch as the fragmentin Paris showing Venus and the Court of Love (P1. 9b). Warburg's re-searches have shown to what extent these Northern tapestries were collectedand appreciated in quattrocentolorence.3 Even the moral twist given tosuch representationswas somehow prefigured in Northern art. Kohlhausensuggests that German tapestries showing a lady leading a 'wild man' infetters are meant as a tribute to the civilizing powers of Lady Love.4 Theground was thus well prepared for the idea of the commission, but Ficino'sletter and advice must have provided the spark which kindled the flame.Through him the traditional theme would acquire a new dignity. ToFicino's circle, moreover, the r61leof such a picture would be of infinitelygreater importance than that of the Northern tapestrieswith their suggestionhis relation to Amerigo see A. M. Bandini,Vita di Amerigo Vespucci, ed. G. Uzielli,Florence, 1898.1Since della Torre's excellent character-ization of Naldi (op.cit.,pp. 503-506, 668-681)a number of his Latin poems have been pub-lished or commented upon. See A. Hulubei,"Naldo Naldi, 1tude sur la Joi^te de Julienet sur les bucoliques dedi6es a Laurent deMedicis," HumanismetRenaissance,II, 1936;

    Naldus de Naldis Florentinus, ElegiarumLibriIII ad LaurentiumMedicen.Edidit LadislausJuhAsz,Bibliotheca criptorumMediiRecentisqueAevorum, Leipzig, 1934. See also the refer-ences to Naldi in Scritti inediti di BenedettoColucci da Pistoia, ed. Arsenio Frugoni,Florence, 1939-2 Horne, op. cit., pp. 50 and 349-3 GesammelteSchriften, I, pp. 187 ff., 371 ff.4 Op. cit., 1928, pp. 46 ff.

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    20 E. H. GOMBRICHof elegant decoration. Ficino can never tire of praising the nobility of sightand the sublimity of visual beauty as a symbol of Divine splendour. In hishierarchy of values the eye ranges before the ear as a source of enthusiasm.'If he was at pains to drive home to young Lorenzo the lesson which hehad wished him to learn by heart, nothing would seem more natural tohim than to translate it into visual reality; for Ficino's views on educationare closely linked with the value which he attached to sight. His letter toLorenzo, in which he describes the beauty of Humanitas n such glowingcolours, is only one instance of the efforts he makes to translate his moralviews into terms of visual concretenesswhen trying to convert the young. Inanother letter to young Lorenzo, we can watch him groping for even moreeffective means to make him see the ugliness of depravity and the beauty ofgoodness, and to "point with the finger" at the sheer abhorrence of badhabits.2 In yet another letter, this time to Lorenzo il Magnifico and BernardoBembo, Ficino explains his attitude to the virtue of visual experience in termswhich read almost like a reference to a concrete instance:

    "Much do the philosophersargue, the oratorsdeclaim, the poets sing,in order to exhort man to a true love of virtue .... I think, however, thatvirtue herself (if she can be placed before the eye) may serve much betteras an exhortation than the words of men. It is useless to praise a girl inthe ears of a boy, or describe her with words, if you want to arouse himto love .... Point, if you can, to the fair maiden herself with your fingerand no further word will be needed. One cannot describe how muchmore easily the sight of Beauty inspires love than words can do. If, there-fore, we could present the wonderful aspect of Virtue itself to the eyes ofmen there would no longer be any need for our art of persuasion. ."3We thus have Ficino's own indirect testimony that he felt that mere wordswere inadequate to keep before the eyes of his spiritual ward the rousing1Commentary n the Symposium,Vth speech,section II. Ficino, ed. cit., p. 1334. See alsoNesca N. Robb, Neoplatonism of the ItalianRenaissance, 1935, p. 224 (quoted hereafter asNeoplatonism) and P. O. Kristeller, The Philo-sophy of Marsilio Ficino, Columbia Studies inPhilosophy, VI, New York, 1943. Here, asin so many other respects, Ficino was able tobuild on a mediaeval tradition; see H.Berliner, "The Freedom of Mediaeval Art,"Gazettedes Beaux Arts, I945, II, note 49 andp. 28o. The locus classicusfor this priority ofsight over hearing is, of course, Horaee's ArsPoetica, p. 18o f.:

    "Themind is slowerwroughton by the earThanbytheeye,whichmakes hingsplainappear."2 ".. . For some time, Lorenzo, I haveheard that you feel no slight abhorrence ofmen of bad habits. . .. In order to fill you,not only with hatred, but with real horror and

    fear of bad men, I should like (if it pleasesyou to pay me attention for a while) to pointout with the finger, as the saying goes, themost horrible and miserable life of the de-praved. The mind of those corrupted by badhabits is like a wild forest bristling withsharp thorns, made horribleby rapaciousandcruel beasts of prey and infested with poison-ous snakes. Or else, it is like the sea swollenwith contrary winds and tossed by cruelstorms and waves. Worse, it is like a humanbody so utterly deformed that every memberis tormented with pains. Contrariwise themind informed by excellent manners is like awell cultivated and fertilefield, like a tranquiland serene sea, like a human body as beauti-ful as it is robust . . ." and more in a similarvein. Ficino, ed. cit., p. 834 f.3 Ficino, ed. cit., p. 807. In the remainderof the letter Ficino attempts again to describethe beauty of virtue in visual terms. He asks

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    BOTTICELLI'SMYTHOLOGIES 21beauty of Humanitasas he had described her in the letter: "praestanticorpore nympha, coelesti origine nata, aethereo ante alia dilecta deo . . . oegregiam formam, o pulchrum spectaculum." How much better would itbe if Lorenzo's tutors were able to "point with the finger" at this image ofvirtue as symbolized in Venus. Could anything suit this requirement moreperfectly than Botticelli's 'Primavera'?The unusual circumstances of its commission would appear to explainthe unusual choice of subject matter which makes the picture a turning pointin the history of European art. The youthfulness of the patron, which hadseemed inconsistent with the ideas usually attached to the picture, now be-comes an important clue for its interpretation. Its very beauty is part of itstheme. Had Ficino addressed a grown-up man, he would have spoken tohim in abstract terms. Had Lorenzo been older, he might have preferredtoseek a visual symbol of Divine Beauty even more concrete than a picture.1But for a child of fourteen or fifteen, this picture sermon on a new doctrinewas just what was needed to rouse his mind to higher spheres.That the choice of the commission fell on Botticelli fits in well with thecircumstancesas we know them. The young painter had been successfulwithsuch moral allegories. He had painted the 'Fortitude' in the series originallycommissioned from the Pollaiuoli and he had already shown his mettle witha moral allegory in the guise of a mythological subject-Giuliano's joustingstandard of Minerva and Cupid as symbols of Chastity. Moreover theVespuccis and the Filipepis were next door neighbours,2and it may well havebeen Giorgio Antonio Vespucci who procured him the commission.We may also assume that it was in the circle of these three men, Ficino,Naldi, Vespucci, that the actual programme for the composition took shape.It is to a possible source of this programme that we must now turn.his readers to imagine a perfect man, strong,healthy, beautiful, endowed with all accom-plishments and to realize that all these quali-ties, so admired by the crowd, are but a palereflection of the true beauty of the mind. Inthe beauty of virtue, however, these singleperfections are all combined into one won-drous beauty. "O quam amabilis, O quammirabilis est haec animi forma, cuius umbraquaedam est forma corporis, tam vulgoamabilis, tam mirabilis." The letter endswith an exhortation to his friends to keep theidea and form of divine beauty always beforetheir eyes. The letter dates from the sameperiod as the one concerning Venus-Humanitas.1The curious way in which a real womancould take on this r61e of a visual symbol,a process which underlies the Platonic lovepoetry and its mediaeval predecessors,is wellexemplified in a poem by C. Landino ad-dressed to Bernardo Bembo, asking him toselect GinevraBenci as his guide to the higherspheres. It is to the same Bembo that Ficino's

    letter on the virtue of visual concreteness isaddressed."Hoc age nunc, Erato, Bembi referamus amores,Sed quos caelestis comprobet ipsa Venus.Hic nihil obscenum est turpive libidine tetrum;Castus amor castam postulat usque fidem.Talis amor Bembi, qualem divina PlatonisPagina Socraticis exprimit eloquiis.Namque amor a pulchro cum sit, perculsa cupidoPulchrum amat et pulchris gaudet imaginibus;Ad quodcumque bonum, pulchrum est, turpe omnenefandum:Sic bona deposcit, sic mala vitat amor.His flammis Bembus talique accensus amoreUritur, et medio corde Ginevra sedet.Forma quidem pulchra est, animus quoque pulcherin illa:Horum utrum superet, non bene, Bembe, vides. .. ."

    C. Landino, Carminaomn., ed. A. Perosa,Florence, 1939, P. 162. The success of Ficino'sspeculations, and his letters and doctrinesquoted above, must be seen against this back-ground.2 Horne, op. cit., p. 72.

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    22 E. H. GOMBRICH3. Apuleius'Descriptionf Venus

    If our interpretationof the documents is right, Ficino's letter provides anexplanation of the circumstancesthat led to the commissioningof the 'Prima-vera' and of its central theme: Venus-Humanitas.t does not explain the wholecomposition. For the actual programmewe must look elsewhere. That War-burg was right when he presupposedsuch a programme for the 'Primavera,'becomes even more likely with our reading of the evidence. The philosophicalideas of Ficino could not easily be directly translated into paint. The'Primavera' is certainly not an illustration of the philosopher's letter, norwould a moralized horoscope of this kind easily have lent itself to pictorialillustration. True, the main emphasis of the letter rests on Venus and, toa minor extent, on Mercury, both of which figure in the 'Primavera,' butthere is still a big gulf separating the picture and Ficino's text. This gulfhas to be bridged by the hypothetical programme of which we as yet knownothing.Perhaps it is still possible to narrow this gap and to point to a sourceupon which the author (or authors) of the programmedrew when they had toadvise the painter as to how he should representVenus and her train. Sucha possible source is a description of the Judgment of Paris which occurs inthe GoldenAss by Apuleius. The popularity of this tale in the quattrocentois well attested,1but it must cause somethingof a shockto find this predecessorof the picaresque novel connected with Botticelli's delicate vision. Thecontext, moreover, in which this description of Venus and her train occurs,seems at first to militate against a connection between the picture and thistext. A close examination, however, yields many more points of contactthan are at first apparent.The passagein question precedesthe climax of the storyin the tenth book.2Lucius the ass has been promised that he will be restored to human shapeif he eats Roses, the flowersof Venus, and it is high time for him to be savedas he has been singled out for the degrading spectacle of publicly embracinga doomed murderess. While he is awaiting the moment of the performancehe perceives a ray of hope:"Spring had started and was already painting everything with flower-ing buds and clothing the meadows with a purple hue; bursting their

    1Apuleius was the first classical author tobe published in Italy in the magnificentRoman edition of I469. For the backgroundof this edition and the preface by GiovanniAndrea de Bussi see R. Klibansky, "EinProklos Fund und seine Bedeutung," Sitzungs-berichteder HeidelbergerAkademied. Wiss.,1928-29, p. 25, and "Plato's Parmenides inthe Middle Ages and the Renaissance,"Mediaeval nd Renaissancetudies, , 2, p. 290.Boiardo undertook (or polished) its Italiantranslationin 1478; (see Giulio Reichenbach,MatteoMariaBoiardo,Bologna, 1929, p. 155).

    Ercole d'Este wrote that he read the book"every day" and Federigo Gonzaga that he"liked it the more the longer he read it,"(Giorn.Storico er la Lett. It. XXXIII (1899),p. I6). Poliziano attempted emendations forcorrupt passages (Op. Omn., Basle, 1552,p. 246), and Beroaldus published a new edi-tion in 1500 with a learned commentary.2LoebClassicalLibrary,London-New York,1919, PP- 524 ff. Adlington's charming trans-lation, printed there, is insufficiently accu-rate for our purpose.

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    BOTTICELLI'SMYTHOLOGIES 23thorny coats and breathing their cinnamon fragrance,the roses came forthwhich should restore me to my former self."

    After an introduction the spectacle opens with a dumb show:"First there was a hill made of wood, representingMount Ida of whichHomer sang, reared up as a high structure and garnished with verdureand live trees; a gushing fountain, devised by a skillfulartist, poured forthreal water from the top. A number of little goatlets cropped the daintyherbage and a youth, representing the Phtygian shepherd Paris, richlyarrayed in a flowing foreign costume, a golden tiara on his head, posed asherdsman. Beside him was a handsome boy, naked but for the chlamysephebicawhich covered his left shoulder; in his fair hair was visible a well-matched pair of linked golden wings; the caduceus and rod indicated thathe was Mercury. Stepping forth like a dancer, he carried a gilt apple inhis right hand and proffered it to the actor representingParis, indicatingby his gesture what Jupiter had commanded. After that he made his exitfrom the scene with graceful steps.There followed a maiden of honest demeanour; she represented theGoddessJuno, for she had a glittering diadem on her head and carried asceptre. Then came another, whom you would have recognized asMinerva, for she wore a shining helmet covered with a crown of olivebranches, and carried a shield and a spear as if about to fight.After these there entered one of outstanding and wondrous beauty,whose ambrosianhue indicated Venus, as Venus was when she was a maid-en; her naked and uncovered body showed her perfectbeauty, for nothingbut a flimsy silken garment veiled the lovely maiden. A prying windnow lovingly and lasciviously blew it aside so that the flower of heryouth was revealed to the sight, now with a wanton breath made it clingto her, the more graphically to outline the voluptuous formsof her limbs.But the colour of the Goddess was of a twofold nature-her body wasshining, because she comes from heaven, her garment azure, because shereturns to the sea ...(follows description of Juno, accompanied by Castor and Pollux andof Minerva, accompanied by Terror and Fear)And lo, now Venus, amidst the applause of the audience, smilingsweetly, stands right in the middle of the stage, surroundedby the gayestcrowd of boys. You would have taken these round-limbed, milk-whitebabes for genuine Cupids who had just flown here from the heaven or thesea--for they had little winglets and arrowsand the rest of their attire wasin harmony with their beautiful countenances, as with burning torchesthey lit the path of their lady as for a marriage feast.And then there was a new inrush of young and fair unwed maidens-here the most welcome Graces, there the most comely Horae, who paidhomage to their Goddess by scattering flowers, both loose and garlanded;moving in a dance of most expert design, they blandished the Goddess ofLust with the petals of Spring. Already the melodious flutes soundedluxurious Lydian harmonies, melting the hearts of the audience with their

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    24 E. H. GOMBRICHsweetness-but far sweeter still, Venus began placidly to move with ahesitating, slow step, gently swaying her body, slightly inclining her head,and with delicate gesturesrespondedto the voluptuous sound of the flutes;now with a tender drooping of the eye-lids, now with fiery glances, shesometimes seemed to dance only with her eyes.As soon as she had made her appearance before the judge she seemedto indicate by the movement of her arms, that she promised to give Parisa spouse of outstanding beauty like herself if he would put her above theother Goddesses . . ."It is, above all, the central group of the 'Primavera'which shows a strikingcorrespondence to the appearance of Venus in Apuleius' dumbshow.

    "Venus . . . in ipso meditullio scaenae . . . dulce surridens . . . hincGratiae gratissimae, indeHorae pulcherrimae, quae jaculis floris serti etsoluti deam suam propitiantesscitissimumconstruxerantchorum, dominaevoluptatum veris coma blandientes."If the painter's advisers used this description for their programme, theyfound in it the idea of Venus standing in the centre with the Graces on oneside (hinc)and the Horae on the other (inde). Their actions were distributedaccordingly. The Graces were made to display themselves in their most expertdance, while the Horae on the other side would scatter the petals of Spring.True, Apuleius speaks of many Horae and many Cupids while Botticelli'spicture has only one of each. Such a reduction is somewhat puzzling sincethe Horae are social beings, but curiously enough Botticelli submitted them

    to exactly the same treatment in the 'Birth of Venus'. There, too, Poliziano'stext speaks of three Horae receiving the Goddess and Botticelli reduced themto one.1 One may ascribe this freedom to 'pictorial licence,'2 but there mayalso be a more clearly formulated theoretical reason behind it. In his treatiseon painting, Alberti had inveighed against the crowded picturesof his period,the gay throngs of Gentile da Fabriano and other followers of the inter-national style. He laid down the law that with certain exceptions a goodstoriashould not have more than nine or ten figures. With the humanist'speculiar logic, he quotes as evidence an anecdote about Varro, who preferredto dine in small company and would never invite more than nine guests.3Filarete in his Sforzindas even more rigid and says: "A story will not bearmore than nine figures, rather should it have fewer."4 The 'Primavera' con-forms exactly to this rule-it has nine figures or 'rather fewer' if we countCupid as not much of a person. It was this single representative of the Horae"dominae voluptatum veris coma blandientes"which suggestedto Vasari thatthe whole picture represented "Venus decked with flowers . . . , signifying

    1 Warburg, op. cit., I, p. Io.2 Paride da Cesarea'sprogrammefor Peru-gino contains the characteristic passage: "Ifthere are too many figures you can reducethe number as long as the chief ones .remain." Cf. Julia Cartwright, op. cit., I,P-.332.

    3Alberti, ed. cit., pp. 118 and 240.4Filarete, ed. cit., p. 650. Varro's 'rule' isapplied in a different context in Ficino'sCommentary on the Symposium, where thenumber of guests correspondsto those of theMuses, ed. cit., p. 1321.

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    9

    a-Botticelli, The Primavera, Uffizi, Florence (p. 8ff)

    b-The Court of Venus, Tournai Tapestry,Mus6e des Arts Decoratifs, Paris (p. 19)

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    10

    a-Baldovinetti, The Annunciation, b-Venus, Detail from The PrimaveraDetail, Uffizi (p. 41) (pp. 25, 41)

    c-Filippo Lippi, Salome, Cathedral, Prato d-Ghirlandajo, Salome, S. Maria Novella,(p. 25) Florence (p. 25)This content downloaded from 143.107.252.123 on Mon, 16 Sep 2013 11:28:03 AM

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    BOTTICELLI'SMYTHOLOGIES 25Spring"; not an unnatural inference if we think of the close connection ofthe Goddess with the season of love.1It is not only the general arrangement of this central group which tallieswith Apuleius' description. The picture and attitude of Venus herself, whichhas caused so much speculation, also fits surprisingly well.

    "Venus placide commoveri cunctantique lente vestigio . . . et sensimannutante capite coepit incedere, mollique tibiarum sono delicatisresponderegestibus ..."Was it not the inclination of the head, prescribed in the passage, whichled so many observersto find in her a pensive or melancholy look? And wasit not the gesture 'responding' to music which Venturi interpretedas "beatingtime to the dance of the Graces" while more fanciful observers read into ita nolime tangere?Whether the gesture is actually that of dancing or of Venus'promise before the judge, remains undecided-it may easily be both at thesame time. Venus' whole demeanour suits the idea of dancing "with a slowhalting step" very well (P1. Iob). We need only place her between FilippoLippi's and Ghirlandajo's 'Salome' (P1. Ioc, d)-making allowance for thewickedness of Herodias' daughter-and Botticelli's Venus seems to say:"voyez comme on danse."Modern editions of Apuleius make Venus move "Leniter fluctuantespinula," "slowly swaying her spine." This would fit the picture quite well,but the reading is relatively recent. The editioprincepsof 1469 has thecryptic words "leviter fluctuantes pinnulas" a version which Boiardo trans-lated "battando le ale di varie penne dipinte." Beroaldus, in his edition of1501, tried to improve the text by suggesting"leviterper fluctuantespinnulas,"commenting: "Venus inter pinnatos cupidines, quorum pinnulae leviterfluctuabant, coepit incedere" (Venus began to step forward among thewinged cupids whose winglets floated lightly). A similar emendation of thecorrupt passage may account for the fact that Amor is in fact floating in theair over Venus in Botticelli's picture. His attire correspondswith the descrip-tion of the Cupids.

    "illos teretes et lacteos puellos diceres tu Cupidines veros de coelo velmari commodum involasse; nam et pinnulis et sagittulis et habitu cetero1This was indeed the form in which"Spring" was represented in the processionof the four seasons:

    "Tutta coperta d'erbe, fronde e fioriVedete primaveraSpargere al fresco vento mille odori..."(CantiCarnascialeschi,d.cit., p. 153). See alsothe series of the four seasons formerly in theEarl of Rosebery's collection (Lionello Ven-turi, op. cit., p. I2). I cannot see more thansuch a conventional figure in the descriptionof the personificationof May which H. Stern

    (L'Amourde l'Art, 1946, IV) found in aByzantine novel of the twelfth century andconsidered the source of the 'Primavera.'There the month of May is described as acharming young nobleman with long flowinghair, a wreath on his head, a rose in hislocks, scattering flowers. Unlike Botticelli'sfigure he wears a golden robe (covered withflowers), and golden sandals. The author'sattempt to link the other protagonists of thepicture with the months of spring throughthe Fastesof Ovid is certainly interesting buthardly convincing.

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    26 E. H. GOMBRICHformaepraeclarecongruebant, et velut nuptiales epulas obiturae dominaecoruscis praelucebant facibus."In Botticelli'spicture the single Cupid combines in fact all these attributes.He is winged with bow and arrowbut his arrowis barbed with fire, is a torch.This is in itself a rare iconographic trait which Apuleius' text would help toexplain.1There remain the terminal figures to the right and the left of the centralgroup. Was the author of the programme also drawing on Apuleius' descrip-tion when he advised Botticelli on their inclusion? It is a puzzling questionbecause, though the actual correspondencebreaksdown, there are a numberof points in which the text and these figures coincide. Warburg quoted anumber of descriptionsto show the correspondenceof the typical scene of thepursuit of the nymph, which he interpreted as Flora following Zephyr, withclassical models, notably Ovid's often imitated description of Apollo andDaphne. It is strange that none of these passages provides quite as close aparallel to the picture as does a paragraph in Apuleius' text.

    "Super has introcessit alia . . . nudo et intecto corpore perfectamformositatem professa, nisi quod tenui pallio bombycino inumbrabatspectabilem pubem: quam quidem laciniam curiosulus ventus satisamanter nunc lasciviens reflabat, ut dimota pateret flos aetatulae, nuncluxurians aspirabat, ut adhaerens pressule membrorum voluptatemgraphice deliniaret."The figure of the beautiful maiden covered only by a thin silken veilwith which a wind plays pryingly is not a commonplace motif. The group inthe 'Primavera' suits the description line by line. The way in which theflimsy veil adheres to the form of the limbs and reveals the whole form ofthe maiden far exceeds in its literal execution the usual formula of wind-blown garments recommended by Alberti.2But here we are up against a formidable difficulty. In Apuleius thisdescription applies to the figure of Venus and if the painter's adviser em-bodied it in his programme as it stands, his text must have included twoVenuses, one rushing on to the scene and one beginning to dance. We haveno explanation to offer for this strange procedure, only a number of con-

    jectures which will hardly convince everyone.One possibility is that theauthorsof the programmewere thinking of the doctrine of the "two Venuses."In itself such an application to pictorial art would not be isolated in thequattrocento.We know that Mantegna's sketches for the 'Realm of Comus'provided for "two Venuses, one draped, one nude."3 But this solution wouldimply that the authors of the programme completely disregarded the contextof Apuleius' description and used it exclusively for visual material. Thereclearly was only one Venus at the Judgment of Paris. If, on the other hand,

    1For the iconography of Amor, see F.Wickhoff, "Die Gestalt Amor's im Mittel-alter," Jahrbuch erPreussischenunstsammlun-gen, XI, 1890, and E. Panofsky, Studies.2Ed. cit., p. 129.3 Panofsky, Studies, p. 153; R. Foerster, op.cit., p. 177-

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    BOTTICELLI'SMYTHOLOGIES 27the authorsof the programme till aimed at somethingapproximatingo thescene described n the classicalauthor,they might have deliberatelyappliedthe descriptionof Venus and the wind, so temptingto a painter,to anotherfigurewhich would fit better into the generalcontext. In other wordstheymight have added Zephyr and Flora to the train of Venus and adaptedApuleius'description o this pair.There is yet anotherpossibleway of accounting or the differencebetweenApuleius'text, as we know it, and Botticelli'spicture. The authorsof theprogrammemay have used a differentversion. Apuleius'style is nowhereconspicuous or its clarity. We saw how Boiardo,in his translation,madeVenus "beat the wings with variouspainted feathers" because he was workingfrom a corrupt passage. What a problem any painter would have set us hadhe illustrated a similar emendation! We can hardly exclude the possibilitythat a similar crux in the text which the humanists had before them wouldexplain our problem. We have not got such a text, but even the printedversion of the editioprincepss sufficiently puzzling in its punctuation:

    "Super has introcessit alia visendo decore praepollens gratia colorisambrosei designans venerem: qualis fuit venus: cum fuit virgo: nudo etintecto corpore .. ."If we can trust the testimony of the picture, Botticelli's adviser may haveread "qualis fuit Venus. Tum fuit virgo .. ." Or else he made an emendationsimilar to that suggested by Beroaldus concerning the passage with Venus'wings. He read, for instance, "Qualis fuit Venus. Cum ea fuit virgo." Shewas Venus. "With her (or then) came a maiden whose naked and uncovered

    body ..." A similar explanation may account for the flowerscoming out ofthe maiden's mouth. To us it is sufficientlyclear what Apuleius means whenhe speaks of the wanton wind who lasciviously blew the garment aside sothat the flower of her youth ("flos aetatulae") was revealed to the sight. Butthe spelling and punctuation of the first edition was again less clear:"quam quidem laciniam curiosulus ventus satis amanter: nunclascivians reflabat: ut dimota: pateret flos etatule. ... ."0Some such confused version may well have led to a literal interpretationof the "flower" which appeared under the breath of the wanton wind. Itwould certainly not be the only time that a strange emendation of a classical

    text determined the featuresof a great work of art. If this one was adopted-which had much to commend it as against Apuleius' real meaning-the trendof thought might have led, even more naturally, to the identification of theMaiden pursued by the loving wind with Zephyr and Flora.There remains the figure of Mercuryand here there are more divergenciesthan similarities. Mercury occurs in Apuleius, not as a follower of Venus,but in his traditional r61e at the Judgement of Paris. (Nor does his appear-ance tally with the description.) Despite a general resemblance the differencesare marked. Mercury in Apuleius is:1 That the passage was in fact unintelligiblein this form is proved by the I488 Vicenza reprint

    which has: ". . pateret flos & atule .."

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    28 E. H. GOMBRICH"luculentuspuer nudus, nisi quod ephebica chlamida sinistrum tegebathumerum, flavis crinibususquaque conspicuus, et inter comas eius aureaepinnulae cognatione simili sociatae prominebant, quem caduceus etvirgula Mercurium indicabant."

    The hair of Botticelli's Mercury is dark, not fair; he wears the chlamysover the right shoulder, not the left; his strange golden helmet differs fromthe wings described in the text and he carries a sword, not a rod. Andyet even for this figure, the text offers a possible explanation of a perplexingtrait which has so far defied interpretation. Mercury's gesture has beeninterpreted in almost as many different ways as that of Venus. Some madehim look for orangesor singing birds, others thought he was scatteringclouds,about whose existence the iconographic meteorologists were not quite inagreement. According to Supino, he raises the caduceus to announce thecoming of Venus; Count Plunkett says he points heavenwards; while Weis-bach thinks he waves his hand to Mars to draw attention to the presenceof Venus. If we compare him with other figures in Botticelli's work, notablywith Truth in the 'Calumny of Apelles' (P1. I Ia, b), whose place in the generalcomposition is somewhat similar, Count Plunkett's reading gains much inlikelihood. Both his and Weisbach'sinterpretationof the gesture as a pointingor waving upwards, would fit well with Apuleius' text which describes himindicating by a sign that Jupiter sent him ("quod mandaret Jupiter nutusignificans"), a gesture in which he would have to point heavenwards.That there are serious difficulties in the way of linking Apuleius' text withthe hypothetical programme for Botticelli's picture cannot be denied. Aboveall, the emendation and interpretation of a text to make it fit the picturewhich it is supposed to explain, is open to seriousobjectionson the grounds ofmethod. But we are faced with the alternative of dismissing all the corres-pondences we have discussed as chance coincidences or admitting a connec-tion. Apart from the intrinsic difficulty of imagining that such a series ofsimilaritiescan be fortuitous, there are two reasons which speak against sucha theory and in favour of some connection between picture and text. Oneconcerns the form of Apuleius' description, the other its context.In contrast to other classical texts which have been quoted in connectionwith the 'Primavera'the passagein Apuleius is not a passingreferenceto Venusand her train but a detailed description of unusual visual concretenessof herappearance in a dumbshow. The lines from Lucretius (V, 737), for instance,which have been quoted as a source for the picture sinceJ. A. Symonds drewattention to them1 look near enough to the picture, in isolation:

    "On come spring and Venus and Venus' winged harbinger marchingbefore with Zephyr and mother Flora a pace behind him, strewing thewhole path for them with brilliant colours and filling it with scent."It is not so much the absence of the Graces and Mercury which speaksagainst Symonds' theory. It is rather the fact that these lines are embedded

    1J. A. Symonds, Renaissancen Italy, TheFineArts, London, 1901o,p. 182. There is noevidence that the lines were inspired bypageantry. See Warburg, op. cit., I, p. 321.

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    BOTTICELLI'SMYTHOLOGIES 29in the long philosophical disquisitions of Lucretius' poem, to be exact in apassage in which the poet enlarges on the consolihg thought of the transienceof all things, including the universe. Various theories concerning the phasesof the moon are discussed, some hold her to be a ball, lit on one side andblack on the other, the revolutions explaining the phases. Some wouldsuppose that an entirely new heavenly body of different shape is createdevery night and Lucretius thinks that such a phenomenon would not be with-out parallels in nature. The seasons, for instance, are likewise created anewevery year in a fixed order-and it is here that the processionof spring,summer,autumn and winter with their attendant phenomena are mentioned, afterwhich the poet plunges into an argument on the causes of the eclipse. Amongall the Renaissance paintings whose sources are known, one will look in vainfor such a fleeting reference to have formed the principal theme of a picture.Is it likely that one of the very first independent mythological paintings sincethe decline of antiquityshouldhave been an illustration of this type of passage?'Apuleius' text, on the other hand, has many features in common with the typeof source which mostly inspired Renaissance artistsor their humanist mentors-the classicalekphrasis. t is to these descriptionsof pictures,real or imaginary,that the Renaissance turned in its search for new themes.2 Alberti had madea beginning in his advice to painters to reconstruct the Calumny and thepicture of the Graces. Botticelli himself was to follow this advice concerningthe Calumny into which he even inserted the reconstruction of anotherclassical picture described by Lucian-the family of Centaurs. His 'Birth ofVenus' is based on a Renaissance ekphrasis, losely modelled on classicalexamples. Titian's greatest mythologies are based on similar sources (Philo-stratus and Catullus),3 Raphael's 'Galatea,' belongs to that category, notto speak of minor works by Sodoma or others. Apuleius' text is not anekphrasis ut from the artist's point of view it shares its advantages-it givesa description, at least as detailed as that of the ancient orators, of the dis-position, appearance and gestures of the figures, which not only permitsvisualization but positively asks to be reconstructedin paint.It must not be forgotten that even before the descriptionsof Lucian andPhilostratus had become known, artists and their advisers used to turn tosuch concrete descriptions of the Gods, their attributes and their attendants,whenever it was a question of introducing them into pictures. Up to thetime of Botticelli the so-called Albericus, with its concise description of theclassic deities and their attendants, had supplied this need. Albericus'description of Venus has often been quoted:4

    1 do not wish to deny the possibility ofthe authors of the programme having knownthe passage. Perhaps they even contrived towork these and other lines into their textwithout using them as their main source. Forthis humanist technique of composite quota-tion see below, p. 56.2The relevant material was collected byR. Foerster in Jahrbuch der PreussischenKunst-sammlungen,VIII (1887), XXV (0904), andXLIII (1922).

    *,,... verbis adeo propriis et accomodatis,ut non scribere sed pingere plane historiamvideatur," says the preface to the editioprinceps.4H. Liebeschiitz, Fulgentius Metaforalis,Berlin, 1926, Studien derBibliothek Warburg,4;E. Panofsky and F. Saxl, "Classical Myth-ology in Mediaeval Art," MetropolitanMuseumStudies, IV, I933. E. Rathbone, "MasterAlberic of London," Mediaeval and RenaissanceStudies, I, I943. 3

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    30 E. H. GOMBRICH"Venus was painted as a very fair maiden, naked and swimming inthe sea, holding a shell in her right hand and accompanied by doveswhich fluttered around her. Vulcan, the God of fire, coarse and horrid,her husband, stood by her side. In front of her stood three small nakedmaidens, called the Graces, two of whom turned their faces towardsus while the third was seen from behind; her son Cupid, winged andblindfolded, also stood by her side, shooting with bow and arrow atApollo, after which, fearing the wrath of the Gods, he fled into the lapof his mother who gave him her left hand."'

    Ficino and his friends may well have rejected these potted versions of themediaeval mythographer but their need of finding some equally concretesubstitute was none the less great. The quest for an 'authentic' descriptionwas not merely a question of aestheticpropriety or learned pedantry. ToFicino no less than to Albericus it was an established fact that the attributesand appearance of the Gods revealed their real essence. It was as importantto establishthe authentic image of a god or a planet as to find its 'true name.'In both was hidden, for those who could read the esote