Venus blog
The two Venus paintings I have selected for comment and comparison are “The Birth of Venus” (BV) by Sandro Botticelli (b. 1445 – d.1510) and the “Venus of Urbino” (VU) painted by Titian (b. 1490 – d. 1576). Both paintings can be found in the Uffizi gallery in Florence where I have been and I have a vivid memory of BV but no memory at all of VU. I imagine a large reason for this was the size of the BV – 172.5cm by 278.9cm, and I think the position within the gallery – I seem to remember being hit with the painting near the beginning of the gallery tour (this is about 30 years ago so my memory is entitled to be hazy). VU is much smaller at 119 by 165 cms. BV is tempura on canvas whereas VU is an oil painting. Both paintings were painted by Italian artists within the period of time known as the Italian Renaissance which peaked during the 15 th...