Primavera, c. 1480
Sandro Botticelli
Tempera, panel, plaster · 203 x 314 cm
A crowded allegorical garden of gods caught mid-dance.
In Botticelli's allegory of spring, Venus presides over a flowering grove as the Three Graces dance and Flora scatters blooms. Botanists have identified hundreds of species underfoot. Mysterious and lyrical, it is one of the most enchanting paintings ever made.
What you're looking at
The ground is a botanical record. Around five hundred plant species have been identified in it, roughly two hundred of them in flower, and they are the species that bloom around Florence between March and May. It reads right to left, not left to right: the blue figure at the right edge is the wind seizing a nymph, who is then transformed into the flower-scattering figure beside her.
On a Frame TV
About 1.52:1. The clean crop trims top and bottom, which costs some of the orange grove above and some of that flowered ground below — the matted file keeps both. Pale, matt tempera with soft contrast; comfortable in daylight.
Uffizi Gallery · Visit it in Florence →
- 4K master file (3840px+)
- Samsung Frame TV–ready crop
- Phone wallpaper crop
- Printable art card
Public domain · one .zip, no sign-up
More like this
Other works in the collection, starting with Sandro Botticelli.
