Ashmolean Museum Oxford
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This A4 size portrait print features a detail of the Goddess Venus, known as Aphrodite in Greek mythology, painted by iconic Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510). Printed on smooth paper.
Supplied unframed, this print comes with a backing board and is sealed in a clear cellophane pocket. Fits perfectly into one of our A4 wooden frames.
Created exclusively for the upcoming Ashmolean special exhibition Aphrodite: The Making of a Goddess on display at the Ashmolean between 8 October 2026 to 11 April 2027.
The original artwork that this A4 print is based on is housed in Berlin, and concentrates exclusively on the body of the goddess. Almost life-size and isolated like a statue, she stands in classic 'contrapposto' (a figure standing with weight on one foot) on a narrow ledge of grey stone. The hard shadow at her feet makes her presence seem tangible, almost real.
Unlike in the iconic multi-figure painting housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the birth of Venus is not the theme here. Whilst the original Birth of Venus presents the goddess of love, born of the sea foam, being driven to the coast of Cyprus by personifications of the winds on a great shell; only to be veiled immediately, here she stands directly and alone in front of the viewer - stripped of her history.
Sandro Botticelli was an Italian painter who was one of the greatest painters of the Florentine Renaissance. His Birth of Venus and La Primavera are often said to epitomize for modern viewers the spirit of the Renaissance. The son of a tanner, he was born Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, but he was given the nickname 'Botticelli', derived from the word 'botticello' meaning 'small wine cask'.
Credit: Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510), Venus (detail), c.1490. Oil on canvas. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, 1124. Photo: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie / Jörg P. Anders; Public Domain.
Exclusive to the Ashmolean Museum.
Materials:
Dimensions: A4
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