Hello everyone, I hope this is the appropriate sub for this question. In one of my classes (Seminar on Lucretius) we were talking about the influence of Lucretius on Botticelli's depictions of Venus. We were looking at a super high resolution photo of Birth of Venus and my professor found what looks like a miniature version of Venus on the flower next to her. I have been trying to find out what this is but can't seem to find anything about it.
Pictures below:
First, I used the Google Cultural Institute for Reference
Here is the full painting, for those unfamiliar
Here is the flower with the figure on it that I am referencing
Here is the figure at maximum zoom
Thanks for any insight that anyone might have about this piece.
I'm not convinced that that's a human figure. Zooming at that level is introducing a lot of abstraction. It could just be a structure of the flower that happens to look vaguely human at that magnification.
Vasari, in his Lives, says that this painting was done for the Medici, so it is possible that this is some sort of oblique reference to one of that family. Personally, I doubt it is much of anything. One of the big problems with looking at works of art digitally is that you can obsess over tiny details that, when seen in person, really don't amount to much. The Birth of Venus is pretty big (172.5 cm × 278.9 cm or about 5.5 feet by 9 feet), but that's still a really tiny detail. If I was anywhere near Florence I would be happy to go to the Uffizi and take a look, but alas, I am not.
I'd be interested to hear from Botticelli/Renaissance scholars, but I think this is probably inconsequential.
