Botticelli’s Primavera depicts Venus, the Greek goddess of love, in the center. Venus is also associated with fertility, sex, beauty, and motherhood. She is in an orange grove near her son, Cupid; Mercury, the god of May; and the three Graces, women who represent feminine virtues of chastity, beauty, and love. Cupid is targeting the Graces, suggesting that marriage is associated with the virtues they represent. We can also see we can see Zephyrus, god of the west wind, about to take a nymph named Chloris. Chloris is said to have married Zephyrus and transformed into the spring goddess Flora. By depicting this narrativ,e Botticelli celebrates the concepts of marriage and fertility.

Botticelli also highlights Venus’s beauty by making her the focal point of the painting and idealizing her looks. Like most Renaissance art, her figure is inspired by classical statues. The term Renaissance means “rebirth” because it was a period of revival of ancient Greek and Roman (classical) culture. A key part of the Renaissance was the spread of humanism, a school of thought that emphasized the importance of human reason and consciousness and celebrated classical thought. Humanists celebrated human individually, including both physical beauty and wisdom. The powerful Medici family were patrons of the arts and were responsible for commissioning art, like Botticelli’s, that celebrated humanist ideals.