Sandro Botticelli
La Primavera

Nine graceful, elegant, and lithe figures aligned in a garden bordered by a citrus grove, on whose grassy carpet appear more than a hundred different flowering plants. In the background, a sky blue without depth with a light that has no precise source and an absence of shadows, as if time had stopped at an ideal and eternal moment in a perfect place where everything is harmonious. The characters, the female ones wrapped in transparent drapes, have round and prominent bellies and seem to be caught in the languor of a moment of distraction and melancholy, a sadness probably dictated by the awareness of the fragility of beauty and of existence itself.

Alessandro Botticelli painted this masterpiece of Renaissance painting around 1478 for Lorenzo de' Medici (a relative of the Magnificent), perhaps on the occasion of the patron's wedding, starting from a scrupulous observation of nature and exalting its manifestations through a careful choice and a happy combination of colors. The title of the work is due to Vasari, who names it "Allegory of Spring," identifying the central female figure as Venus.

The use of allegory and many literary and philosophical references have fueled numerous interpretations of the composition with often very varied and imaginative readings. The most accredited one seems, however, to be the one that links the work to Neoplatonic theories and the philosophical discussions of the Neoplatonic Academy of Florence and the alchemist Marsilio Ficino. The allegory would indeed describe that process of transformation supported by alchemists, of the physical impulse into creative awareness.

Starting from the right, in fact, we find two trees inclined by the force and impetus of the wind Zephyr in the act of possessing the half-naked nymph Chloris, a symbol of the barren land that, once fertilized, transforms into Flora. In the act of yielding to Zephyr, the nymph's gaze is sensual, and the emotions aroused by desire are symbolized by the thread of flowers that exits her mouth, while the wind is positioned behind her, almost as if trying to cool her temptations. Chloris represents the man who acts impulsively, satisfying his needs and desires without reflection. For Renaissance alchemy, Chloris' soul should not be inhibited but helped to control its impulses through reflection that induces a pause between impulse and the satisfaction of carnal desire, that is, the passage from sensation to sentiment. And it is precisely from this containment that spring emerges, namely Flora, who distributes the flowers to the wind, a symbol of creative awareness.

At the center of the panel, in a recessed position in a sort of natural alcove created by vegetation, is represented Venus Humanitas, an earthly Venus different from that of the "Birth of Venus" who, with a chaste and dignified attitude, represents the rational soul for which the transformation of moral feelings into values is spontaneous. The Goddess indicates the three Graces towards which Cupid, hovering blindfolded over Venus' head, shoots one of his arrows to represent the desire to conquer beauty, chastity, and pleasure.

For the alchemists, the alchemical soul (Chloris, Flora, Venus) is only a transition phase towards the mind, Hermes, that is, Mercury, which is an evolution of the metamorphoses of female figures. Mercury is the last represented figure, characterized by winged sandals and the caduceus which he uses to dispel clouds, that is, the smoke of desires and illusions.

The final message would, therefore, seem that the containment of carnal impulses and the transformation of sexual instinct into sentiment and then into creativity leads to the superiority of the spirit.

As Pasolini said that "Pre-consumer society needed strong men, and therefore chaste. Consumer society, on the other hand, needs weak men, and therefore lustful. The myth of the enclosed and separate woman (whose obligation to chastity implied the chastity of the man) has been replaced by the myth of the woman as a part and close, always available" and then...