Botticelli's Birth Of Venus And Duccio's Maesta
The representation of women in Western art has changed throughout history, and for much of Western history this representation was oriented around the dominant female figure in contemporary society; that is, Mary, mother of Jesus. However, the gradual shift away from a dominantly monotheistic cultural hegemony seen in the Renaissance and eventually the Enlightenment brought with it new (and the case of this study, old) means of representing women beyond the confinements and discourse of the Madonna and Child. By comparing and contrasting Duccio di Buoninsegna's Virgin and Child Enthroned Amidst Angels and Saints (which is the main altarpiece of the artist's Maesta) with Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, one is able to see how the changing cultural standards which came about during the shift from the conservative, Eastern-influenced Late Gothic art of Duccio to the freer, more naturalistic art of Botticelli's Renaissance resulted in radical changes regarding the representation of women in art.
Before examining the paintings in greater detail, it will be useful to briefly consider the historical contexts of either work, as a means of informing the eventual analysis of the somewhat oppositional meanings regarding women created and reinforced by either work. Maesta was created as an altarpiece for the cathedral of Siena, Italy after being commissioned by the city circa 1308, and the particular portion under discussion here, Virgin and Child Enthroned Amidst Angels and Saints, serves as the front panels of the altarpiece (Goffen 207). Duccio's painting embodies many of the attributes of Late Gothic painting, especially of the Sienese school, not only because of its broader narratorial content but due to the details of its representation of the Madonna, including "Persian textile motifs" on the cloth as well as additional "Chinese and Persian design elements" (Prazniak 183). Furthermore, its representation of the figures is far more naturalistic than earlier works in roughly the same period and style, demonstrating the painting's transitional nature as human society moves away from the religious dogmas of the first millennia towards a more comfortable position regarding the human form. This historical context and resultant stylistics features stand in stark contrast to those of Botticelli's Birth of Venus, and examining the background of the latter painting will provide the cultural perspective necessary to successfully interpret the similarities and differences between the two paintings.
Botticelli's Birth of Venus was created nearly a century and a half after Duccio's Maesta, and it demonstrates the cultural and artistic changes which occurred over the intervening years. Finished around 1486, Birth of Venus demonstrates the simultaneous rise of humanism and return to classical ideals during the early Renaissance in Italy. Botticelli embodies "the new humanist style of art introduced in the early Renaissance" through his humanizing representation of classical myths and figures, so that the robust, flowing bodies of Birth of Venus practically move when compared to the conservative, almost wooden posture of Duccio's figures (von Rohr Scaff 109). This change in style is the result of the broader cultural changes occurring in Florence, and eventually Europe, during the Renaissance, including a larger focus on humanism and the decreased possibility of an art world dominated by a singular religiosity due to the schism of the Catholic Church. In order to truly understand how these historical contexts resulted in the stylistic differences evident between Duccio and Botticelli, one may now move on to a close analysis of both works, with an eye to how an increased focused on humanism and concurrent (relatively) decreasing influence of Christianity resulted in the differing representations of mythical women seen in Maesta and The Birth of Venus.
Having discussed the historical context of either work, it will now be possible to address the specific content and form of both works as well as the notable similarities and differences between the two. Maesta is a tempera and wood painting of Mary, cradling the baby Jesus as she is surrounded by numerous saints. Her admirers follow a symmetrical pattern with their heads, with the innermost four of the second row looking away along with the third from the end on either side of the third row, with varying meanings depending on the interpretation one prefers as to the identity of each saint and heavenly representative. For the purposes of this particular study, however, the identities of the surrounding figures are not nearly as important as the details of the central one,...
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