DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31769#0032
Botticelli painting. Venus, the goddess of love, is not
portrayed nude, and Mars, the incarnation of desire, is
shown gently slumbering — yet the satyrs, as the em-
bodiment of sensuality, are distinctly active: one is
waking Mars up, another is smiling invitingly at the
goddess of love, a third is wantonly showing his tongue
between his half-opened lips. The subjugation of un-
controlled desires may be the main message of the pic-
ture — and the most important — but it is only one as-
pect of the work, for Botticelli does not completely sup-
press the eroticism of the scene. After all, it is difficult
to portray the subjugation of desire without, at the
same time, portraying desire itself
Not least due to the ambiguity of mythological
images, there were those who criticized this kind of
painting even during Botticelli’s own lifetime. The most
ardent critic was the preacher Girolamo Savonarola,
who was active in Florence at the time and extremely
critical of what he saw as corruption in the Church and
the lack of morals of his contemporaries. When it came
to the practice of decorating wedding chests with stories
from classical mythology, he raised the following objec-
tion: “And the houses of our leading families — what
shall I say to these? No merchant’s daughter weds
without putting her dowry for safe-keeping into a chest
that is not decorated with heathen tales. So the newly-
wedded Christian maiden learns sooner of the deceit of
Mars and the wiles of Vulcan than of the lives of the
saintly women in both Testaments.” 20
Savonarola in fact exerted such great influence on
the people of Florence that during the carnival of
1497 they publicly burned symbols of worldly desire
and vanity — including many pictures with profane
themes, fortunately Botticelli’s Mars andVenus and others
3°
portrayed nude, and Mars, the incarnation of desire, is
shown gently slumbering — yet the satyrs, as the em-
bodiment of sensuality, are distinctly active: one is
waking Mars up, another is smiling invitingly at the
goddess of love, a third is wantonly showing his tongue
between his half-opened lips. The subjugation of un-
controlled desires may be the main message of the pic-
ture — and the most important — but it is only one as-
pect of the work, for Botticelli does not completely sup-
press the eroticism of the scene. After all, it is difficult
to portray the subjugation of desire without, at the
same time, portraying desire itself
Not least due to the ambiguity of mythological
images, there were those who criticized this kind of
painting even during Botticelli’s own lifetime. The most
ardent critic was the preacher Girolamo Savonarola,
who was active in Florence at the time and extremely
critical of what he saw as corruption in the Church and
the lack of morals of his contemporaries. When it came
to the practice of decorating wedding chests with stories
from classical mythology, he raised the following objec-
tion: “And the houses of our leading families — what
shall I say to these? No merchant’s daughter weds
without putting her dowry for safe-keeping into a chest
that is not decorated with heathen tales. So the newly-
wedded Christian maiden learns sooner of the deceit of
Mars and the wiles of Vulcan than of the lives of the
saintly women in both Testaments.” 20
Savonarola in fact exerted such great influence on
the people of Florence that during the carnival of
1497 they publicly burned symbols of worldly desire
and vanity — including many pictures with profane
themes, fortunately Botticelli’s Mars andVenus and others
3°