DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31769#0049
of the characters and their roles according to Ovid’s text
and the historical situation at the time of the wedding.
In this sense, perhaps there is also a connection between
Mercury and Lorenzo the Magnificent who had ar-
ranged the wedding. As the guide of the Graces and as
the god who drives away the wmter winds, Mercury
could be identified with Lorenzo the Magnificent who
had, metaphorically, created a propitious climate for the
wedding, just as Mercury is doing when he drives away
the winter winds in the pamting. In fact, Mercury’s
features do display a certain similarity to those of
the subject in Botticelli’s Portrait of a Man witb a Medal
of Cosimo the Elder (see p. 47), which has recently been
identified as a portrait of the youthful Lorenzo the
Magnificent before he had been worn down by life and
fate .3 2 The strongest physiognomic similarities are m
the irregular nose, the high cheekbones, and the already
somewhat sunken cheeks and full lips.
The Iconography of Womanly Virtue and Marriage
Venus is not only the goddess of love and of beauty, but
also the divine protectress of weddings and marriage, ^
so Botticelli surrounds her with myrtle twigs, tradition-
ally associated with weddings and childbirth but also
with sexual desire. ?4 Thus the central figure in Botti-
celli’s La Primavera expresses the notion of sexuality as it
should ideally be found after the wedding and within
the confines of marriage. There are additional nuances
of this theme in other details. For example, the goddess
of love in La Primavera — as before in Botticelli’s Mars
and Venus — is not nude but dressed. As a type, this too
is a chaste Venus, who has less to do with extra-marital
Crescent-moon amulet of Venus
48
and the historical situation at the time of the wedding.
In this sense, perhaps there is also a connection between
Mercury and Lorenzo the Magnificent who had ar-
ranged the wedding. As the guide of the Graces and as
the god who drives away the wmter winds, Mercury
could be identified with Lorenzo the Magnificent who
had, metaphorically, created a propitious climate for the
wedding, just as Mercury is doing when he drives away
the winter winds in the pamting. In fact, Mercury’s
features do display a certain similarity to those of
the subject in Botticelli’s Portrait of a Man witb a Medal
of Cosimo the Elder (see p. 47), which has recently been
identified as a portrait of the youthful Lorenzo the
Magnificent before he had been worn down by life and
fate .3 2 The strongest physiognomic similarities are m
the irregular nose, the high cheekbones, and the already
somewhat sunken cheeks and full lips.
The Iconography of Womanly Virtue and Marriage
Venus is not only the goddess of love and of beauty, but
also the divine protectress of weddings and marriage, ^
so Botticelli surrounds her with myrtle twigs, tradition-
ally associated with weddings and childbirth but also
with sexual desire. ?4 Thus the central figure in Botti-
celli’s La Primavera expresses the notion of sexuality as it
should ideally be found after the wedding and within
the confines of marriage. There are additional nuances
of this theme in other details. For example, the goddess
of love in La Primavera — as before in Botticelli’s Mars
and Venus — is not nude but dressed. As a type, this too
is a chaste Venus, who has less to do with extra-marital
Crescent-moon amulet of Venus
48