DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31769#0080
Minerva’s gown decorated
with diamond rings
Above: Diamond set into
Minerva’s halberd
that is touched on in the previously cited letter written
by Marsilio Ficino to Lorenzo the Magnificent, in
which the Medici’s “resident” humanist talks of painted
beauty as an encouragement to virtue and love and, in
doing so, describes the ideal effect of painting. Beyond
the intended didacticism of the images, however, yet
another desired result may have motivated the display-
ing of these two mythological paintings. La Primavera
hung in a bed chamber above the bride’s bed and there
— if one views this as Botticelli’s contemporaries would
have done — it would have had a direct influence on the
bride’s fertility. In On Building, Leon Battista Alberti,
whose tract On Painting we have already cited, describes
the potentially stimulating decoration of private rooms
and bed chambers: “Wherever man and wife come to-
gether, it is advisable only to hang portraits of [persons]
of dignity and handsome appearance, for they say that
this may have a great influence on the fertility of the
mother and the appearance of future offspring.” 61
79
with diamond rings
Above: Diamond set into
Minerva’s halberd
that is touched on in the previously cited letter written
by Marsilio Ficino to Lorenzo the Magnificent, in
which the Medici’s “resident” humanist talks of painted
beauty as an encouragement to virtue and love and, in
doing so, describes the ideal effect of painting. Beyond
the intended didacticism of the images, however, yet
another desired result may have motivated the display-
ing of these two mythological paintings. La Primavera
hung in a bed chamber above the bride’s bed and there
— if one views this as Botticelli’s contemporaries would
have done — it would have had a direct influence on the
bride’s fertility. In On Building, Leon Battista Alberti,
whose tract On Painting we have already cited, describes
the potentially stimulating decoration of private rooms
and bed chambers: “Wherever man and wife come to-
gether, it is advisable only to hang portraits of [persons]
of dignity and handsome appearance, for they say that
this may have a great influence on the fertility of the
mother and the appearance of future offspring.” 61
79