Zöllner, Frank: Botticelli: Images of Love and Spring (1998)

disappearing into the distance in a series of small bays.
The three orange trees in the grove have golden-veined
leaves and — barely visible — opened blossoms, but no
fruits, unlike the trees in La Primavera. The rich floral
decoration of the Hora is in striking contrast to the

sparse vegetation of the coastline, which even seems to
be made of rock in the bottom right corner of the pic-
ture. The evident barrenness of the shore was a deliber-
ate decision on the part of the painter, for here he is bas-
ing his portrayal of the scene on Hesiod’s Theogony. In
this, Hesiod writes that it is only when Venus steps onto
the land that the flowers bloom and the vegetation
comes to life. Thus Botticelli is not only depicting the
arrival of Venus but also, more specifically, that moment
directly before she stepped onto the shore of Cyprus. 6^
An understanding of the contents of the picture, as in
the case of La Primavera, is dependent on a knowledge
of literary sources which describe a similar situation,

Left: Venus standing in the shell

Gemstone depicting Venus
in a shell

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