The Birth of Venus c. late 1770s

Gaetano Gandolfi rendered this Birth of Venus in sanguine chalk sometime in the 18th century. The goddess stands upon a giant scallop shell, an ancient symbol of pilgrimage and rebirth, alluding to Venus’s own emergence from the sea. Consider how Botticelli, in his famed Renaissance painting, also placed Venus on a shell, propelled to shore. These artists harken back to the classical myth, intertwining it with the Renaissance revival of classical ideals. Yet, the image of a goddess born from the sea resonates even further back, echoing ancient Near Eastern goddesses of fertility and the sea. Observe the emotionality Gandolfi infuses. His Venus is not merely born but embraced, loved, and reborn in the collective psyche, a shared, recurrent dream. This symbol is not linear; it spirals. The sea births Venus, and Venus, in turn, regenerates the sea, our emotional connection to nature, time, and the eternal recurrence of beauty.