I’m not sure if you can tell which area of the 3D painting gets touched the most from this photo, but suffice to say it’s Venus’s naughty bits. Both sighted and visually impaired people were interacting with it while I was there, but no one’s ‘reading’ the ocean, and based on the very clean condition of her figure, the fully clothed angel beside her is getting almost no action either. I guess sighted or not, we all want to feel her luminous skin. It’s not like the two women look very different than each other, see?
Truthfully, all of Boticelli’s figures look alike to me. These two look just like each other and like the three Graces in a nearby painting, Spring.
Here, same deal. For whatever reason these guys made me think of the Bee Gees sitting down for a Mother’s Day pic with their mum. (So yeah, if their mum is Venus AND the Madonna, it’s no wonder they sang like angels).
And they all also look a little like HIM. At least I think so. Except according to texts from the time, he was quite ... rotund. Can you see it? Hard to tell here in this self portrait but maybe he flattered himself with lighting and angles, the way we all do in selfies. But we also know this because Botticelli is not his real name, but a nickname that means ‘little barrel’, and texts mention his ‘unfortunate resemblance’ to the round vessel. (His real name was Alessandro Filipepi.) Can you imagine being a beloved artist for hundreds of years, whose work millions flock to see each year, and everyone still calls you fatso?
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