Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus is one of the great masterpieces of the Renaissance, a painting that has become synonymous with it. However, it is far from being the serene picture it is often taken to be. In today’s lecture, Prof. Emanuele Lugli (Stanford University) will go through some of the risks that Botticelli had to take to paint his masterpiece. In doing so, he will also discuss antiquarian culture, the relationship of painting and poetry, and love and eroticism in Renaissance Florence.
Free Admission | Registration required
Emanuele Lugli is Assistant Professor of Art History at Stanford University. A specialist in Italian art, from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, he has written four books, the last of which is Knots, or the Violence of Desire in Renaissance Florence (Chicago University Press, 2023).