Venus and Mars, Sandro Botticelli
Sandro Botticelli·Venus and Mars·c. 1485·Tempera and oil on poplar·National Gallery, London↓

Sandro Botticelli Italian, c. 1445 – 1510

Venus and Mars, c. 1485

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Venus, fully dressed and wide awake, watches Mars sprawl in exhausted sleep while infant satyrs play with his lance and helmet. The long format suggests it was set into panelling or furniture in a bedroom, probably to celebrate a marriage. Its learned joke, love disarming war, draws on Lucian's description of a lost ancient painting.

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Wasps buzz around Mars's head from a nest in the tree, perhaps a pun on the Vespucci family, whose name means 'little wasps'. A satyr blows a conch in his ear.

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Compared by a vision model

Shares its spirit