Venus and Mars Postcard

Artist Sandro Botticelli Year c. 1483 Type Tempera on panel Dimensions 69 cm × 173 cm (27 in × 68 in) Location National Gallery, London Venus and Mars is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli, dating from c. 1483. One possible source for the image is the Stanze of Poliziano. Stanze 122 describes how the hero found Venus "seated on the edge of her couch, just then released from the embrace of Mars, who lay on his back in her lap, still feeding his eyes on her face". Poliziano was in one of the humanist scholars in the court of Lorenzo de' Medici, and his stanze are a famous poem alluding to the prowess of Lorenzo's younger brother Giuliano di Piero de' Medici in the jousting tournament Lorenzo had organised to celebrate a treatise with Venice. Giuliano di Piero de' Medici is most likely the athletic model for the war god who slumbers next to the goddess in this work. However, the description, with Mars in Venus' lap, gazing up at her, is a poor fit to the painting. In 2010, the plant held by the satyr in the bottom right corner of the painting was hypothetically identified as Datura stramonium by historian David Bellingham. This plant, often referred to as "poor man's acid", has properties likened to a mixture of opium and alcohol. Because datura may cause swooning and drowsiness as its effects wear off, Mars's repose may be further proof of the Botticelli's intent. Above text can be found at wikipedia.