Who painted 'The Birth of Venus'?

Who painted 'The Birth of Venus'? Sandro Botticelli painted 'The Birth of Venus', probably in the mid-1480s. The large work shows the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after emerging from the sea, standing on a shell.

Botticelli was a Florentine painter of the Early Renaissance, and the picture is now one of his defining works. It hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence alongside another celebrated mythological painting, 'Primavera'. Both works reflect the Renaissance fascination with classical mythology, ancient literature, and ideas associated with Neoplatonism.

The scene draws on the ancient image of Venus Anadyomene, or Venus rising from the sea. Zephyrus, the wind god, and his companion blow Venus toward land, while one of the Horae prepares to cover her with a flowered cloak. Scholars have proposed different interpretations of the painting’s symbolism and original commission; its early history is not fully documented.

A frequent mistake is to confuse Botticelli’s painting with later works called 'The Birth of Venus', including William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s 1879 version. The Renaissance painting is the one associated with Botticelli, the Uffizi, and the famous shell-borne Venus.