Sandro Botticelli's Primavera (1482)

Primavera, 1482
"As she talks, her lips breathe spring roses:
I was Chloris, who am now called Flora." -Ovid

I am looking forward to spring about now. That is the theme of this week's painting by Botticelli.
By now my boys are used to looking for the colors, shapes and rhythms in paintings. This one has lots to note in term of that.
We also talked a lot about the subject of the painting, which departs from the religious themes that we have been seeing for the most part up to now. We talked about how in Florence, during the time this painting was made there was the birth of humanism and, artists, by the encouragement of the supporters of the arts, most notably the Medicis, began looking back to the early days of the Greeks and their myths. 
 And so we looked at the myths surrounding Mercury and the Graces, Chloe and Zephyr, Flora and Venus. 


We love D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths because it is simply written and the illustrations are bright, beautiful and memorable. Perhaps your students would like to pick a myth to illustrate?

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