FloraZephyr1.0003

Sandro Botticelli, 1445-1510, "The Primavera," (Venus in the Garden of the Hesperides, with Graces, Cupid, Mercury, Flora, Chloris, and Zephyr), tempera on panel, ca. 1478, Florence, Uffizi, inv. 8360.

Flora was the Roman goddess of flowers, gardens, spring, and love. Ovid's Fasti 5.183-378 mingled her myth with that of the Greek nymph Chloris who was abducted by Zephyr, the west wind, and transformed into Flora.

In this allegorical picture Botticelli depicts the arrival of Spring: Venus presides, in the background, as the Graces "tread the ground" (Hor. C. 1.4.6) in dance, Mercury tempers the elements with his curiously medieval caduceus, and (right third) Chloris does not escape the approach of the icy Boreas. Metamorphosing into Flora, she scatters flowers along the path Venus will soon tread. Over it all, Cupid blindly shoots his arrows, causing those effects of love that occur in springtime.