The Birth of Venus

Two stereotypes inspired the artist for this modern Venus.

The facial features allude to Renaissance Madonnas (receding hairline, eyes narrowed to slits, small gracious mouth with a fleshy lower lip, not deprived of sensuality), while the generous curvature of the hips refers to the fertility goddesses of the ancient Levant.

A combination which might seem incongruous, conflicting, unappropriate perhaps ... and yet not so illogical. Both cults were met with fervour, verging on the sublime.

Whether you expressed it by performing sexual acts, highly ritualized and codified, or by extolling the virtues of selfnessness and abnegation, the goal was the same: ecstasy. A reunion with the divine.

 

The mass of hair, reduced to a blurr, cascade along the left flank, down to the waist.

Starting with a shallow bend under the rib cage, the stomach curve ascends ever so gently to form a barely perceptible bulge south of the navel, then precipitates towards the venereal depression.

 

Ancient and classic canons prohibited any form of pilosity in the groin, at least for female subjects. Pilosity which is rendered here with fair sobriety.

 

The said canons advocated small, barely pubescent breasts with a marked space in between. The artist slightly parted from the rule by underlining more substantially their contour.

 

The palette knife helps achieve a more contemporary stroke... and the roller extracts the subject from a material environment which otherwise would divert the eye.

 

The female body is depicted here as an absolute.