Primavera
Sandro Botticelli (c. 1480 (1477–1482))
Primavera stages a mythic procession of <strong>Spring</strong> in an orange and laurel grove: <strong>Venus</strong> presides beneath a myrtle canopy as <strong>Cupid</strong> looses an arrow, <strong>Mercury</strong> clears the last clouds, the <strong>Three Graces</strong> dance, and <strong>Zephyrus</strong> pursues <strong>Chloris</strong>, who blossoms into <strong>Flora</strong>. The carpet of more than a hundred identifiable flowers and the Medici-laden orchard declare <strong>fertility, peace, and ordered prosperity</strong> under Venus’s benign rule <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.
