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On the Original Location of the Primavera

1975; College Art Association; Volume: 57; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00043079.1975.10787117

1559-6478

Webster Smith,

Renaissance and Early Modern Studies

For a long time it has been assumed that Botticelli painted the Primavera (Fig. 1) for the Villa Medici at Castello. Vasari saw the picture there toward the middle of the sixteenth century. Castello had been a Medici property since 1477. It is thought, on the basis of stylistic evidence, that the Primavera dates from about then.1 Moreover, both of the attractive interpretations of the Primavera that have been suggested by E. H. Gombrich and Charles Dempsey would support this prevailing assumption that Botticelli did indeed paint the picture for that place. Dempsey notes the seeming appropriateness of the farmhouse setting of Castello for the Primavera, which he connects with the spring months and the spring deities as they are designated on the ancient Roman farmer's calendar.2 Gombrich points out the apparent similarity in spirit between Venus as represented by Botticelli in the Primavera and Venus-humanitas as characterized by Marsilio Ficino in a letter he wrote to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici in 1477 or 1478.3 It was this Lorenzo who bought the Villa Castello for himself at about the same time.4