Description
Venus and Mars is a painting by Sandro Botticelli from about 1485: in a grove on the left lies Venus, awake, in a white dress edged with gold; on the right Mars sleeps soundly, almost naked, while four little satyrs play with his lance, helmet and armour. The original, tempera and oil on poplar panel measuring 69.2 x 173.4 cm, belongs to the National Gallery in London. Our painter hand-paints it for you in oil on canvas, in 6 landscape sizes from 60 x 25 to 180 x 75 cm or made to measure. Before it travels, we send you a photograph of the finished painting.
| Title: | Venus and Mars |
| Other titles: | Venere e Marte (Italian title) · Mars and Venus |
| Painter: | Sandro Botticelli (c. 1445–1510) |
| Year painted: | c. 1485 |
| Original size: | 69.2 cm x 173.4 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Tempera and oil on poplar panel |
| Painting style: | Early Renaissance |
| Located at: | National Gallery, London, United Kingdom |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted in oil on canvas, 6 sizes or made to measure |
Venus and Mars – Sandro Botticelli
What does Venus and Mars show?
The scene runs like a frieze along a long, low wooden panel. On the left Venus, goddess of love, leans against a red cushion in a white, almost transparent dress with gold borders and a brooch at her breast.
On the right lies Mars, god of war, propped against the armour he has taken off. Apart from a white cloth over his hips he is naked; his head has fallen back and his mouth hangs half open: he is fast asleep.
Around him play four little satyrs with small horns and shaggy goat legs. Two carry off his heavy lance and his helmet, which one of them has pulled right over his head; the third blows a conch shell into his ear without waking him, and the fourth laughs out of the breastplate at the lower right. At the upper right, wasps buzz around a hollow trunk.
What does the scene of love and war mean?
Most scholars think the panel was commissioned for a wedding. In this reading Venus disarms Mars: love conquers war, or at least outlasts it, a commonplace of Renaissance thought that could also be read in terms of Florentine Neoplatonism.
Mars is plainly sleeping after love, a male habit that was a favourite target of jokes at Renaissance weddings.
There are two explanations for the wasps. They may say that love often comes with pain. Ernst Gombrich proposed another: that they allude to the Vespucci family, who may have commissioned the work. Their name means “little wasps” in Italian, wasps featured in their coat of arms, and the nest is painted exactly where a patron’s arms were often placed. The Vespucci had been Botticelli’s neighbours since his childhood.
Why is Venus and Mars so famous?
It is one of Botticelli’s great mythologies of the 1480s, his most successful decade. It probably came a few years after Primavera and around the time of The Birth of Venus, and it is the only one of them not in the Uffizi in Florence.
The idea comes from antiquity. The Greek writer Lucian described a famous lost painting by Echion of the wedding of Alexander the Great and Roxana, in which little cupids play with Alexander’s armour: two carry his lance, and one has crawled into his breastplate. Botticelli moved the motif onto Mars and Venus. He returned to Lucian in the Calumny of Apelles.
The art historian Ronald Lightbown called Mars “Botticelli’s most perfect male nude”. For more on the readings, see the Wikipedia article on the painting, written in English.
Where is the original today?
The panel hangs in the National Gallery in London, accession number NG915. The gallery acquired it in 1874 at the Christie’s auction of the collector Alexander Barker, who had bought it in Florence. It is the only recorded sale on the open market of one of Botticelli’s large mythologies.
Its long format suggests it was set into wall panelling as a spalliera or into furniture such as a bench back or a bed, decorating the bedroom of a newly married couple.
Botticelli, born Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi in Florence around 1445, was a tanner’s son and a pupil of Filippo Lippi. He spent almost his whole life in the same Florentine neighbourhood of Ognissanti and died in 1510.
Venus and Mars or another Botticelli?
Venus and Mars is a canvas painting for anyone who likes mythology with a smile: the goddess keeps watch, the god of war sleeps, and the little satyrs steal his weapons.
If love and marriage are what draw you to Botticelli, look also at the fresco Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman, now in the Louvre. Quieter and more inward is the Portrait of a Young Woman, a girl in strict profile by a window.
The Sandro Botticelli page gathers all our famous Botticelli paintings, each painted to order.
How do we hand-paint Venus and Mars?
Botticelli’s original is not on canvas at all: it is painted in tempera and oil on a poplar panel, 69.2 cm high and 173.4 cm wide. Ours is a Sandro Botticelli reproduction painted by hand in oil on canvas, so we can send it rolled, stretched on a stretcher bar or framed.
The painter first divides the long surface: Venus on the left, Mars on the right, the horizontal of the lance and the satyrs between them, dark green trees and a pale sky behind. Then the colours are built up layer by layer.
The fabrics get special care. Venus’s dress is white but full of grey and bluish shadows, and the gold borders run in soft curves over the folds.
Which size suits which wall?
In short: the smaller sizes above a chest of drawers or a desk, the middle ones above a bed, the largest above a sofa or a long bench.
We paint Venus and Mars in 6 landscape sizes (width x height): 60 x 25, 100 x 40, 120 x 50, 140 x 55, 160 x 65 and 180 x 75 cm. The original measures 173.4 x 69.2 cm (width x height). Every size up to 160 x 65 cm is therefore smaller, 160 x 65 cm only just. Our largest, 180 x 75 cm, is slightly larger than the panel in London.
The proportions are very long, about two and a half to one, so the painting fills the width of a wall rather than its height. 60 x 25 and 100 x 40 cm fit above a chest of drawers, a radiator or in a narrow hallway; 120 x 50 and 140 x 55 cm sit above a double bed. As a painting for the living room, above a three-seater sofa, it is strongest at 160 x 65 or 180 x 75 cm.
Can I have another size or a frame?
Yes. If you need other proportions, Venus, Mars and the satyrs stay whole and we adjust only the grove and the meadow at the edges, so an altered oil painting reproduction still tells the whole story. Send us your custom size and we will quote a price and a date.
We send the painting rolled in a tube, stretched on a stretcher bar or framed. Our workshop in Slovenia stretches and frames it for you. You choose the frame in our 3D app, which is for choosing the moulding only; seeing the painting on your own wall is a separate service.
When will the painting arrive?
The painting is ready for dispatch 15 to 45 working days after you confirm the order. When it is done we send you a photograph of your finished painting, and if you would like anything changed, we change it before dispatch.
Within Slovenia and the EU there are no customs duties, and every purchase is covered by our returns policy.
Venus and Mars makes a fine wedding or anniversary present, since it was most probably painted for a wedding. If you are unsure which size suits the couple’s wall, give them a wall art voucher and let them choose.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I see the original?
In the National Gallery in London, under accession number NG915.
What are the little satyrs around Mars doing?
Playing with his weapons: they carry his lance and helmet, one hides in his breastplate, the fourth blows into his ear.
Is it a print?
No. You receive a hand-painted copy in oil on canvas, brushed stroke by stroke by our painter.
How big is the original?
69.2 x 173.4 cm (height x width); our 180 x 75 cm size is a little larger, 160 x 65 cm a little smaller.
Can you paint a size outside these six?
Yes. Tell us the width and height you have in mind, and we reply with a price and a delivery date.
How long do painting and delivery take?
15 to 45 working days until dispatch; before that you receive a photograph of the finished painting.
Is it suitable for a bedroom?
Yes. It was probably painted for a married couple’s bedroom, and the long format looks right above a bed.
Why are there wasps in the painting?
Perhaps as a sign that love brings pain, or as an allusion to the Vespucci family, whose name means “little wasps”.
- Subject: Venus awake and Mars asleep in a grove, with four little satyrs playing with his weapons.
- Original: tempera and oil on poplar panel, c. 1485, 69.2 x 173.4 cm, National Gallery, London.
- Ours: hand-painted in oil on canvas, 6 sizes from 60 x 25 to 180 x 75 cm, or made to measure.
- Worth knowing: the long format suggests the panel was set into panelling or furniture, probably for a wedding.
