10 June

Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus is the first full-length nude in Western art. But even more interesting showing the birth of the Renaissance, following 1000 years of The Dark Ages. The Renaissance in turn was mostly triggered by the invention of printing, including works from classical Greece, which was Botticelli’s inspiration and a dominant theme of the Renaissance. People often look back, to look forward. The Romans loved the Greeks too, all those columns and other styles of ancient Roman living were Greek. It was the collapse of the Roman Empire in turn which caused The Dark Ages, and the Holy Roman Empie which oversaw the Renaissance. So many intersecting things here.