My “More to Love”cover girl, a goddess floating on a heart-shaped seashell , while roses drift about in the wind, is an homage to the amazing painting
The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli
She was one of my very first illustrations, before I decided she would be on the cover, and I’ve written about her in this blog on other occasions.
Women didn’t really look like Venus (Goddess of Love) when she was painted in 1462.
Images were very rare, and the painting was understood in the context of mythology and symbolism.
Renaissance ladies who failed to have such glorious hair and swanlike necks knew she was an imaginary ideal, and probably did not compare themselves to her when they looked in the mirror (mirrors were also quite rare!)
Today, however, after a nearly a century of non-stop images that show tall, thin and elongated as the only way to be beautiful,
the artistic symbolism has been lost. . .
A lifetime of looking at images of skinny goddess-like beauties have helped create the “I’m so fat” monologue that runs through many women’s minds, all day, every day. . .
So I created another Goddess, one who more accurately reflects the majority of women, not quite so tall, with softer, rounded curves.
And, Goddess or not, I think most modern women feel more comfortable wearing something more than hair, not matter how long & flowing it is!
Want to know more?
Art history lesson about Botticelli’s Birth of Venus from artknowledgenews
