TheMusei Reali in Turino within the collections of the Galleria Sabauda,one of the Venus attributed to Sandro Botticelli.
Not considering the most famous Venus in the Uffizi Museum in Florence, it is in fact believed that only three others were born from the hand of Botticelli or his workshop: the Berlin Venus, one in a private collection in Geneva and, indeed, the Turin Venus .
Sandro Botticelli
Sandro Botticelli was born in Florence in 1445.
He carried out his apprenticeship in the workshop of Filippo Lippi from 1464 to 1467. Probably he also frequented the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, whose artistic influence in his paintings is undeniable.
Venus in Turin
According to historical sources that have come down to us, the Venus that is in Turin today was bought by an English reverend in the mid-nineteenth century and then sold to a baron.
Considered lost for a long time, it was found by the latter’s heirs and finally arrived in the hands of the Biellese collector Riccardo Gualino; it has been in the Savoy Galleries since 1930. It is no coincidence that today it is known precisely as the Venus of Turin.
The painting is inextricably linked to the same “Birth of Venus” which immediately met with incredible success: already at the time, the client requested the creation of other images with this female figure as the subject.
Botticelli in the Venus of Turin, which can be considered as a real preparatory drawing of the work in Florence, chooses to exclusively portray the figure of the woman standing on a black background.
These are monumental nudes, which can be counted among the first paintings without sacred subjects of post-classical Europe and which find their model in masterpieces such as the Venus de’ Medici, or Venere pudica, where the Goddess covers her breast and pubis.
