[Кирилл Сызранский]

painting by Sandro Botticelli's "Venus and Mars.
The size of the painting 69 x 173,5 cm, wood, tempera. The composition has an elongated horizontal shape like the painted covers for a wedding chest - Cassone, or panel, which was inserted into the furniture, in which case it could be a bed of newlyweds, as picture was done for the wedding of someone from a family of Vespucci. The program works composed humanist, she relied on astrological interpretation of myths, characteristic of the Neoplatonists, where the planets were in a moralizing aspect: a tender and affectionate Venus dominates the aggressive Mars, softening his ferocity. Being designed for the marriage, the artist's painting served as a kind of Frivolous compliment the young wife of a clan Vespucci.
In the compositional scheme of "Venus and Mars" by Sandro Botticelli used a bas-relief from the same ancient sarcophagus, which served as a model for the head of a centaur in the movie "Pallas Athena and the Centaur". The artist translated it into the language of painting with the rhythm of the linear circuits, surprisingly graceful in their repetitions and overlaps. The color in the painting by Sandro Botticelli different elegant restraint. The central scene, which is based on a balance of rest and tension, surrounded by frolicking young satyr. Pacific accompaniment she heard the muffled tones in the transfer of Nature. The painting can be seen, and allegory (Venus Humanitas): Venus (humanistic thought) is beneficial to their strife and unbridled element, taming the rough nature (Mars). In addition, in accordance with the humanistic views, from the union of Venus and Mars - the love and struggle - born Harmony.

As they say: women are from Venus, men from Mars.
A common theme. In Veronese is he, in Poussin, Guercino, David ...
And in the painting by Piero di Cosimo Mars too fell asleep.
Venus and Mars. 1498. London, National Gallery.