Primavera....Sandro Botticelli's incomparable Spring.....the Medici Patronage versus Government and Private Patronage.
I took a trip to Florence, Italy and spent three hours daily in The Uffizi Gallery and stood before this painting for a long time. The lure of this painting continues and each spring i do a speculative homage and new thoughts flit through my mind. The medium used was Tempra on panel which literally means paint made with egg yolk mixed with oil spread on a wooden board called a panel. ‘Tempra grassa’ is a delicate translucent paint favoured by these artists as they knew light could seep out of it and it was indestructible.
Primavera is considered to be one of the most important paintings in the world created by .the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli in 1470 .or early 1780’s
: He was inspired and guided by the poet Polizano and funded by the Medicis. The Medicis were a powerful Banking family as well as a Royal House of Tuscany. They were the greatest patron of Arts in Italy. Very much like The Canada Council in Canada. along with some private Patron of the Arts whose names are not widely publicized. The Medicis were noble aristocrats while the employees and Jury members of the Canada Council are not. This is a fact. Do we have a Primavera in Canada in 2023? This remains to be seen. Although the funding budget of the National Culture Treasury, the Canada Council for the Arts keeps creeping up, the The Medici budget of its time paled in comparison but attention to the needs of an artist were sublime. A new tunic or set of clothes, expenses of a mistress covered, a new horse or mule for transportation and jugs of wine from Medici owned vineyards were diplomatically supplied. Canada Council would have a fit. They supply a cheque and you supply a final report. Hanky panky is not a strong suit in Canada so perhaps this is why we have not produced a painting which the world reveres?. However what we generate annually is bushels of gratitude expressed by starving artists to eke out another year of creation. Polite and well mannered as always. I have been on both ends, as a recipient and a jury member. Little old me and my first non fiction book I remember my Fingers trembled when i pulled out the cheque. I finished the book and it was published and well reviewed.
It is the third week of April and Spring shoots through the earth and gives a vivid cerulean tint to clouds. In Botticelli’s busy painting God’s and mortals herald a season. The central figure of Venus is flanked by Flora covered in tiny spring flowers, cupid hovers overhead aiming an arrow at one of the lush almost naked three Graces. The lush bodies of the Graces in diaphanous robes are a standard of Renaissance beauty . Mercury stands near them and there were rumours that in fact he had the features of a Medici relative. Next to Flora is Chloris the abducted nymph into whose mouth the blue faced Zephyrus blows air and flowers and tiny branches leap out of her mouth. Another aspect of the birth of Spring. This painting was designed to be a wedding gift.
What is an enigma? This painting is one. Academia is filled with contextual Artistic analysis of Primavera. The over riding opinion is that it is a joyous work of beauty executed by the talent of a master painter of his era. There is also a companion painting called ‘The Birth of Venus’ where the face of Venus is similar to the Venus in Primavera. Did the funds run out and the artist used the same model? Is this what is happening to grant funding in Canada as well, one wonders. The quest for that singular work of Art which halts footsteps, catches the breath, results in a political revolution and leaves the viewer in a state of delirium is becoming more difficult to find.
Our societies are modern and seasonal beginnings are seldom the motifs of choice. Yet right in front of our eyes the works of safe mediocrity pull in the Federal, Provincial and private patronage. ‘No Culture No Future” is a book the late head of The Canada Council for the Arts, Simon Brault, wrote valiantly.
It is a well known fact that Artists cannot survive without patronage. An Arts grant may cover a years modest living expenses but the work itself could take 2 or 3 years to complete. This is not part time employment but a full blown life . Most artists live and breathe their calling and then it will be the client who will purchase the work and validate the endeavour. Finally, the mood and both cultural politics of the time will dictate the worth. How do our National Art Galleries and Museums define merit?. In Botticelli’s time it was aesthetics which set the bar for excellence. Beauty was intended to seduce and enthrall the viewer. It was a simple equation. Now we pose questions and even use the tactics of repulsion to gain attention. The Beijing based Chinese contemporary artist Zeng Fanzhi is considered to be the best painter in the world today. He is painting emotions. His work is satirical a metaphor for the misplaced self. If there was patronage in the form of commissions then political psychology will not have the freedom it now enjoys.
When the master muralist Diego Rivera of Mexico was asked to paint a mural at the Rockefeller Centre building in 1932 and the Rockefeller’s who were aware of his leftist politics asked him to change it he refused. The mural was then chiselled off the wall. A wealthy Patron destroyed history according to the painter. Perhaps in some measure this could be compared to painting Indigenous culture through settler colonial eyes. Today a work of this nature would not secure a grant or space for public exhibition. Still a hunt for the simple aesthetics of a ‘Primavera’ untouched by political and only ruled by beauty may well haunt Patrons of Art.?
Michelangelo's Last Judgement and a Damned Soul... LIFE IMITATES ART
https://cwspangle.substack.com/p/michaelangelos-last-judgement-and