A Psychological Journey Through Botticelli's Venus | Perspective

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The ravishing goddess emerging from the sea turns out to be far more than the Renaissance's most famous sex symbol.
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[@StephiSensei26]

"...sure, all us guys want to jump into that picture with her, and study some Latin!" 10 points Waldemar! You're a very naughty boy, and hilarious to boot! Brilliant!

[@m.i.miller8008]

These videos are totally awesome... I took art history in University and it certainly wasn't anything like this... Wj has made me a new inspired student.. can't get enough of these...

[@raystaar]

Waldemar Januszczak must surely be an admirer of Alfred Hitchcock's droll TV personality. His closing remarks, especially this one, echo the master director so perfectly.

[@michaelburgess9707]

A historian who quotes "Venus" by Bananarama is alright in my book. Thank you for this posting, he along with Mary Beard are the best in the business.

[@luiscuixara4622]

Shocking Blue. 1969. But I'm in general agreement with the gist of your post. Cheers!

[@homoerectus744]

@@luiscuixara4622 my original point of reference,likewise

[@cathryncampbell8555]

I LOVE Waldemar Januszczak's alternative title for "The Birth of Venus" -- which is announced at the end of this delightful video. God bless Waldemar Januszczak, BBC, Perspective and KZbin for giving us this rich gift.

[@cannimh]

I cracked up so hard when he said I'm your Venus

[@michelledahl146]

"Birth" could also mean "to make port" if you use nautical terminology; and Italy was built around its ports and seaward trade. I would argue the name is perfect, shes making her landing from the sea. Great series, a perfect combo of humor, hard facts, interesting coincidences, and introspection into the works.

[@Paleos1000]

Nice pun, but I think the title comes from nascita which does indeed mean birth.

[@kckazcoll1]

Good point, but "make port" would be spelled "berth" I think 🤔

[@robertgiles9124]

Overthinking it a little....

[@SofaKingShit]

Frothy testicles is the kind of thing that might make me laugh out loud on a a train for no apparent reason if my mind should wander across the fond memory of my binge watching of this guy.

[@steveculbert4039]

Frosty testicles.

[@Kaytecando]

You out did yourself with this one Waldy! I love all your art history videos but this one makes me want to pack my bags now and fly to Florence immediately. Also, I am loving your groovy shirt.

[@janemorrow6672]

Yes! Spring flowers 🙂🌼🌺🌸

[@docnelson2008]

Entertaining and informative, Waldemar is a breath of fresh air, delivering his vast knowledge with the air of a real enthusiast; Great stuff!

[@kerry7932]

The unrecognized master in all these documentaries is Mr. Januszczak, demonstrating how art history should be taught. All the information is there, context, influences, stylistic movements, technique, impact. But unlike classes and textbooks on art history, here it is fascinating and enticing. What is the secret?

[@ginacrusco234]

I would say that the difference is propounding a hypothesis and driving it home until you are convinced. Or find good reason not to be.

[@AxelGizmo]

Never thought of this picture that way. It‘s true: you have to try and see with fresh eyes, the eyes of the contemporaries. Not too hard with such an empathetic guide. And once I saw it, it‘s a revelation, and I can‘t unsee it.

[@riverwildcat1]

Great work. Highly entertaining and engaging, not to mention informative and funny!

[@teresahoffman1871]

@@amberquinney9901 ]

[@astrogoodvibes6164]

''Sure...us guys want to jump into the picture with her and learn some latin''...if my high school art teacher had put it that way, I wouldn't have been left with such a feeling of enigma about this delicate orchard of the Renaissance. Now I understand why my juvenile stirrings were so obvious.

[@steveculbert4039]

Your hotel remark drew laughter here.

[@guillemiami]

Great video dude! Love your cunning, neerdness, intelligence and entertaining skills. Thanks very much!

[@clauded3220]

Merci Monsieur Waldemar ! 💚👏👏👏

[@Lieve_Saillart]

Wonderful presentations, thank You so much for your great narrative talent and for showing us these wonderful Artpeaces!

[@melanieohara6941]

Wow, yet another Art History Treat, highlighting my all-time favorite painter. Thanks, again!🌹

[@kckazcoll1]

"..thus Venus was the nautical fruit of Uranus' frothing testicles". This guy really knows how to turn a phrase LOL :D

[@bruceweigle7597]

what an orchid is to a T-bone steak..... Brilliant!!!

[@leahhamdaoui7755]

BRAVO !! Brilliant commentary and historic research and such a delight to see the works of art in all their glory and detail !!! Thank you.

[@doreekaplan2589]

He says, 'she tamed him'....................How? Well, what do you think?" Haha intelligence with a great sense of humor. I could be drawn into and learn any subject from someone like this

[@ML-rz2hb]

Well written. Clever stuff.

[@melanietoth1376]

Theres some sort of echo of Botticelli's Venus in Modigliani's female figures and portraits. The shape of the shoulders and the tilt of the head...probably more but it just dawned on me.

[@eleni1968]

YUP. You got it right.

[@frenchartantiquesparis424]

Yes, I think you are right.... Modigliana went a few steps more and painted with more elongated figures with some Cubist features.

[@kckazcoll1]

yes! And the long necks

[@daya820]

Great video, very informative and complete. Thanks

[@esotericexplorersmartinez493]

3:00 omg that garden 🪴 💚 how I wish I diddnt live in the desert so I could have a green garden like that!

[@TheThinker39]

Thanks for this wonderfully informative and entertaining presentation!

[@mojohn825]

This bloke is brilliant. He really cracks me up. How he can talk about Uranus’s testicles without laughing beats me.

[@Harry-ce2kg]

Her foot stands as though performing ballet. And very delicate as a whole.

[@TheSaint7770]

Love the reference to a song from 'Banarama'! ... quite funny too.

[@znentitan4032]

Art and scooters...... Perfect!

[@roniquebreauxjordan1302]

It's such a neat pose in which to be painted....🎨

[@dkcorderoyximenez3382]

Brilliant...

[@patriciagleve4784]

I love the little knee bend Waldemar gives at the end, at his final mention of Uranus' testicles😄

[@stephanebelizaire3627]

BRAVO !

[@vasts1479]

19:41 As Waldelmar mentioned, the greek name of the Goddess was Aphrodite which means "she, who emerged from the sea foam" as the myth describes. Later the Romans changed the name to Venus.

[@roniquebreauxjordan1302]

The perfect pose💧🎨

[@chipwalter4490]

18:35 "..once the cat is out of the bag.." uh-oh my mind fell in the gutter with this phraseology.

[@steveculbert4039]

The beer commercial featured in this video shot a coarseness through it.

[@patrickfitzgerald2861]

Well that was fun! From now on I'm calling this "The Embarkation of Venus on Cyprus," even if no one else will know what the hell I'm talking about! 😉 CORRECTION: "The DISembarkation of Venus on Cyprus." 🤣

[@eleni1968]

It's awkward but who cares!??! It works for me ...not just because I'm Greek [hahaha]

[@holyworrier]

Make that "disembarkation". The end of the journey.

[@charlesfenwick6554]

Venus is arriving on Cyprus; not leaving.

[@DonnaSnyder]

Thanks for this. Although that Medici summer house didn't look dark and gloomy to me.

[@marcoscastillojaen1888]

Botticelli, un pintor entre los pintores.

[@perezoso9206]

America is a continent, not a country. Amerigo Vespucci was the first explorer aware that the new lands discovered by Columbus were not islands but a whole continent, a Novus Mundus. In 1507, the German cartographer Waldseemueller, the first in making a map of the new continent, give the name "America" to the Novus Mundus in Vespucci's honour.

[@melanietoth1376]

My parents would joke that it should be Vespuccia because most places are named from a sur name. Lol. My dad made up a song for Vespuccia, lol.

[@hazelwray5307]

'America' has proven to be convenient for song writers. USA or US doesn't work so well.

[@paulatorelly]

Thank you

[@sweetiedahling8137]

What about describing someone/something from the USA as being ‘American’ (for example done by prominent US politicians and agencies). Would that be incorrect according to you as well? From what I understand it all depends on context on whether America/ American are appropriate to use. Language is not static and evolves over time. Words change meaning or become antiquated. There are regional and cultural differences. Not taking any of that into account and just saying X=wrong seems simplistic to me. (But I do admit, this host doesn’t exactly seem to be very respectful of the places he visits based on the couple of videos I’ve seen.)

[@theblether8765]

The Americas are a continent, modern usagevallows America as being the abbreviation for the United States of Ameruca, which is a country, not a continent.

[@ts3784]

superbia any explanation why there is no blue color in the water and sky

[@cherylnagy126]

these works of art must be protected from defacement 😮

[@Paleos1000]

Was Hermes Lorenzo or Pierfrancesco? I can't see the famously busted nose. Is that lovely Grace who seems rather interested in the young man, Semiramide Appiano, his intended? Food for thought. Great upload - love this series of docos. Many thanks.

[@cherylnagy126]

Shocking Blue

[@opinionday0079]

She has such a beautiful face,

[@markscott554]

She invented surfing but dislocated her shoulder in the process.

[@luiscuixara4622]

*{} {}* \/

[@annahope7003]

Arrival of Venus would be a good title. Right?

[@magusisrafael]

Actually it would be a great title, especially considering the other connotation of the expression. "Arrival" being an old colloquial term for sexual climax; where we get our modern derivative of "coming" (arriving to the point of climax), it adds another view of the implication of the "birth" not being physical (or in this case, from testicles and sea foam) but the figurative transition of the seasonal "birth" into womanhood. So yes, actually a very good title.

[@akschmidt2085]

"No frothing. No castration. No testicles" Now that's the kind of quality criticism I come here for😜😜😜

[@huwhitecavebeast1972]

"Frothing testicles" is not a turn of phrase you hear oftem.

[@ganmerlad]

It seems like it should just be called "The Arrival of Venus". Did it originally have a title or did it just gain one along the way?

[@heyou1]

“The three women are dancing joyesly!” The three women: 😐

[@thomasvieth6063]

"She Hangs On The Western Wall" is the title of of one of the chapters of Thomas Pynchon's magnificent novel "V." in which he describes the hilarious (failed) theft of the painting from the Uffizi. Recommendable!!

[@thomasvieth6063]

The end is really good, as it come much closer to Aphrodite ("froth given") who is a much more fearsome goddess than harmless Venus, goddess of allotments

[@ginacrusco234]

I was tempted to respond: "OK, so it's not the precise moment of the *birth* of Venus, but neither is the cutting off of Uranus's testicles". But I do see what a difference this makes, and how revelatory it is to see that the painting is about transformation: when Venus sets foot on the dry land of Cyprus, grass springs up and flowers bloom at her feet. PS: "The goddess of allotments" -- hilarious!

[@theresbob8878]

Does everyone miss that the figure representing spring appears to be pregnant?

[@melanietoth1376]

Shes not. Bellies were just considered attractive at the time. The Venus in the painting could seem pregnant as well.

[@sanniepstein4835]

@@melanietoth1376 It was normal for women to be frequently pregnant before birth control, or to have sprung bellies from many pregnancies.

[@SandyRiverBlue]

There's no way he could know the story of the birth of Venus and not know that it would result in arousal. Bourne of a Titan's sperm falling into the ocean along with his severed testicles. She is both fully formed, being a god, and innocent, being new to the world.

[@user-rn7ms6wy5j]

💞

[@eleni1968]

Actually Venus began as Aphrodite, in Greek Myth born in the waters off the coast of Cyprus!!

[@barbaraburnsbrunelle8695]

Her face reminds me of Sairose Ronan

[@hazelwray5307]

Uma Thurman: Dangerous Liaisons/Baron Munchausen

[@simonestreeter1518]

I saw a Cate Blanchett in the other painting...

[@MickAngelhere]

Venus Being born of testicles a very interesting title indeed 👍

[@themysteriousdomainmoviepalace]

I didn't know Botticelli painted a portrait of John Travolta!

[@FranciscoSantos-ss3uq]

♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠♠♠🌟❄é muitas belezas sobre as proprias belezas das artes ocidentais.❄🌟♠♠♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠♠♠♠

[@Sacred-Heart-of-Jesus829]

Cool beans.....

[@FranciscoSantos-ss3uq]

♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠❄🌟👍é artes com tenporaneas de muitas belezas completas.👍🌟❄♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠♠♠

[@cicicox5995]

that was so funny

[@frankrault3190]

Seems you missed an important detail. Just look what the woman at (our) right side of Venus is holding in her right hand. (22:05 minutes) Exactly, now you know what I mean!

[@judygreenwood4696]

Cypress where Aphrodite was born has 3 or 4 stones rising from the sea. I was told if I swam around the biggest stone, I would lose 10 years on my face. If I came on a full moon, naked, and swim around it, I would live forever. Since I came to Cypress on my 75 birthday, I declined: " Not in this body!" Oh, well, maybe in my next life.

[@FranciscoSantos-ss3uq]

♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠♠maravilhas do universos comtemporaneos.♠♠♠♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠♠♠

[@hazelwray5307]

Frangible: "highly strung and frangible" - breakable (fragile).

[@evilsimeon]

In Greek myth, Aphrodite emerges from the white froth and came ashore on a shell.

[@Danny_Boel]

You have really awesome videos on your channel but I hate that loud intro... it's like a spaceship powering up

[@brittanyszabo6643]

Based on what he’s saying at the end about the events that led to her birth and how the painting isn’t showing that, I wonder if it’s a berth for Venus and not her actual birth.

[@desssval]

Loved Waldemar’s Impressionists series but here he seems out of his depth. Early Renaissance art is much more complex that this fertility theme. It is deeply philosophical and still very Christian in a strange way. You need to have Plato and a lot more ancient and Florentine poetry and philosophy with you when you walk through the halls of the Uffizi.

[@paigetomkinson1137]

This is about the Renaissance, generally, but it's specifically about portrayals of Venus in the works from the Renaissance. Says it right in the title. And all of the works are stunningly beautiful in their own way.

[@FranciscoSantos-ss3uq]

♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠♠♠👍🌟É ARTE exzenplar máravilhosas.🌟👍♠♠♠♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠♠♠♠

[@freedomforever6718]

Venus is the birth of spring.

[@FranciscoSantos-ss3uq]

♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠♠♠❄🌟sensacional Gostei!🌟❄♠♠♠♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠🔷♠♠♠

[@armandovillasenor8496]

I completely disagree with Sarah Dunant's commentary, perception of the anatomy and posture of Botticelli's Venus. I have studied this painting over many years and there is nothing wrong with her anatomy or pose. Venus is after all the ideal model of perfect feminine beauty and poise and Botticelli's depiction of her is flawless. I think Dunant's criticism is completely is stupid, ridiculous and trite! Dunant should have her vision and aesthetic perception checked! This work of Art is perfection at its highest

[@nlbhaduri]

And Venus/Aphrodite does not have deformed feet, as Sarah suggests. They are actually quite luscious and tender…having never touched hard land until this moment.

[@kurilladesign]

very funny clever

[@anthonycalia1317]

Why is it we spend so much time deriving great philosophical narrative from art? Far more, likely, than the artist himself intended. I prefer to admire and discuss the beauty of Botticelli's work, the gossamer delicacy of his subjects, and purity of his vision. Why do we insist on there being such profound and deep meaning to that which is simply beautiful?

[@rvllctt871]

Flowers are beautiful but so is the knowledge that they are creations of evolutionary processes. Both can be appreciated.

[@formercanadiancitizen4756]

Ha Ha, great ending, your too funny

[@MSpeedThree]

Hey Ms. Dunant, it’s a painting, sorry it’s not PERFECT.

[@colinwhitfield8627]

Anyone else getting a rapey vibe from the west wind / chloris interaction? I mean.... Europa, all the Sabine women, This.... Any videos on classical mythology and, classical, renaissance, and neoclassical painting and sculpture subjects in the #metoo era?

[@simonestreeter1518]

Super rapey. If you read Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' you'll lose count of all the women who are raped, as if it were a natural part of courtship.

[@Ilregard]

The host explicitly tells the viewer that the story is about rape. Its not ambiguous.

[@jamesfrance9715]

Great apart from the awful presentation! Can’t JW tone it down a bit. It sounds like he’s talking about some Third Division Football match and it puts you off listening about the painting!

[@sanniepstein4835]

Botticelli, Bosch, Gruenwald, Vermeer, and Van Gogh are the artists that have reached modern viewers without assistance from art critics and professors.

[@paigetomkinson1137]

Just those five? How did you come up with your theory, and those particular artists? It's very interesting. I think Degas and Monet would be included. I think people probably recognize and like Toulouse Lautrec's work, even if they don't know who painted it. A lot of people seem to really like Picasso, or at least some of his paintings and ceramics. Most people seem to know who Jackson Pollock is, and have some affinity for his work. So many more, too, but I must go watch more Waldemar.

[@sanniepstein4835]

@@paigetomkinson1137 The people who responded to art with simplicity wanted unabashed beauty and imagination. Why those 5? Intensity perhaps. Degas and Monet have appealed to an even wider audience, yes.

[@paigetomkinson1137]

@@sanniepstein4835 That's quite interesting! Thank you for explaining.

[@ferociousgumby]

ANEMONE, not "anenome".

[@ferociousgumby]

No "enemy" in it.

[@monicasmalley3336]

What?! So I've been getting that wrong my whole life. Thanks for the correction :)

[@ferociousgumby]

@@monicasmalley3336 Don't feel bad. I knew a university professor who always said "ANOMONOUS" for "anonymous".

[@ferociousgumby]

And Waldemar says it as if he can't get his tongue around "anemone".

[@thedukeofswellington1827]

I know its hip to say but there was nothing delicate or modest about Diana

[@filizilhan6495]

Yüzüne X var!!! Kusurları GÜZELLİĞİ VE ZERAFETİYLE İÇ İÇE!! DURUŞUNDA KABA KUSURLARINI GİZLEYEN SIR VAR!!!

[@bookmouse2719]

humor

[@desydee1785]

Aphrodite ???

[@grokeffer6226]

Funny.

[@ignacioalcantara513]

"Gave name to a country you might have heard off"... come on, is this supposed to be a documentary of some level? Amerigo Vespucci gave name to the continent called America, there's is no country called America, there is one oddly called the "United States of America" meaning of the American continent and obviously the at that point that country of far from existing...how to rely on any other thing the say after this?

[@ergbudster3333]

Cartoonist again. Bott used line like a cartoonist. Noticed that a long time ago. Maybe one of the reasons his Venus is so popular today: we understand cartoons, one of the languages of ordinary folk.

[@annahope7003]

Are you a painter? Cartoon? You mean contour drawing. There were two schools of thoughts at that early time. Michaelangelo used lines and painted inside of them: filled the forms by color. Titian painted the lines, which irritated Michaelangelo. After a visit to his studio, Michelangelo declared the Venitians as incapable of doing decent drawing. The noticeable contour lines preceded the technique of softening the lines done by Titian.

[@hazelwray5307]

@@annahope7003 line vs colour. Form, reason vs Color, subjectivity.

[@dsharpness]

Yes...see bits about his illustrations of Dante-not just a cartoonist, but an animated cartoonist...another time traveller...😊