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The Value of "Priceless" Art...
It's hard to imagine two more iconic works than Botticelli's Primavera and The Birth of Venus. As I wrote in Botticelli's Secret: The Lost Drawings and the Rediscovery of the Renaissance, they have been reproduced everywhere worldwide, from coffee mugs and keychains to bottles of olive oil and pasta sauce – even on Lady Gaga's ribcage! Yet you may not know that, for centuries, these works were actually hidden from view, tucked away in a Medici villa where only the aristocratic few could lay eyes on it. It wasn't until 1815 that the paintings were hung in Florence's Uffizi and shared with the world.
I often wonder what the monetary value of works like these would be...recently, Leonardo's Salvator Mundi, a disputed work far less revered than either of Botticelli's two masterpieces, sold for a jaw-dropping $450 million, the most ever paid for an art work. Can you imagine what Primavera and The Birth of Venus would garner? I'm guessing either could be the world's first "billion dollar" art sale – thankfully, that scenario is improbable, as the works will remain for all of us to enjoy in the Uffizi. But their majesty and renown do make one think about the price that people are willing to pay for some of the most astonishing works ever to issue from human hands. In that spirit, please enjoy the following excerpt from Botticelli's Secret on how works like Botticelli's masterpieces can literally take your breath away, as past visitors have fainted before their otherworldly beauty...
Each year, about four million visitors fill the twin corridors of Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, Vasari’s greatest architectural work and the world’s preeminent collection of Renaissance art. For some, the encounter with sublime painting by the likes of Giotto, Michelangelo, and Leonardo is so overwhelming that it causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, even fainting, as they experience Stendhal’s Syndrome, the debilitating effect of profound beauty first described by the great French novelist (and Florentine tourist) after whom the condition is named. Perhaps nowhere is the aesthetic concentration more disorienting than in galleries 10 to 14, the Botticelli Rooms. The shutters whirl and the selfie sticks fly as viewers gape at Primavera and The Birth of Venus, enormous paintings whose frolicking gods and goddesses are now reproduced on everything from priceless jewelry to cheap key chains and dorm room posters infused with marijuana smoke—even Lady Gaga’s ribcage. The pop icon wore a Dolce and Gabbana dress festooned with The Birth of Venus to promote her single “Venus” in 2013, making her one of many women, real or imagined like the character Odette in Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, to evoke the term “Botticellian.” [excerpt from Botticelli's Secret]
A SMALL FAVOR TO ASK...
If you enjoyed this excerpt and Botticelli's Secret, I would greatly appreciate a brief review on Amazon at this link. The number of reviews a book receives on a daily basis helps me spread the word about the power of great art like Botticelli's – grazie e buona lettura / thank you & happy reading!
Joseph
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