La primavera—can there be a more delightfully pictorial or euphonious word? Derived from two Latin roots: primus meaning “first” and ver meaning “spring” (as a verb “spring” means to well up, leap forth, and to come into existence) and the verb has become a noun that describes the cycle of nature it characterizes. And it sounds as full of life as the season itself.

To celebrate spring’s arrival let’s take a close look at the painting, The Allegory of Spring, by Sandro Botticelli which, like his Birth of Venus, has become a beloved icon of Western art. The work depicts a group of mythological figures in a garden and is an allegory for the fecundity of spring.

Reading the painting from right to left, the biting March wind Zephyrus, depicted as a bluish male creature with aggressively puffed cheeks, kidnaps wood nymph Chloris, the maiden with flowers springing from her mouth. He then “marries” her and transforms her into the deity Flora, represented by the the flower-crowned figure in a delightful floral-patterned frock scattering the flower petals.  The elaborate scenery has been shown by botanists to contain over 500 identified plant species and about 190 different flowers. Clustered on the left, the Three Graces in diaphanous sheaths dance in a circle watched over by Mercury, who holds a staff to usher away the clouds and guard the garden—providing a spiritual balance to nature’s fecundity on the right. Somewhat set apart and above the others, but very much at the heart of all the springtime activity, is Venus (looking a bit like a Blessed Virgin Mary), goddess of love and harmony. Above her is Cupid, her son, and behind him the limbs of the fruiting orange grove form an arch gracefully framing Venus, providing a privileged position to serenely preside over the garden and beckon us to join in the celebration of la primavera.

About 140 years later Antonio Vivaldi, composer, conductor, and virtuoso violinist composed his best-known work—a series of  4 violin concertos titled Le Quattro Stagioni, The Four Seasons.  The first, “La Primavera”, is the most well-recognized and best loved piece of classical music in the world (with the first bars of “Spring” rivaling the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony).

May these early days of la primavera fill you with hope and joy!

For centuries Venice has been a beacon for writers . . . Lord Byron, Robert Barrett Browning, Henry James, Marcel Proust and, later, Ernest Hemingway and Truman Capote, just to name a few.

For 19th and 20th century painters, Venice was a siren that called like no other place on the planet. Perhaps one of the reasons for its irresistible allure is that it is really two cities — one of majesty and solidity above, and an ephemeral one echoed in the shifting waters below. Venice’s shimmering reflections tell you so much about the essence of this city of mirrors and mirages … at once substantial and fluid, with a past that reverberates in its architecture.

The romanticized, mythical Venice may be hard to grasp on a steamy day in midsummer when the city swells with tourists . . . but when the mist and fog, la nebbia, settles in, it is easy to imagine that things can appear and disappear in its labyrinth of canals, or that you could turn the corner and walk into the past.

This slideshow celebrates the sublime beauty of Venice through evocative paintings by the likes of J.M.W.Turner, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Signac, Raoul Dufy, Anders Zoran, Maurice Prendergast, John Singer Sargent, and James McNeil Whistler.

Buon Natale a Tutti! Please enjoy some of my favorite paintings of the Nativity by Italian Renaissance and Baroque masters interspersed with Angels, who are featured  prominently in the Gospels in important roles as messengers announcing the arrival of the baby Jesus.