Botticelli is the star of the Uffizi. He became the painter of youth, spring, and flowers. Up until the time he created this work, religious subjects had been his main focus. Then the pagan spirit, evoking Wagner’s Siegfried, came to the fore. Here living images of human desire sway in a fragile dance.
The painting presents images of happiness that will leave you in a reverie as you absorb the scene. The flowers strewn on the ground coax the mind to create a perfume. For me, this painting represents the Renaissance: imagination, motion, myths, hurtling nature, the feel of change, the mystery of growth, the fragility of time.