A Comparison of Two Paintings

A comparison of paintings by Joachim Wtewael (also spelled Uitewael and Uytewael) and Sandro Botticelli demonstrates how painters could use the same subject matter for very different purposes and arrive at very different results. The comparison also shows how the two painters' styles were suited to the specific meanings they wished to express. Both artists were Renaissance painters, though their works were painted a little over one hundred years apart, but their shared interest in the themes of ancient mythology is only the beginning of the similarities and differences in the two paintings.

The Renaissance originated in the renewal of "the study of Antiquity" but "that study manifests itself in various styles not all of which" take the classical art of Greece and Rome as their direct models (Greenhalgh 75). Some artists such as the Florentine painter Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) worked from ancient styles that were not "classical" (Greenhalgh 75). Others such as the Dutch Mannerist painter Joachim Wtewael (c. 1566-1638) were more heavily influenced by Italian artists than by classical art itself (Rosenberg, Slive and Ter Kuile 16-7). But the subject matter of mythology and classical literature was used by most Renaissance painters even if they did not work in specifically classical styles. The uses of classical themes could vary almost as much as the artists' styles. A good example of different approaches to the same legend is found in Wtewael's Mars and Venus Surp

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ightiest of all (Plato 47). In Plato's reference to the story Venus does not, precisely, personify love but the message drawn from the tale is clear -- love conquers discord. The Neoplatonist scholar Giovanni Pico della Mirandola explained that the ancient astrologers reflected the basic truth of this claim in placing Venus next to Mars in their astrological charts "because she must tame his impulse which is by nature destructive and corrupting" (quoted by Wind 89). The details employed by Botticelli were a well-known approach to the story of Mars and Venus that reflected the scholars' interpretation of the tale. Botticelli was not the only artist to use this idea in paintings. Among the other examples cited by Wind are Piero di Cosimo's similar composition of the same subject at the Staatliche Museum in Berlin-Dahlem and Paolo Veronese's version in the Metropolitan Museum. In such paintings "the victorious Venus, having subdued the fearful Mars by love, is seen playing with his armour, or allowing her cupids and infant satyrs to play with it" (Wind 89). The theme presents the hope that love truly is more powerful than discord, an important idea in the Neoplatonists' view of the world. In Botticelli's work the symbolism

Category: Arts - A