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Lot Essay
There are two versions in Greek mythology recounting the birth of Aphrodite, the goddess of love (known to the Romans as Venus). In Hesiod's Theogony, the older version, she was born from the castrated member of Uranus which had been cast into the sea near Cyprus. Her Greek name is from aphros, foam. The seashell and other marine attendants were later accretions to Hesiod's version.
Redon depicted the birth of Venus in a more than a dozen paintings, pastels and drawings (Wildenstein, nos. 730-744), in which he refers to Hesiod's story. In present work she floats, supported by a conch, in aether-like sea foam. The addition of the rose colored serpent is perhaps a reference to the sexual organ of Uranus, or may be intended to draw a parallel between the female goddess and numerous legends of beautiful women and sea monsters, such as Perseus and Andromeda or St. George and the dragon. Redon may also intend a reference to the story of Eve and the serpent in the Hebrew Genesis, with a revisionist slant on the serpent as a symbol of knowledge intertwined with the ideals of beauty and love.
Redon depicted the birth of Venus in a more than a dozen paintings, pastels and drawings (Wildenstein, nos. 730-744), in which he refers to Hesiod's story. In present work she floats, supported by a conch, in aether-like sea foam. The addition of the rose colored serpent is perhaps a reference to the sexual organ of Uranus, or may be intended to draw a parallel between the female goddess and numerous legends of beautiful women and sea monsters, such as Perseus and Andromeda or St. George and the dragon. Redon may also intend a reference to the story of Eve and the serpent in the Hebrew Genesis, with a revisionist slant on the serpent as a symbol of knowledge intertwined with the ideals of beauty and love.