La Primavera (or Spring) and The Tree of Death and Life Essay

La Primavera (or Spring) and The Tree of Death and Life - Essay Example Botticelli's masterwork implies poetic allegory embracing the theme of love and a certain philosophical meaning as it depicts the Garden of Hesperides, which I will dwell on in more detail below. The plot of the painting is being developed from right to left. There is an ominous figure with wings and swollen cheeks dressed in a greenish flowing cloak in the upper right corner of the painting. His name is Zephyrus and he is a symbol of the wind. One can see how the trunks of trees bent influenced by the flight of this mysterious figure. A scared nymph named Chloris, to the left from Zephyrus, tries to run away touching another woman on the left as if asking her for protection. But the woman neglects the nymph, who tries hard to flee from the wind on the right from her, and is walking to the bottom of the painting. It must be noted that this woman in a long dress embroidered with flowers, with a thin face that registers no emotion and a wreath on the golden hair is depicted in the afor ementioned Ovid's poem Fasti that Botticelli was inspired with when creating his masterpiece. In Ovid's poem she is referred to as Spring but, as a matter of fact, this woman might as well be the goddess of flowers and plants, Flora. In the Botticelli's painting she had a dress embroidered with red and blue cornflowers, symbols of amiability and good nature, and scattered roses, which was the usual thing for rich Florentine weddings. The wreath around her neck is made of strawberries that symbolize tenderness, chamomile.