Known as the Birth of Venus, the composition actually shows the goddess of love and beauty arriving on land, on the island of Cyprus, born of the sea spray and blown there by the winds, Zephyr and, perhaps, Aura. The goddess is standing on a giant scallop shell, as pure and as perfect as a pearl. - Uffizi Galleries
Beautiful blonde waves, a gracile nude female figure and a mythical scallop shell - In the mid 1480s, the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli changed the art world with his tempera masterpiece The Birth of Venus. His Italian Renaissance artwork set new standards for fine art and inspired artists all over the world in the centuries that followed.