Venus’ journey in painting, film, fashion: “Botticelli Reimagined”

What link could be between Ursula Andress emerging from the sea, David LaChapelle desaturated photos, the Florentine painters and Dolce & Gabbana dresses? Well, the new major exhibition prepared by Victor and Albert Museum in London, “Botticelli Reimagined”, will explore in over 150 works the myriad of ways that artists and designers have reinterpreted Botticelli in painting, fashion, film, drawing, photography, tapestry, sculpture and print for 500 years in the making. This innovative exhibition explores the enduring impact of the Florentine painter Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) from the Pre-Raphaelites to today.

About the exhibition: It will include over 50 original works by Botticelli, alongside works by artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, René Magritte, Elsa Schiaparelli, Andy Warhol and Cindy Sherman. “Botticelli Reimagined” will be divided into three major sections: “Global, Modern, Contemporary”; “Rediscovery” and “Botticelli in his Own Time”.

1. The famous Venus can be seen in the original “Birth of Venus” and in David LaChapelle’s saturated and artificial “Rebirth of Venus”, Botticelli is displayed in Andy Warhol unique style portraits and in Tamara de Lempicka’s trompe-l’oeil “Painting with a Botticelli”. A dress and trouser suit of patchwork panels from “The Birth of Venus” from Dolce & Gabbana’s S/S 1993 collection will be shown with two Elsa Schiaparelli evening dresses (1938) and you can see the influence of the painter even in scenes like Ursula Andress emerging from the sea clasping a conch shell from ”Dr No” (1962). 2. “Rediscovery” will trace the impact of Botticelli’s art on the Pre-Raphaelite circle during the mid-19th century and his influence over the works of Degas, Moreau or Ingres. 3. The final section of the exhibition arrives at Botticelli in his own time. This will show that Botticelli was both a supremely skilled artist and a designer of genius who ran a highly successful workshop. Exhibits will include his only signed and dated painting “The Mystic Nativity” (1500), three portraits supposedly of the legendary beauty Simonetta Vespucci, and the exquisitely detailed “Pallas and the Centaur” (1482), travelling to London for the first time.

The dates: you have to wait for a little while, the exhibition will be held from 5 March – 3 July 2016, at Victoria and Albert Museum.

Special Credits (pictured above, from left to right):

Venus. Artist: Gemäldegalerie Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Date: 1490s by Sandro Botticelli. Photo: Volker-H. Schneider.

Rebirth of Venus. Artist: Creative Exchange Agency, New York, Steven Pranica / Studio LaChapelle. Date: 2009 by David LaChapelle. (c) David LaChapelle.

Venus Dress: Look 15. Artist: Model Karen Mulder. Date: Dolce & Gabbana S/S Fashion Show in Milan, Italy 1993. Catwalking.com.