The Birth of Venus Barbata (After Botticelli)
Item
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Title
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The Birth of Venus Barbata (After Botticelli)
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Description
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Tirtzah Bassel's The Birth of Venus Barbata (After Botticelli) (2020) is a 42 x 32 in. gouache on paper painting that reimagines Botticelli's iconic Renaissance masterpiece. Part of her "Canon in Drag" series, this work features a bearded Venus, subverting traditional gender roles and challenging the patriarchal art canon by blending masculine and feminine attributes
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Date
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2020
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Identifier
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0003.SLAG
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Material
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Gouache on paper
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Measurements
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107 cm × 81.3 cm (42 inches x 32 inches)
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Analysis
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A reworking of idealized femininity that disrupts the classical construction of the female nude:
(The Female Gaze) In The Birth of Venus Barbata (After Botticelli), Bassel offers a new take on Botticelli’s Venus by making the female form more complex and less passive than the traditional version created for male viewers. The body in this work does not aim for smoothness or perfection, which challenges the Renaissance idea of the female nude as something to be admired. By changing this famous image, the artist shows how femininity has often been seen as decorative and open to interpretation by men. The piece questions the idea of women as timeless symbols of beauty and instead presents them as real, complex people. In doing so, it gives the subject more agency and moves away from idealization.
