When Botticelli painted the “Primavera” in the 1470s, he opened up a veritable Pandora’s Box. No longer would Renaissance artists be limited to simply dressing Christian saints in togas and sandals, they could now gradually introduce the very literature, philosophy and religion of the ancient Greco-Roman world into their own art. This episode unpacks Botticelli’s great allegorical painting by identifying its characters and their meaning.
