Masonic Iconography - Double Headed Black Eagle

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Just an interesting side note

Amerigo Vespucchi

www.historytoday.com...



"The Beautiful" Simonetta De Vespucci was a relative
Simonetta was a model of Sandro Botticelli
She features as Venus in his painting "The birth of Venus"

Here is my favourite portrait of Simonetta by Botty

edit on 9-5-2015 by artistpoet because: spacing

edit on 9-5-2015 by artistpoet because: (no reason given)

a reply to: artistpoet

And it will be said that America was named after Amerigo, and there is no link to the Lucifer there.... haha... Venus = the bringer of light = Lucifer.

Thanks for this other connection.

So, there is an Amerigo and Columbia connection with Venus being the common denominator.
I enjoy this response.

This made me interested if Botticelli has masonic ties.
I haven't found any, but I found this interesting story:
books.google.com...=onepage&q&f=false

Notice how Boticelli calls out worksmen, and he was incredibly interested if the masons had arrived yet. He talked to the master mason about putting up a large marble stone, that was a sort of anchor stone.

At face value, this shows little meaning to me, but I am not an expert, and I wonder if the story is an allegory. I wonder this because the master mason said that his father built the walls, and that the walls were secure ...... IDK

a reply to: ThreeDeuce

Sandro Botticelli was his nickname meaning "Little Barrel" due to his stature

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, is his true name
He was initially trained as a Goldsmith and may well have belonged to their Guild

He moved in influential circles ... The Medici's of Florence were his patrons ... The Medici family being Bankers for Rome.
Under the Medici's ...He was commissioned to secular paintings such as Primavera, Birth of Venus and Mars and Venus.
I believe this period produced his best and most memorable paintings ... before he was called to Rome to produce more religious themed work.

As for his character ... He was a Romantic at heart ... An admirer of "Courtly Love" inspired by the great poet Dante Alighieri ...author of The Divine Comedy and Vita Nouva.
Like Dante and the Medici's he was intrigued by mythology and Hermetic learning
He found the inter family feuding in Florence distasteful

His Birth of Venus refers to that myth ... with his own artistic licence of course ...

a reply to: artistpoet

If you look at paintings of the same theme done by Da Vinci and Botticelli, the Da Vinci version often looks cliche.
That is not always the case though, someone PMed me a link to a Botticelli in Detroit that looked really cheap.

a reply to: Cauliflower

Yes Botticelli and Leonardo had different styles and methods of painting

Botticelli's work tends to be more vibrant colour wise

Of course I love both artists ... But like all artist's it is individual paintings that appeal to different people.
I do not like all their works ... much like listening to a cd of music ... some songs appeal whilst others do not
Also artists have off days for various reasons

a reply to: artistpoet

Artistic freedom is probably an illusion, many artists have to survive on commissions so their works have to be tailored to the tastes of the sponsor. I'm surprised they got away with as much as they did during the Renaissance.

Maybe works like the illustrations in the Voynich manuscript were free expressions?
Although I would consider some of them vibrant nobody has been able to successfully analyze them.

a reply to: Cauliflower

I hear you ... but unfortunately we are straying off topic here
Unless we can show a Masonic link to such artworks

But it would make a good thread in it's own right

a reply to: artistpoet

Great painting, I am a big fan of Botticelli's work.