Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus

Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, 1482, Early Italian Renaissance

1) First painting of a mythological scene since antiquity

2) Venus is a reference to Mary (neoplatonic parallels between Christianity and paganism lie in the Mary's love for the church and Venus being the goddess of love)

3) Given the religious context of the time, Botticelli becamea radical artist as he created an entirely new kind of art that was purely fantasy