ROME – A scholar has excited interest in the art world through a unique analysis of Botticelli’s famous artwork, the Birth of Venus, arguing that there is a secret refence to the human anatomy.

 Davide Lazzeri, a plastic scholar who specialises in the topic of medicine in art, has created a “personal and speculative” interpretation of the piece, in comments to La Repubblica.

 In an article published in Acta Biomedica, Lazzeri has followed up the work of American scholars, who noticed a similarity between background details in the painting and the anatomy of the human lungs.

 The scholar claims that the lungs are linked to the prevailing neo-platonic philosophy which took root at the Medici court and that connects the organs to the “first breath, divine wind and the origin of life.”

 By removing the figure of Flora, on the right-hand side of the picture, Lazzeri revealed a shape very similar to that of the human lung, which he claims does not conform to the shape that Botticelli would have pursued were he truly trying to catch the movement of wind through the fabric.

 “The strange shape of the mantle made me think,” he argued. “Through a particular reconstruction I eliminated the figure of Flora and I saw that the coat did not have a normal shape. If Botticelli had wanted to show that the wind moved the cloak would not have created that incision above the nymph's arm.”

 “Then,” he continued, “I carefully studied the colour that, together with the shape, made me think of a lung and its allegorical meaning.”

 The conclusion is that Botticelli was familiar with the human anatomy of organs, like his counterparts, Da Vinci and Michelangelo.

 Lazzeri then goes another step further, pointing out that the model for the painting, Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci, had died from lung problems, most likely tuberculois. This, he alleges, may have proved another powerful factor in the inclusion of the organ in the pictures.

 Indeed, 34 years after she died, Botticelli made the request to be buried by her side, suggesting to the scholar that the two shared a powerful connection.

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