Who painted The Birth of Venus?

• A. Da Vinci
• B. Giotto
• C. Titian
• D. Botticelli

Answer: (D)

Sandro Botticelli painted The Birth of Venus. This work, created in the mid-1480s in Florence, captures Venus arriving on a seashell, carried by Zephyrus and Chloris, with a Hora ready to cloak her. Botticelli’s style here—graceful, elongated figures, refined line work, and a mythological subject drawn from classical poetry and Neoplatonism—embodies the Florentine Renaissance approach, distinguishing it from later Venetian colorism or other periods. The painting’s emphasis on mythological beauty and its delicate, pale palette align with Botticelli’s repertoire, rather than with Leonardo’s later sfumato, Giotto’s earlier fresco realism, or Titian’s later, more saturated color technique.