3-097-518 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Birth of Venus, 1842. Venus, goddess of love and beauty, is born from the sea foam. She rises from the waters upon a large scallop shell held by naiads with seaweed on their heads. She gazes serenely and with a touch of melancholy at the viewer, modestly covering her genitals with a transparent veil held in her right hand, which floats behind her, stirred by the wind. With her left hand, she conceals her breasts. Esquivel drew inspiration for the goddess's figure from the model of the Venus Pudica, or Venus Medici, of classical statuary.