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Theme: love & beauty
The rose's connotations of love and beauty derive from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love whom the Romans named Venus.
The origins of Venus' link with roses lay in a series of myths. White roses sprang from the sea foam from which she was born; pink roses from her blushes when Zeus saw her bathing, and red roses from her blood as she rushed to her dying lover Adonis. He was torn by thorns, which became an emblem of the pain love can inflict.
Classical poets and sculptors envisaged Venus braiding roses into her hair: Ovid talks of the first roses of spring being offered to the goddess. The motto 'sub rosa', meaning that anything spoken beneath a rose should not be repeated, was originally attributed to the necessary secrecy of Venus' romantic liaisons. Today it is associated more with the silence of the confessional or a meeting held in secret.
Renaissance thought was inspired by classical heritage, so artists included roses in paintings of Venus, and of ladies who sought to emulate her qualities. No artist was more steeped in this culture than Botticelli. His complex and beautiful paintings even captured the link between Venus and the Virgin Mary, who as heavenly beings and embodiments of love were associated with roses in the minds of artists.
The sunflower has also been linked with love. This may be because of its association with loyalty and devotion, which is based on how the flower's head follows the sun across the sky. |
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