I decided to drop a few hundred dollars and get myself a full-color reproduction of La Primavera. I've had one for over fifteen years, but it's slowly faded to a bluish semi-monotone. Which wasn't all bad - Botticelli wasn't a painterly-painter he was much more about the underlying drawing and a monotone lets you focus on the lines. And although I liked that it was really big - 48 x 36 - it turns out those dimensions cropped out part of the right-side of the picture.My new version of Primavera is smaller than the old one, but the dimensions are better - they don't crop the image and you can see Zephyrs has wings. But you can't see the linear details as well which is really a shame. It's always a trade-off.
But on the other hand these colors are bright. I can't help but wonder if they are too bright - if they cranked up the color intensity on the photo of the original. I guess I'll have to go to Florence in order to decide for myself.
Fun fact - Botticelli was probably the hottest of the Renaissance painters. This is alleged to be a self-portrait.
