Giraffe Sculpture - with Botticelli Art PrintCelebrating Botticelli Botticellis The Birth of Venus (c. 1485) is one of the most celebrated works of the Italian Renaissance. Painted for the Medici family in Florence, it shows the goddess Venus emerging from the sea on a giant shell, carried to shore by the wind gods Zephyrus and Aura, while a Hora of Spring waits to cloak her in a flowing robe. Born Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, he was later nicknamed Botticelli, meaning little barrel