The Symbolic Depiction of Strength Towards Wisdom

Primavera (Sandro Botticelli) consists of two parts which are in harmony, around a central axis which is defined by goddess Aphrodite. These two parts express the two separate facets of the goddess, Aphrodite Pandemos and Aphrodite Ourania. Flora represents the earthly or Pandemos Aphrodite, the eternal bearer of life, while Zephyrus, who enters forcefully into the painting, seizing the Nymph Chloris, symbolizes the unbridled passion. At the end of the painting Hermes declares the ultimate goal of love, the union with the spirit. Hermes has turned his back to the natural world and looks at the true being. Along with Zephyrus, they constitute complementary forms.

In the painting (Titian) the two female figures incarnate the two distinct principles of beauty. They constitute the two sides of Aphrodite. The nude figure that is holding the cup with fire is the Aphrodite Ourania, a symbol of the ecumenical, eternal, purely spiritual beauty. The other woman is the Aphrodite Pandemos, a symbol of the life-giving power that creates the mortal but visible and tangible icons of beauty on earth. In the centre between the two figures of Aphrodite, Eros who is stirring the crystal water of the fountain is the intermediary between the heaven and the earth. The allegory Mars and Venus United by Love (1570) by Veronese. In this painting, which formed part of the collection of Emperor Rudolph II in Prague, Eros is tying with a ribbon Ares, the god of war and power, to the nude Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, passion and love. From the union of Ares, the god of war, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love, Armonia was born as embodiment of the concept that harmony is the synthesis of opposing forces.