Sorrow of Spring
说起波提切利，他还有一副不得不提的作品《春》：
Speaking of Botticelli, Spring is the artwork we must not forget:
《春》是为美蒂奇家族的掌权人洛伦佐·德·美蒂奇（Lorenzo de’ Medici）的侄子所送上的新婚贺礼，因而这是一幅以爱恋、婚姻为主题的作品。
Spring is a wedding gift for the nephew of Lorenzo de ’Medici, the head of the Medici family, and so it’s filled with the theme of love and marriage.
画的中央是美丽高雅的维纳斯与她的孩子爱神丘比特，维纳斯身后由树形成的自然拱门让人联想起当时盛行的圣母子图。她头戴头巾，此为已婚女性的服饰特点，暗示主题与婚姻有关。爱神丘比特蒙着双眼，准备向左边翩翩起舞的美惠三女神射出爱之箭，似乎也在隐喻爱是盲目的。
In the center of the painting is the beautiful and elegant Venus and her child Cupid. The natural arch formed by the tree behind Venus is reminiscent of the Virgin and Child picture prevailing at the time. She wears a headscarf, a signature of married women’s clothing, suggesting that the theme is related to marriage. Cupid, the god of love, blindfolded, preparing to shoot the arrow of love towards the three goddesses of beauty and grace, dancing to the left, also seems to be a metaphor for love being blind.
美惠三女神从左到右分别象征“爱欲”、“纯洁”、“美丽”，她们的左边是正在驱赶阴云的使者墨丘利（希腊神话中的赫尔莫斯），他仰望天空，手持神杖，准备传送春的信息。
The three goddesses Meihui symbolize “love”, “purity”, and “beauty” from left to right, and on their left is the messenger Mercury (Hermos in Greek mythology) driving away from the clouds. He looks up at the sky and holds Scepter, ready to send Spring’s message.
在维纳斯的右边，西风神正在粗鲁得追赶山林仙女克罗里斯，根据传说，克罗里斯被强暴之后成为了花神芙罗拉。在新婚贺礼中出现这样得一幕，似乎是在暗示幸福与美好终将到来以安慰忐忑不安的新娘。
To the right of Venus, Zephyr was rudely chasing the forest fairy Cloris. According to legend, after being raped, Cloris became the flower god Flora. The appearance of such a scene in the wedding ceremony seems to imply that happiness and beauty will eventually come to comfort the restless bride.
从《春》到《维纳斯的诞生》，观者都能捕捉到波提切利重视画面观感高于使用技巧的特点，他没有利用当时盛行的透视法来体现空间感，也没有使用人体解剖知识来塑造真实的人物比例。反而，他的人物线条柔软、重量不均，但也因此显得轻盈且具有神性。此外，他的作品中总是带有忧愁的气息，无论是高雅的维纳斯，还是起舞的美惠三女神，或是蜕变的芙罗拉，每组人物都在传达爱与美丽，但她们的脸上却都带有一丝愁容。在这片草地上，观者可以找到500+朵花，170+个品种，玫瑰、草莓、柑橘树、风信子、矢车菊、康乃馨、勿忘我、款冬等等，但这些花朵似乎都在衰败的边缘。波提切利这带有哀愁的画风，在19世纪中叶受到一群年轻画家的模仿，以表达死亡、绝望的气息。
From Spring to The Birth of Venus, viewers can capture that Botticelli values the perception of the picture over the use of skills. He did not use the popular perspective at that time to reflect the sense of space, nor did he use the human body — anatomical knowledge to shape real character proportions. Instead, his figures have soft lines and uneven weight, but they also appear light and divine. In addition, his works always carry a sense of sorrow. Whether it is the elegant Venus, the dancing three goddesses of beauty or the transformed Flora, each group of characters is conveying love and beauty, but their faces still show melancholy. On this meadow, viewers can find 500+ flowers, 170+ varieties, roses, strawberries, citrus trees, hyacinths, cornflowers, carnations, forget-me-not, butterbur, etc., despite a declining trend. Botticelli’s gloomy style was imitated by a group of young artists in the middle of the 19th century to express the breadth of death and despair.
波提切利这份忧伤与绝望又是从何而来的呢？
Where did this grief and despair come from?
波提切利曾为与美蒂奇家族相交甚密的马尔科(Marco Vespucci)之妻西莫内塔(Simonetta Vespucci)作过肖像画。西莫内塔貌美倾城，但也红颜薄命。她在23岁去世后，很快就被人们淡忘，甚至连丈夫马尔科也重组了新的家庭，但曾为她画过肖像画的波提切利却再也没能忘掉她。
Botticelli has painted portraits for Simonetta Vespucci, the wife of Marco Vespucci, who is closely associated with the Medici family. Simeonetta is beautiful but frustrated. After she died at the age of 23, she was quickly forgotten, and even her husband, Marco, reorganized a new family, but Botticelli, who had painted portraits for her, never forgot about her.
这副肖像画被认为是波提切利脑海中的西莫内塔。观者可以发现，无论是在《春》，还是在《维纳斯的诞生》中，都有这位年轻女子的身影。
This portrait is considered to be Simonetta in Botticelli’s mind. We can find the young woman in both Spring and The Birth of Venus.
大约在1490年，波提切利开始研究但丁的《神曲》，并为之配图。共有92幅羊皮纸册页流传下来，其中最有名的便是:
Around 1490, Botticelli began to study Dante’s Divine Comedy and accompanied it with pictures. A total of 92 parchment albums have been handed down, the most famous of which are:
但丁在诗中形容地狱是漏斗状的，九层地狱，越向下刑法越重：未受洗者→纵欲→暴食→贪婪→愤怒→信其他宗教→施暴→欺诈→背叛。波提切利跟随旦丁，用画笔描绘出了这个世界。一些浪漫主义者认为，波提切利画出地狱的样子，希望能够闯入地狱，而后救回自己的爱人。
Dante described hell as a funnel in his poems. Nine layers of hell, the heavier the penal law: the unbaptized → indulgence → gluttony → greed → wrath → non-religious → violence → fraud → betrayal. Botticelli followed Dante and painted the world with a paintbrush. Some romantics believe that Botticelli painted hell, hoping to break into hell and then save his lover.
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