Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli
Birth of Venus was painted by Sandro Botticelli in the mid-1480s. Earlier, an artist named Apelles, according to Pliny the Elder, created a representation of Venus Anadyomene (Venus Rising from the Sea). According to Pliny, Alexander the Great offered his mistress, Pankaspe, as the model for the nude Venus and later, realizing that Apelles had …