I chose to compare Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus and Agnolo Bronzino's Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time. Botticelli painted the Birth of Venus in 1482, during the Renaissance and Bronzino painted his Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time in 1545 during the Mannerism era. Both of these paintings depict the mythological Roman goddess Venus, who represents love, sex, beauty, and fertility, but each uses different styles to narrate their different stories.
Both Venuses have similar physical characteristics; for instance, they both have pale, porcelain like skin, darker blonde hair, and are nude. They both appear to be elongated and only one of Venus's breasts is visible in both pictures. Bronzino's Venus appears to be more realistic because of the way she is sitting on the ground while Botticelli's Venus seems to be standing on her tip-toes on the seashell in which she was born. Both paintings use symbolism and have icons of what Venus represents, Bronzino's Venus is holding a piece of fruit, which is symbolic of sex, and Botticelli's Venus has flowers falling all around her, which stand for love and fertility. .
Bronzino's painting follows many of the Mannerism's key characteristics. The scene is very compact, erotic, the two main figures have serpentinata poses and are off centered, all of the main action of the picture is focused up in the front of the painting while there is no sign of depth through the background, and the light is coming from a strange, unnatural angle. On the contrary, Botticelli's painting has a natural lighting, a detailed background, a magical scene, Venus is in the center of the frame and the other figures are spread out to create balance, and the lines he uses creates texture in the waves of the ocean and the shore line. The colors that both these artist used are different as well. Botticelli used mostly light pastel colors for his figures and close surroundings while saving some darker hues for the terrain and Bronzino used dark, rich colors for his pictures background and outlining objects and saved the lighter colors for the figures that were lit up by "the spotlight.
