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A Madonna called Venus
IN A ‘LETTER TO FRIENDS’ Ficino wrote:
Therefore if we bring into the view of men the marvellous sight of Virtue herself, there will be no further need of our persuading words ...1
Ficino’s letter to Lorenzo Minore, describing Venus and listing her attributes, urges him to embrace her divine qualities through the beauty of virtue. In the painting Venus looks out to Lorenzo, expressing an exalted human nature. Ficino wrote:
Minore,Now, in order to reflect more easily upon the divine aspects of the mind, from the corresponding likeness of the beautiful body, refer each aspect of the body to an aspect of the mind. For the body is the shadow of the soul.
Further on in the letter he wrote: ‘How worthy of love, how worthy of admiration is this form of the soul, who
