In a recent book devoted to understanding the background to the Primavera, Charles Dempsey puts forward three broad themes which bound the range of current interpretations. These suggest the painting is either a metaphor for civic celebrations and weddings or a Neo-Platonic meditation on beauty or a representation of the myth of Springtime recalling poetic tradition both previous to, and contemporaneous with Botticelli's era. There is considerable evidence for each stance to refer to which either becomes a scholarly minefield for those seeking to be rigorous or a rich source of potential narratives for the more contemplative.
According to Renaissance scholar, Edgar Wind, the key to this painting lies in the words of Pico della Mirandola, that "the unity of Venus unfolds in the trinity of the graces" and that this simile pervades the totality of universal pagan myth. In Primavera, following Plotinus and Pico, there are nine figures which form an Ennead, that is to say an emanation in multiples of three. Central to the painting, although somewhat to our right, is the goddess Venus herself. On our right hand (stage left), is the triad of Zephyr or West wind, Chloris the innocent earth nymph, and Flora, the resplendent herald of Spring. On our left hand (stage right) is, from the center outward, the group depicting the three graces Pulchritude (Beauty), Castitas (Chastity) and Voluptas (pleasure), farthest left and separate from them, Mercury the divine mystery with his caduceus (entwined serpent staff) dispelling the clouds from the upper left hand corner and at the top center is blind Cupid or Eros firing his love dart at the figure of Chastity.
Botticelli’s Primavera may have been inspired by Ovid, Lucretius, and the great Roman poet Horace for the picture combines the classical Roman pose of antique statues with the more recent gothic ideas and for example, at the extreme right three figures recall Ovid's Fasti since Zephyr, the west wind, impregnates Chloris. "However, he made amends by making her Queen of flowers." As Dempsey notes, "the meaning of the Ovidian model is transformed, for Ovid does not literally describe a transformation in the Fasti, but Botticelli has nevertheless imagined the event as an Ovidian metamorphosis and thereby rendered, in true Ovidian fashion, the meaning of the event in the actions themselves" (1992, 32-33). The inspiration for this painting nevertheless could have come from reading the Latin poets Ovid’s Fasti, but it is more likely according to Dempsey that the inspiration came from verses for the Joust by Agnolo Poliziano, a mutual friend of the Medici and Botticelli. It was in this, which the writer describes a meadow where grasses and plants grew, where the winds blew and where "Happy Spring was ever present". Opposing this interpretation, E.H. Gombrich suggests that it was Apuleius' tale in the Golden Ass - not Poliziano's poem - which served as a source for the famous painting.
According to Gombrich, the initial impulse for the Primavera stems from a letter sent by Ficino to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici who lived at the Villa di Castello where the painting was housed (1972, 33). Although recently Dempsey has shown that the painting was made for the case vecchie de’ 'Medici in the Via Larga, this does not negate the possible importance of Ficino's letter as one of the possible models for the painting. The letter "culminates in an appeal to the young man that he should fix his eyes on Venus who stood for Humanitas" (1972, 33).
It would be most appropriate that the Primavera could be interpreted, on one level, as a description of Venus-Humanitas for the young Lorenzo.
There are two futher interpretations to be added to the mix. The first offered by some historians suggests that the painting is a symbol of marriage, in particular, celebrating the marriage of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici to Semiramide Appianio, a relative of Simonetta Vespucci who was famous for her beauty and liaison with Guiliano de' Medici.
The second and more recent interpretation is that this painting is intended to represent the whole of the Liberal Arts, the very thing that drove the creativity and the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici and his circle. Describing Botticelli's frescoes in the Villa Lemni outside of Florence Gombrich explains that one shows "Venus with the three Graces appearing to a young woman," while a second shows Venus leading a young man "towards the personifications of Philosophy and the Liberal Arts" (1972, 75). Thus these paintings would corroborate Botticelli's interest in Venus-Humanitas and in Amor as "teacher of all the arts" (1972, 75).
The two most contradictory readings of Botticelli's painting emphasize a narrative sequence that unfolds from right to left. The "rustic" reading shows the Zephyr-Chloris-Flora triad as the first flowering of spring; Venus as the "goddess of April," the fullness of primavera; and finally Mercury as May, the end of springtime (Dempsey 1992, 62). The Neoplatonic reading follows a similar pattern. From Proclus' Elements of Theology to Ficino's Theologia Platonica, there is a constant perception that "the bounty bestowed by the gods upon lower beings" began "as a kind of overflowing (emanatio) which produced a vivifying rapture or conversion (called by Ficino conversio, raptio or vivificatio) whereby the lower beings were drawn back to heaven and rejoined the gods (remeatio)" (Wind 1968, 37). The Primavera exhibits this Neoplatonic movement. Starting at the right hand side of the painting, Zephyr's downward flight is the emanatio, the overflowing from the heavens. Venus or ideal beauty leads to raptio or the conversion of the lower beings, while Mercury as "mediator between mortals and gods bridging the distance between earth and heaven" (Wind 1968, 122) represents the process of remeatio.
For Renaissance Neo-Platonists such as Ficino, raptio was the key to the power of humanism, and it is represented as such in Botticelli's Primavera where, through Zephyr's emanations, the human spirit comes to envision the rapture of beauty (Venus).
Although Dempsey sides with the third theme of a poetic depiction of springtime he concludes his in depth study by reminding the reader that Botticelli's masterpiece does not owe allegiance to any one poem. The Primavera's magic lies in its ability to be itself - a whole which steps beyond mere visual articulation of various verses on springtime mythology.