Birth of Venus

A flower does not choose its colour; its beauty is the desire of others.

Where does a Victorian-era man seek nocturnal pleasure; beneath a bridge in Florence, or in the paintings of a lost Master like Botticelli? Perhaps such men are lured by the temptation of both pleasures.

Alexander discovers Gianna in the reflection of lamplights off the River Arno. She offers him unlimited access to his two most guilty pleasures. Seduced by her heritage he allows nature to take its course, sampling the physical before being drawn by her art collection. He discovers a painting by Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli. It is hypnotic, and more the narcotic than Gianna. An obsession in the viewing as it was in the painting.

The Nation became the beneficiary of Alexander Barker’s Botticelli, while the painter bequeathed the world his Venus. Who was she… Simonetta Vespucci or the ideal Florentine Queen of beauty, as trumpeted by Giuliano de Medici? Were Botticelli’s paintings the ultimate betrayal of obsession, or can one man really love a single woman until the day he dies?