by David Packwood | 27 May 2010 | Renaissance
Plants in renaissance paintings usually have religious associations, but seldom if ever connections with mind-expanding drugs. Now, David Bellamy of Sotheby’s has decided that a plant held by a satyr in Botticelli’s canonical ‘Venus and Mars’ has hallucinogenic properties.
After consulting with horticultural experts at Kew Gardens, Bellamy maintains that it is Datura stramonium – sometimes known as devil’s trumpet. According to the Telegraph, the drug makes you “hot and disinhibited”, which may be why Mars has stripped off his clothes. The famous clothed Venus could, if we accept the drug theory, represent a warning against such intoxicated abandonment.
I’ve taught courses on pictures and reception theory in which I’ve pointed out that something in the painting is being offered to the viewer, but if Bellamy is right, the viewer of the picture is being offered Datura, sometimes known as ‘poor man’s acid’.
Can a picture get you high in this sense? I’m thinking that if this is true, it’s going to be a case of move over Panofsky and Wind to make way for Timothy Leary.
Sorry, it should be David Bellingham. I confused him with David Bellamy, the famous TV botanist!
Same vein as Caravaggio’s Bacchus offering wine.
I wonder if Botticelli or other artists of the period had some first-hand knowledge of the substance. There was an excellent book published a few years back, “The Road of Excess: A History of Writers on Drugs,” but I know of no similar volume for artists.
Three Pipe Problem has a great article on this, with a reproduction of the hallucinogenic plant Datura.
http://threepipeproblem.blogspot.com/2010/05/misrepresenting-botticelli-for-modern.html
Fascinating article! I wonder if the nicknames for the plant (“thorn apple” and “Devil’s trumpet”) exist in Italian, and if those names were extant in in the 15th century. It certainly would support the Tree of Knowledge theory that is suggested in the article.
Datura Trombo Del Diavolo is the common Italian term for this plant. Indeed, upon Monica’s suggestion, further research suggests that the term ‘Thorn Apple’ is an English one.
http://www-3.unipv.it/orto1773/officinali/stramonio.htm
I wanted to point out one puzzling thing about the link that Hasan included above. The link mentions that the plant was introduced in Italy after 1500 (and Botticelli’s Venus and Mars was painted c. 1483). That’s a discrepancy of about 17 years. I wonder if the post-1500 introductory date for the plant is inaccurate, or really a rough estimate? Or, perhaps humanists like Botticelli were aware of the plant before it was actually introduced into the country (since its hallucinogenic effects were recorded by ancient Greeks). On the other hand, perhaps Venus and Mars could be seen as visual evidence that the plant existed in Italy before 1500?
Perhaps I’ll need to contact David Bellingham to hear his opinion (and get more answers!)
(David Packwood – I’m pretty sure that you meant to credit David Bellingham of Sotheby’s, not David Bellamy.) Cheers!
Wow. Off on a tangent: reviews of Botticelli books by Dombrowki, Bredekamp, Rehm, on the 500th anniversary of SB’s death
http://www.dradio.de/dkultur/sendungen/kritik/1184384/
Dioscorides famous 1st century text Materia Medica contained a description of stramonium datura. We know Cosimo de Medici acquired Materia Medica well before Botticelli executed Mars and Venus in the 1480s.
What have I started!?
Much has happened since those entries in May! With the help of some Botanical friends, we’ve crossed out the Daturas and found a enchanting new candidate for the plant in the painting. See the images and decide for yourself:
http://goo.gl/P5Wm