Welcome Spring (finally)
Spring has, finally, sprung here at Birthday Blossoms HQ. After an unusually cold and snowy winter which outstayed its welcome, New York City has greeted warmer temperatures with open arms. The annual explosion of flowers and greenery in the parks that dot the cityscape, the trees that line the streets, and the flower boxes that adorn brownstone windows has commenced.
In honor of the long-awaited spring weather, I did what I do every spring. I pulled up an image of Primavera, the painting by Sandro Botticelli, on my computer screen at work. (The real thing resides at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.) While contemplating the painting’s beauty I read some poetry, because that is what writers do when they are supposed to be working. A few lines from the poet Lucretius seemed particularly fitting for the moment:
Spring comes and Venus, preceded by Venus’ winged harbinger, and mother Flora, following hard on the heels of Zephyr, prepares the way for them, strewing all their path with a profusion of exquisite hues and scents.
Lucretius was not looking at Primavera when he wrote these words. He couldn’t, because the poem was written centuries before Botticelli picked up a paintbrush. Perhaps it was the other way around, and Botticelli was inspired by Lucretius’ poem. However it happened, Lucretius describes the painting almost exactly, which feels serendipitous. Although Lucretius never saw the painting, his words seem an appropriate tribute to Botticelli, Primavera, and, of course, spring.