Consider Botticelli's Birth of Venus. Identify the subject and medium of this painting. Explain how the structure and form of this composition, as well as its content, reveal changes that are representative of Renaissance art

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In addition to Christian themes, Renaissance artists also turned to stories of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses for subject matter. An example is Botticelli's tempera on canvas painting Birth of Venus, whose central subject is Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. Botticelli paints the goddess in the nude, with only a few concessions to modesty. Such a large-scale depiction of the female nude in art was unknown since the nudity of classical art. Botticelli's usual linear style and shallow modeling were an exception to Renaissance norms. Subtle Neo-Platonic themes pervade the scene, such as the identification of Venus with Eve and the Virgin Mary, and Venus's birth from water is related to the baptism of Christ. Botticelli's work displays the rarefied and learned side of Renaissance art.