Botticellis famous and enigmatic painting, known as The Birth of Spring has been given a new interpretation by leading Italo-American researcher Mirella Levi D'Ancona.

The 90-year old professor expounded her theories at a recent Study Day, organized by the University of Florence. According to D'Ancona, the beautiful girl at the centre of the picture does not symbolize Spring, but Venus, the Goddess of Love. The figure in the far left of the painting, often interpreted as the god Mercury, may in fact be the Trojan hero Paris, reaching up to pluck the apple he must award to the winner in the worlds first beauty contest, between the three goddesses, Juno, Venus and Minerva, dancing beside him as usually considered to be the Three Graces. The winner, Venus, re-appears in triumph in the centre of the picture.

D'Ancona claims that there is nothing in the paintings iconography to support the idea that it symbolizes the spring. None of the flowers depicted are typical spring blossoms, for instance, and there are none of the other characteristic symbols renaissance artists commonly used to let viewers read the message hidden in their works.  D'Ancona believes that the figure of Paris may actually be a tribute to Guiliano dei Medici, Botticellis patron, who was assassinated in 1478.