One of the most famous of all renaissance paintings is Botticelli's 'Primavera', in the Uffizzi Gallery. Amongst its lovely forms are the Three Graces, re-invented from a famous classical model much reproduced in Roman centuries.
I say 're-invented' because, in addition to his graceful (!) flowing lines, Botticelli's Graces present characteristics differing from the classical model, which are together quite uncommon. They truly dance. They link hands, as indeed in renaissance dances of Botticelli's time. They look toward each other. And they -- or two of them -- raise their joined hands joyfully above. (And they are gauzily clad rather than nude, albeit no less sexy for that -- probably more so.)
I say 're-invented' because, in addition to his graceful (!) flowing lines, Botticelli's Graces present characteristics differing from the classical model, which are together quite uncommon. They truly dance. They link hands, as indeed in renaissance dances of Botticelli's time. They look toward each other. And they -- or two of them -- raise their joined hands joyfully above. (And they are gauzily clad rather than nude, albeit no less sexy for that -- probably more so.)
Photo from the Tate Gallery at www.tate.org.uk
Another Three Graces surprisingly similar in these respects to Botticelli's is Picasso's so-called Three Dancers (1925), or La Dance, in the Tate Museum. Surely Picasso was stimulated by Botticelli, while re-inventing Botticelli's Graces in his own very un-Botticellian style! -- although to my knowledge this similarity has not been remarked by those who know far more about Picasso than I, for instance John Richardson in his monumental ongoing biography of Picasso.
The Tate's online description could hardly recall Botticelli less: 'The jagged forms of Three Dancers convey an explosion of energy. The image is laden with Picasso's personal recollections of a triangular affair, which resulted in the heart-broken suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas. Love, sex and death are linked in an ecstatic dance. The left-hand dancer in particular seems possessed by uncontrolled, Dionysian frenzy. Her face relates to a mask from Torres Strait, New Guinea, owned by the artist, and points to Picasso's association of 'primitive' forms with expressiveness and sexuality.'
John Richardson's acute analysis argues a 'Jazz Age interpretation' of La Danse. The vital 'antithesis' of the 'central crucificial dancer' is the 'Dionysiac dancer' on the left, 'a maenad...dancing a demonic Charleston'. ' The notion of a Charleston tallies with a fantasy Picasso had described to Diaghilev: "a chorus of music-hall girls [coming] on stage to the music intended for a proccession of bacchantes" -- and then performing "a French can-can number".'
[Richardson, A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932 (Knopf, 2007), p. 282]
However, Richardson tells us that 'La Danse had started life as a balletic Three Graces '. Richardson does not mention Botticelli; but Picasso visited Florence in 1917, including the Uffizi holding Botticelli's Primavera with his Three Graces.
Characteristically, Picasso has drawn on the deepest heritages of European art and literature (and, here, of New Guinea art too), and married it to modernity by his genius.
I suggest Botticelli did something similar in his own day. And that Picasso must have known and incorporated Botticelli's Three Graces.
The Tate's online description could hardly recall Botticelli less: 'The jagged forms of Three Dancers convey an explosion of energy. The image is laden with Picasso's personal recollections of a triangular affair, which resulted in the heart-broken suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas. Love, sex and death are linked in an ecstatic dance. The left-hand dancer in particular seems possessed by uncontrolled, Dionysian frenzy. Her face relates to a mask from Torres Strait, New Guinea, owned by the artist, and points to Picasso's association of 'primitive' forms with expressiveness and sexuality.'
John Richardson's acute analysis argues a 'Jazz Age interpretation' of La Danse. The vital 'antithesis' of the 'central crucificial dancer' is the 'Dionysiac dancer' on the left, 'a maenad...dancing a demonic Charleston'. ' The notion of a Charleston tallies with a fantasy Picasso had described to Diaghilev: "a chorus of music-hall girls [coming] on stage to the music intended for a proccession of bacchantes" -- and then performing "a French can-can number".'
[Richardson, A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932 (Knopf, 2007), p. 282]
However, Richardson tells us that 'La Danse had started life as a balletic Three Graces '. Richardson does not mention Botticelli; but Picasso visited Florence in 1917, including the Uffizi holding Botticelli's Primavera with his Three Graces.
Characteristically, Picasso has drawn on the deepest heritages of European art and literature (and, here, of New Guinea art too), and married it to modernity by his genius.
I suggest Botticelli did something similar in his own day. And that Picasso must have known and incorporated Botticelli's Three Graces.
Three Graces on a Roman bronze mirror back, at Met Museum, N.Y.
Compare both Botticelli's and Picassso's Three Graces to the classical model, some version(s) of which Botticelli was well aware. The iconic statues for us today are The Three Graces in the Louvre or the Metropolitan Museum or the Siena Piccolomini Library (in the cathedral) . They are indeed graceful, lovely, but relatively static, as if posed rather than dancing. The two outer Graces look away rather than at each other. Their hands join one Grace to another, but mainly by touching or holding shoulders, which of course lessens their mobility too.
Louvre
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Met Museum
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Piccolomini Library, Siena
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Three Graces by Raphael, Musée Condé
And compare other renaissance versions of the Three Graces, which to my eye are more similar to the classical model than is Botticelli's. Raphael's, for instance (at the Musée Condé). Or the depiction of the Graces in at least three renaissance medals honouring women -- one of them a Florentine contemporary of Botticelli's, Giovanna Tornabuoni. Or slightly less traditional versions by Correggio or slyly prurient by Cranach. Another Three Graces by, or supervised by, Raphael in the Villa Farnesina (Rome) is delightful but a quite different iconography.
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Three Graces by Correggio
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Lucas Cranach the Elder
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Raphael, Villa Farnesina
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| There is a superb Pontormo drawing of the Three Graces (Uffizi), which must have been stimulated by Botticelli's and is a happy blend of the classical and Botticellian (and a wonderful work of art on its own). Yet Picasso is most unlikely to have known that drawing. | 
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| A well-known 17th century Three Graces by Rubens depicts them facing each other in postures rather similar to Botticelli's, if more weightily than Botticelli's nymphs, which probably were in Rubens's mind. Yet his seems to my eye more classical in spirit -- and hardly similar to Picasso's. | 
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Compare, too, closer to Picasso's century, lively Graces by Canova, Carpeaux and Pradier, all of which Picasso likely did know. Indeed, Richardson characterizes Picasso's neo-classical Three Graces (1923) as carrying on from Canova's version.
Three Graces by Canova
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Three Graces by Carpeaux
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Three Graces by Pradier
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These comparisons point up both Botticelli's innovativve interpretation, especially for his own time, ... | Finally, back to Botticelli and Picasso! Botticelli's Three Graces are performing an up-to-the-minute Florentine renaissance dance; Picasso employs the same idea for his own Jazz Age. ... and the surprising , remarkable similarities between Botticelli's Three Graces (in the Primavera) and Picasso's (in La Danse), as each artist re-invented the classical model -- Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, in the public domain, except the Tate Picasso 'Three Dancers', and the medals which are from mcsearch.info The medieval & modern coin search engine. | 
Photo from the Tate Museum at www.tate.org.uk
-- and as Picasso re-interpreted Botticelli's model, however wildly different Picasso's Jazz Age 20th century dancing Graces may seem at first glance from Botticelli's 15th century dancing Tuscan Graces. |
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