Botticelli's Venus and Mars 'high on drugs' Mars
The lovers in one of the National Gallery's most famous paintings may be depicted experiencing the effects of a hallucinogenic drug, according to an art expert.
Venus and Mars has long been regarded as a tribute to the "conquering and civilising power of love" but new evidence suggests it could contain a subversive message about drug use.
A plant being held by a mischievous-looking satyr in the bottom right corner of the painting has been recognised as a specimen of Datura stramonium, a plant which causes madness and the urge to take one's clothes off.
The fruit, the effects of which are documented in Ancient Greek texts, had not been thought important until it was noticed by David Bellingham, a programme director at Sotheby's Institute of Art....
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Venus and Mars has long been regarded as a tribute to the "conquering and civilising power of love" but new evidence suggests it could contain a subversive message about drug use.
A plant being held by a mischievous-looking satyr in the bottom right corner of the painting has been recognised as a specimen of Datura stramonium, a plant which causes madness and the urge to take one's clothes off.
The fruit, the effects of which are documented in Ancient Greek texts, had not been thought important until it was noticed by David Bellingham, a programme director at Sotheby's Institute of Art....