the seascape, stunning for its metaphysical tone and almost unreal quality, is illuminated by a very soft, delicate light. like botticelli's other masterpiece, pallas and the centaur, the birth of venus is painted on canvas - fairly unusual for its time - using a technique of thin tempera, based on the use of diluted egg yolk, which lends itself particularly well to give the painting that aspect of extraordinary transparency, which brings to mind the pictorial quality of a fresco. the figure recalls classical sculpture and is very similar to the famous medici venus found in the uffizi, which the artist certainly knew. the real meaning of this dreamlike vision is still under scholarly debate and investigation but is undoubtedly linked with the neo - platonic philosophy, widely cultivated in the medici court.