Primavera, also known as Allegory of Spring, is a tempera panel painting by Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli. Painted ca. 1482, the painting is described in Culture & Values (2009) as "one of the most popular paintings in Western art". It is also, according to Botticelli, Primavera (1998), "one of the most written about, and most controversial paintings in the world." While most critics agree that the painting, depicting a group of mythological figures in a garden, is allegorical for the lush growth of Spring, other meanings have also been explored. Among them, the work is sometimes cited as illustrating the ideal of Neoplatonic love.

This ‘Allegory of Spring‘ is brilliant and shows Maestro Botticelli's oil painting at his best. Usually his crowd scenes look flat and confusing – but this one is almost like a modern comic panel. The history of the painting is not certainly known, though it seems to have been commissioned by one of the Medici family. It contains elements of Ovid and Lucretius and may have been inspired by a poem by Poliziano. Since 1919 the painting has been part of the collection of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.

The picture was hung in the bed-chamber along with another work by Botticelli, "Pallas and the Centaur", and is listed in an inventory of the contents of Pierfrancesco's Florentine palace. It was probably painted as a celebration of the marriage of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici in 1482. The picture celebrates the arrival of spring and is filled with mythological symbolism. Venus, Goddess of Love, is in the centre of an orange grove on her left Flora, Goddess of Flowers and Spring, appears clad in garlands of flowers. Next to Flora is the nymph Chloris, she is pursued by Zephyrus, God of Wind, who has a burning passion for her. The Roman poet Ovid describes Chloris as transforming into Flora, Goddess of Flowers, symbolising the beginning of spring, and Botticelli has placed both figures side by side within the same painting.

As mythology paintings entered into Renaissance oil art, Botticelli broke new ground with his work. He was the first to create large scale mythology scenes, some based on historical accounts of mythology. Botticelli chose to center his mythology work on what the Medici family requested, especially the younger generation. In the time period that Primavera was painted, minds were open to new ideas. Religion no longer needed to be the main subject of artist work. If the mythological works had been painted 100 years earlier, they would not have been accepted by the church because the paintings were so different than traditional paintings.

As the years have gone by, many interpretations have been given for the Primavera. Research has complied over the years and the context in that Primavera was painted in has been found. The central theme of the Primavera is one of love and marriage and when done in the right order will bring forth sensuality and fertility. This painting, the largest mythological painting in the Early Renaissance, was commissioned by the Medici family. The Botticelli painting was hung in the bedroom of a bride to a member of the Medici family.

La Primavera oil painting was painted for the Villa di Castello, which was owned by a branch of the Medici family. In 1815, the painting was moved to the Uffizi, where it is now. Botticelli's sophisticated understanding of perspective, anatomy, and the humanist debate of the Medici court never overshadowed the poetry of his vision. An allegory of life, beauty, and knowledge united by love, La Primavera captures the freshness of an early spring morning, with the light shining through the tall, straight trees, already laden with their golden fruit.

The meaning of La Primavera has been interpreted in many ways but remains enigmatic. One persisting interpretation suggests that the mythological figures in the painting undergo transformation to show a progressive sublimation of sensual love in intellectual contemplation. This sublimation is in accordance with the harmony that governs the cosmos and is evoked in the figure of Venus.

World-renowned 'Early Renaissance' painter Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), was an Italian Florentine artist, whose artistic prowess remained in oblivion posthumously for almost four hundred years. Historian Alexis-François Rio unveiled Botticelli before the world. 'Renaissance' was one of the most influential movements, encompassing the entire gamut of artistic faculties and culture as a whole. Sandro's works were mostly centered on religious and mythological themes. In line with the then prevailing customs of art, they also focused on the thematic representation of mythologies through detailed human forms and elaborate backgrounds. Botticelli is best known for his paintings, "Primavera" and "The Birth of Venus."