The government of Italy launched a new 9 million euro (nearly $10 million) campaign featuring the protagonist of “The birth of Venus(circa 1485) as the new AI-generated face of Italian tourism. The campaign, which reinvents Venus as a “virtual influencer”, attracted criticism on social media for what some see as a trivialization of Italy and its cultural heritage in an effort to appeal to a contemporary audience.
In A Instagram account describing her as a “worldwide icon of the Renaissance and in love with Italy”, the new “Barbie Venus” is depicted in several videos displaying a digital facelift and Frankenstein on the slender body of a modern woman wearing designer clothes and taking selfies. Instagram users took to the comments section of several posts to call the campaign “offensive and cringe-worthy,” with one user (@thatvulcanlady) not mince words in their observation that “the centrifugal force with which Botticelli is turning in his grave would be sufficient to produce the energy necessary to illuminate the whole country for years to come”.
Critics lament that the likeness of the painting, which once represented beauty, love and hope, is now a grotesque caricature used to exploit Italian culture to the detriment of its dignity – or in the words of art historian and activist Livia Garomersini Mi Riconosci“a narrative that trivializes our heritage in the most vulgar way, transforming Botticelli’s Venus into yet another stereotypical feminine beauty.”
“Given that the issue of misuse of artworks and copyright rages on these days, one wonders where the Uffizi Galleries stands on this,” Garomersini continued. It is not known whether the Uffizi Gallery in Florence consented to the appropriation of the painting by the Italian Ministry of Tourism. (The Uffizi Galleries declined to comment.)
In perhaps the most controversial development, the Italian newspaper Fatto Quotidiano reported that a video on Venus, the influencer’s Instagram features stock footage of people drinking Slovenian wine in a Slovenian wine cellar. In light of this background, the sizable budget of €9 million (~$9,907,740) seems to have been put to better use.
The campaign fared no better with official audiences. “We fight against commercial exploitation that ridicules our artistic jewels, such as aprons showing the statue of David’s private parts or grotesque reproductions of works of art in silly poses. said Dario Nardella, Mayor of Florence.
