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# Botticelli's Birth of Venus Goes 8-Bit
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/botticellis-birth-of-venus-goes-8-bit/
- Published: 2011-01-14T13:30:15.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:02:57.000Z
- Description: Botticelli's original “The Birth of Venus” is hanging in a soul-stirring gallery in Florence's Uffizi Gallery, a masterpiece of delicately painted elongated figures and an icon of art history. This 8-bit version of the painting by PixelJam [http://www.pixeljam.com/]'s Rich Grilloti is sitting right
- Author: Kyle Chayka
- Tags: Opinion, #image-position-hidden, Sandro Botticelli, Video Games, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/01/8bitbotticelli.jpg)

Rich Grilloti, “Birth of Venus” (2010) (image from killscreen.com)

Botticelli’s original “The Birth of Venus” is hanging in a soul-stirring gallery in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, a masterpiece of delicately painted elongated figures and an icon of art history. This 8-bit version of the painting by [PixelJam](http://www.pixeljam.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com)‘s Rich Grilloti is sitting right here on your desktop, and it’s actually also pretty awesome! Click through for some more art as video games and video games as art. \[via [Killscreen](http://shop.killscreenmagazine.com/products/birth-of-pixel-venus-rich-grillotti-pixeljam?ref=hyperallergic.com)\]

In case you need a refresher, here Sandro Botticelli’s original from 1485 for your comparison:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/01/800px-birth_of_venus_botticelli.jpg)

Sandro Botticelli, “The Birth of Venus” (1485) (image from wikipedia.org) 

8-bit art is nothing new, but it’s great how delicately Grilloti handled the colors and the composition of the ethereally beautiful Botticelli painting. And forming a complex quartet of human figures and a landscape background into a grid of single blocks? Very cool. Why not take it one step further with [painter Brock Davis](http://www.geekologie.com/2009/11/thats%5Fnot%5Feven%5F8bit%5Fvideo%5Fgame.php?ref=hyperallergic.com)‘s Donkey Kong (the original) as abstract expressionism?

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/01/game-painting-1.jpg)

Brock Davis's abstract expressionist interpretation of Donkey Kong (image from geekologie.com)

Or how bout this Super Mario World as a hazy impressionist vista by [Orioto](http://orioto.deviantart.com/art/Mario-World-101869609?ref=hyperallergic.com)? I happen to think [Yoshi’s Island](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshi%27s%5Fisland?ref=hyperallergic.com) is a Fauvist masterpiece, myself.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/01/mario_world_by_orioto.jpg)

Orioto's impressionist take on Super Mario World (image from orioto.deviantart.com)