I got a gift from my next door neighbor–a little rum cake from Barbados, carefully stowed in a beautiful, yellow hexagonal cake box. Little pyramidal clouds float around the sides of the lid, with the words “A tantalizing taste of Barbados.” But the top of the box is what stole my heart–a Botticelli Venus, with some quirky modifications (here’s an online image of Botticelli’s babe).
On the box, Venus’ hair is browner, but otherwise a complete rip (just like the Illustrator Venus!), and her face is also barely modified for a slightly more ethnic Barbados look. She is plumper and en costume!!–wearing a calypso dress and a tropical flower in her hair. She floats in a pink shell on a Caribbean blue sea, beneath a clear, unmodulated cerulean sky in which two more of the pyramidal clouds flank her head; A trio of palm trees play instruments–congas, steel drums and steel guitar. In the back a tall ship floats on the horizon line.
This is a far cry from the ocean and sky in Botticelli, with its blowing winds and fabric, the flying flowers and peaked waters of an icier place.
I love how blissed out and calm the Barbados Venus and her environs are; I love how it has been re-imagined for such a different culture! Anyway, I thought you too might enjoy seeing it and mulling over the choices the artist made.
p.s. the cake was great (especially with a dollop of ice cream). And the website is www.calypsorumcake.com
