Inspired by classical art of Botticelli, he used picture of ancient writing "Venus Anadyomene by Apelles ; Anadyomene means coming up from the water, which he used as The Birth Of Venus. having emerged from the sea as a fully grown woman, arriving at the sea-shore. The seashell she stands on was a symbol in classical antiquity for a woman's vulva. Thought to be based in part on the Venus de' Medici, an ancient Greek marble sculpture of Aphrodite.