Gods, Drugs and Art

[Ursus]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p...oryId=127752216

 

 

 

 

Among the priceless pieces in London's National Gallery is a painting by 15th-century master Sandro Botticelli. The canvas, called Venus and Mars, depicts the titular deities lounging in a meadow. Venus looks forward while Mars lies beside her, apparently asleep.

 

... Or is he? Recently, art historian David Bellingham came to a different conclusion. He noticed that Botticelli painted a fruit in the bottom right-hand corner of his canvas that looks a lot like datura stramonium, a plant that's also known as "poor man's acid."