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Venus of Urbino
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| Artist | Titian |
|---|---|
| Year | 1534 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Location | Uffizi, Florence |
The Venus of Urbino (also known as Reclining Venus) is an oil painting by the master Venetian painter, Titian, which is attributed to Venice’s High Renaissance period[1]. The work was commissioned by the Duke of Urbino Guidobaldo II Della Rovere as a gift for his young wife. Although the exact dates are unclear, the painting seems to have been begun in 1532 or 1534, and was perhaps completed in 1534, but not sold to the Duke until 1538. The painting depicts an idealized, beautiful young nude woman traditionally identified as the Roman goddess of love and desire, Venus, reclining on a couch or bed in the sumptuous surroundings of a Renaissance palace[2]. The painting can currently be found in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence[2].
Visual Analysis and Subject Matter
[edit]The Venus of Urbino falls into the popular Venetian Renaissance painting category of the idealized female in the role of a reclining nude[1]. The painting depicts a woman traditionally identified as Venus suggestively reclining upon a couch draped with white silk sheets and pillows while gazing out to engage with her viewer. She is depicted as curvy with light, rosy skin and blonde hair which cascades in curls over her shoulder; this was the epitome of ideal Venetian beauty[3]. The setting of the painting is within a sumptuous Venetian palace, indicating that the woman depicted is wealthy and associated with a rather high social class[4].
One theory behind the identity of the depicted woman is that she is a courtesan, which is a prostitute usually associated with wealthy, upper-class clients[2]. Unlike the usual connotation of prostitutes, courtesans in Venetian society were seen as autonomous and powerful women. They were unmarried, and were thus able to pursue higher education[5].
Symbolism
[edit]As this painting was commissioned by the Duke of Urbino Guidobaldo II Della Rovere as a gift for his young wife, there is evidence that it represents the allegory of marriage. This evidence lies largely in the symbolism of the painting. Floral symbols are traditionally associated with Venus and the special kind of love that the goddess represents. The small dog lying at Venus’ feet can be interpreted as a symbol of marital fidelity due to dogs’ common association with a trusting nature. The maids depicted in the background of the painting rummaging through the cassone chest may serve to confirm the social significance of Venus[2]. A recent theory by Józef Grabski suggests that the painting represents an allegory of marital love between famous Italian poet Vittoria Colonna and her deceased husband, Fernando d'Ávalos. Grabski supports his theory through analyzing various visual clues and symbols, the most prominent being the classic column in front of the trees in the window in the right half, a small detail on the painting that imitates the Colonna Family coat of arms. An alternative interpretation of the two individuals as a housemaid and a young girl suggest that they could symbolize motherhood. The white linen sheet which Venus lays on is likely a symbol of purity, the crimson bed underneath as well as the red roses a symbol of love, while the fading red roses and fallen roses allude to death and the concept of mortality[6]. This concept of mortality was also addressed by the humanizing indoor setting of the painting which connects the goddess to mortals rather than the divine. This contrasts Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus which depicts Venus in a pastoral setting, and in doing so, evokes the image of a divinitively nude goddess rather than a temporarily nude individual[6][1]. Finally, the overall eroticism which emanates from the painting would serve to remind the young wife of the marital obligations she would have to her husband[7]. All of these aspects together showcase the painting as an allegory of marriage as the collective representation equates to the qualities of a ‘good wife’[6].
Composition, Style and Material
[edit]Composition
[edit]The composition of The Venus of Urbino is clearly and intentionally horizontal. This composition resembles that of a cassone chest, which was a decorative chest usually gifted to a new bride by her in-laws. On the painted panel lids of cassoni chests was usually an image of the distended female nude. The resemblance of the painting’s composition to a cassone chest is fitting, as it was gifted to the young wife of the Duke of Urbino[2]. The composition is also noticeably bisected by the dark green drapery which falls behind Venus. This bisection is intentionally done to draw the viewer's eye down to Venus’ hand which rests upon her genitals, suggesting a symbol of fertility and sensuality. It has been further theorized that Venus may be engaging in masturbation[8]. In addition to the bisection, the voluptuous and flowing rhythm of the woman’s body also serves to emphasize the sensuality of the painting[1]. Unlike other paintings which have a dividing shelf to separate the spatial illusion of the painting from the viewer’s space, The Venus of Urbino depicts the couch upon which venus lays in such a way that it seems to protrude into the viewer’s space. This suggests an element of invitation as if the viewer could enter the painting and interact with Venus herself[4].
Style
[edit]Titian tended to exploit the weave of his canvas with thick layers of paint that created a sense of atmosphere within the painting itself. The painter was unique in his technique of beginning with a white prepared ground on his canvas and building up dark colors. He was also very expressive in his brush strokes and often used a wide range of different brushes for his paintings. Titian used a particularly thick application of paint, a technique that later artists would explore. This technique seemed to give a flat canvas a view into another world[9].
Colorito
[edit]It is important to note the exquisite use of color in this painting, as colorito was of the utmost importance to Venetian painters, whereas other areas in Renaissance Italy such as Florence stressed the importance of disegno over colorito. Venetian painters were often criticized by other Italian artists for their focus on colorito, but they took pride in this regional characteristic[1]. The rich pigments of red, green, and gold illuminate the painting. Furthermore, the light and warm color contrasts the dark background, thus accentuating the overall sensuality of the painting[7]. This Venetian quality of color and the focus of its reflection of light is thought to harken back to the Byzantine-inspired Venetian taste for mosaics[10].
Medium
[edit]The medium of oil paint on canvas allowed Titian to capture the fleshy quality of Venus’ body with a soft, glowing richness that seems to emanate from within the painting itself. Furthermore the thick weave of the canvas allowed for a realistic depiction of flesh complete with blue undertones resembling veins beneath the skin[4]. Canvas inspired new brushwork techniques that were loose with more suggestive handling, in contrast to the smooth and meticulous methods often used on panel. Oil paint is a very popular medium in Venetian art. It allows for gradation of tone using differing pigment dilutions and giving a sense of continuing atmosphere. Reference The malleability of the oil medium also made possible the technique of painting by trial and error, while also capturing a certain glowing richness[1].
Historical Background
[edit]Inspiration
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The figure's reclining nude pose and depiction of idealized female beauty is likely based on that of the Dresden Venus (also known as Sleeping Venus), a work by Venetian master painter Giorgione (1478-1510) which helped begin the Venetian tradition of the reclining nude. Upon the death of Giorgione, the unfinished Dresden Venus was completed by Titian[6]. Although the painting was for the most part completed, Titian painted the silk sheets under Venus[11]. Titian was an apprentice of Giorgione, and in this role, picked up the ability to imitate his elder master’s style and capture his inner spirit as well[1]. Much of Giorgione’s influence can be seen translated in The Venus of Urbino in the technique of sketching the composition with a brush directly onto the painting and continuing with bold touches of color and variable brush strokes[1]. Giorgione was also known to paint portraits which seemed to invite the spectator to share in their intimate thoughts and feelings, and even respond to their presence. This quality of engaging with the spectator can clearly been seen in Titian’s Venus of Urbino[1]. In comparison to the Dresden Venus, Titian has domesticated Venus by moving her to an indoor setting. It is thought that this could suggest the temporary nakedness of the beautiful mortal rather than the permanent and ideal nudity of a goddess, thus adding a humanizing element to the depicted figure[1].
The detailed depiction of the interior setting is unusual, perhaps unique, in Titian. Titian contracted for the 21 year old Ippolito de' Medici, reluctantly made a cardinal (though not a priest), by his uncle, Pope Clement VII. He was trying to pursue a military career, and was a papal diplomat. On 20 October 1532 he spent the night in Venice with Angela del Moro, or Angela Zaffetta, a leading courtesan in Venice and sometimes a dining companion of Titian and Aretino, the latter a friend of the cardinal. Titian painted Ippolito's portrait, and it seems likely that he was asked to add a nude portrait of Angela Zaffetta, or that Titian decided to paint one in the hope he would like it.
Commission
[edit]The Venus of Urbino was commissioned by The Duke of Urbino Guidobaldo II Della Rovere as a gift for his young wife[1]. In addition to Venus of Urbino, The Duke of Urbino Guidobaldo II Della Rovere also commissioned a second work by Titian during the same time period in which he completed Venus of Urbino. This painting is known as La Bella (1536), and the resemblance between the women in the two paintings can be clearly seen. The woman in La Bella, however, is fully clothed in a magnificent and fashionable blue dress[1]. However, there is debate as to whether the Duke of Urbino actually commissioned the painting or not. It is argued that if The Duke had commissioned the painting, he would not have been concerned with losing it to another buyer, claiming that it is actually just a generic marriage picture. Furthermore, it is evident that The Duke’s marriage to ten-year-old Giulia Varana of Camerino occurred four years before he even acquired the painting[2].
History of Possession
[edit]The Duke of Urbino Guidobaldo II Della Rovere acquired The Venus of Urbino in 1538. It was then passed into the possession of the Duke of Camerino followed by the Duke of Urbino. Duke Guidobaldo was actually concerned that he would lose the painting to another buyer while he was coordinating adequate funds for payment[2]. In 1624, as the Papacy moved to fully annex the duchy to the Papal States, the della Rovere court moved to Pesaro, where the painting hung in the Villa Imperiale. It joined the Medici family collections in 1633 when the last della Rovere, Vittoria della Rovere, married Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. It was moved to the Uffizi in 1736, and has remained there ever since, apart from visits to exhibitions which in the 21st century have included Madrid, Brussels, Tokyo, Venice and Urbino[12]. The painting can currently be found in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence[2].
Titian and Giorgione
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Titian (c.1490-1576), who is also known as Tiziano Vecellio, is the artist of The Venus of Urbino. He was a master Venetian painter during the Early Renaissance period. Titian moved to Venice from Pieve di Cadore in the Dolomites and became the apprentice of previous master painter, Giorgione. Titian learned from his master’s style and entered his Giorgionesque period before developing his skills to full artistic maturity. He became so talented at emulating his elder master’s style that it is often difficult to discern which works should be attributed to Titian and which to Giorgione. Titian’s arrival at full artistic maturity is marked by his work, The Assunta, and he went on to become the dominant personality of Venetian painting and one of the most sought-after painters in Italy[1].
Giorgione (c.1477/8-1510) was known as the founder of the modern style of the Venetian High Renaissance. His style, technique, composition and iconography broke all 15th century traditional painting norms. Giorgione’s works are characterized by an aura of enchantment and elusiveness, as well as the ability to portray his subjects as inviting his spectator into the painting to share in their thoughts and feelings[1]. Giorgione had the ability to use shadows to represent natural forms and in doing so imparted a sense of fleshy softness to his figures[13]. Giorgione was also inspired by the transformation of the pastoral poem or poesia in terms of a painting[1].
Reception
[edit]Interpretations
[edit]Interpretations of the painting fall into two groups; both agree that the painting has a powerful erotic charge, but beyond that it is seen either as a portrait of a courtesan, or as a painting celebrating the marriage of its first owner (who according to some may not have commissioned it)[2]. The Venus stares straight at the viewer, confidently unconcerned with her nudity. Instead of averting her gaze, she does not challenge her viewer, but seems to invite him into her boudoir as to intonate her eroticism[14]. In engaging her with her viewer, Venus is made more sensuality explicit; some even believe the figure is engaging in masturbation[8]. It was actually quite controversial to depict a woman as making eye contact and engaging with the viewer, as Western culture seems to associate her confidence with sexual promiscuity [14]. Female nudes are not traditionally represented as in The Venus of Urbino; it is more conventional in Western art to represent the female nude as passive, vulnerable, and anonymous and simply an object of the male gaze. Venus' consciousness of the male gaze as well as her return of that gaze to confront her viewer reduces her objectivity[15].
Mark Twain visited the Uffizi museum and reported his reception of the Venus of Urbino in A Tramp Abroad (1880) saying, "...there, against the wall, without obstructing rag or leaf, you may look upon the foulest, the vilest, the obscenest picture the world possesses -- Titian's Venus. It isn't that she is naked stretched out on a bed -- no, it is the attitude of one of her arms and her hand. If I ventured to describe that attitude, there would be a fine howl -- but there the Venus lies, for anybody to gloat over that wants to -- and there she has a right to lie, for she is a work of art, and Art has its privileges."[16]
Contrasting the reception of Twain, that of Crowe and Cavalcaselle in Life and Times of Titian (1881) is much in favor of the painting, and is appreciative of the natural portrayal of the woman. Their account reads, "Lying as nature shaped her, with her legs entwined... We may fancy her to have bathed and to be waiting for the handmaids, who are busy in the room, one of them having raised the lid of a chest and taken a dress out, whilst a second stoops to select another... realizing anything more sublime than woman in her fairest aspect, did Titian conceive of this picture. Nature as he presents it here is young and lovely, not transfigured into ineffable noblesse, but conscious and triumphant without loss of modesty."[17]
For Charles Hope, "It has yet to be shown that the most famous example of this genre, Titian's Venus of Urbino, is anything other than a representation of a beautiful nude woman on a bed, devoid of classical or even allegorical content."Even the indefatigable finder of allegories drawing on Renaissance Neoplatonism, Edgar Wind, had to admit that in this case "an undisguised hedonism had at last dispelled the Platonic metaphors".
Works Inspired by The Venus of Urbino
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Venus of Urbino, in conjunction with the aforementioned Dresden Venus, by Giorgione inspired later works depicting the reclining nude. One of these inspiration pieces is The Grande Odalisque by Ingres[18]. Similarly to The Venus of Urbino the woman gazes directly at her viewer[18]. Another work inspired by The Venus of Urbino is Olympia by Manet[2].
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- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Humfrey, Peter (1997). Painting in Renaissance Venice. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300067156.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rosand, David (October 31, 2018). ""So-And-So Reclining on Her Couch"". Studies in the History of Art. 45: 100–119 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Karim-Cooper, Farah (2012). Cosmetics in Shakespearean and Renaissance Drama. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780748677092.
- ^ a b c Pardo, Mary (1997). Titian's "Venus of Urbino". Cambridge [England] ; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521444489.
- ^ Bassanese, Fiora (1988). "Private Lives and Public Lies: Texts by Courtesans". Texas Studies in Literature and Language. 30: 295–319 – via JSTOR.
- ^ a b c d Grabski, Jozef (1999). ""Victoria Amoris": Titian's Venus of Urbino. A Commemorative Allegory of Marital Love". Artibus et Historiae. 20: 9–33 – via JSTOR.
- ^ a b "Venus of Urbino by Titian". Visit Uffizi. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b Arasse, Daniel (1997). Titian's "Venus of Urbino". Cambridge [England] ; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521444489.
- ^ Nichols, Tom (2013). Titian: And the End of the Venetian Renaissance. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1780231860.
- ^ Howard, Deborah (2004). The Architectural History of Venice. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300090291.
- ^ Anderson, Jaynie (1997). Giorgione. Flammarion. ISBN 978-2080136442.
- ^ Gray, Mary (August 2, 2016). "Titian masterpiece temporarily returns to Urbino". The Florentine. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Pardo, Mary (1993). Sexuality and Gender in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge [England] ; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521446051.
- ^ a b Schiewetz, Katie (2005). "Love Me Tender: Figuring Out the Real Meaning Behind Titian's Venus of Urbino". Lehigh Review. 13.
- ^ Bauer, Denise (1994). "Alice Neel's Female Nudes". Woman's Art Journal. 15: 21–26 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Twain, Mark (1880). A Tramp Abroad. Toronto. p. 357.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Crowe, J. A.; Cavalcaselle (1881). The Life and Times of Titian. London. pp. 389–390.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b Osei Poku, Patrick (2016). "Nudity As A Theme in Painting: Is It A Proliferation Of Pornography?" (PDF). International Journal of Innovative Research and Advanced Studies. 3: 102–106.