Venus of Urbino by Titian

The painting is significant for its seductive pose, posy of roses in the right hand of the nude female and the resting dog on the right corner of the bed. The nude female is lying with a confidence which makes her even more charming. The painting was painted in 1538 by an Italian painter Titian who belongs to the High Renaissance era.
Titian was the most important member of the 16th century Venetian school. He was the son of Gregorio Vecelli and his wife Lucia. Titian was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore, taken from the place of the birth. Titian was one of the most versatile Italian painters, equally adept with portraits and landscapes (two genres that first brought him fame), mythological and religious subjects. Titian was known for his remarkable use of colors. Titian joined the workshop of Giovanni Bellini in Venice. However, it was through contact with Giorgione, who was also previously trained in Giovanni Bellini’s workshop, that he mainly developed his early style. He was also known as a painter of various profane subjects, in which he usually painted nude females to represent beauty and charm, his “ Venus of Urbino” is one them, which shows the goddess of love. These skills drew the attention of intellectually ambitious Italian dukes and aristocrats. His painting methods, particularly in the application and use of color, would exercise a profound influence not only on painters of the Italian Renaissance, but on future generations of Western art.
The painting shows nude young woman, reclining on a bed in the luxurious surroundings. The painting represents the allegory of marriage and was a “teaching” model to Guilia Varano, the young wife of eroticism, fidelity and motherhood. The evident eroticism of the painting, in fact, reminded the women of the marital obligations she would have to fulfill to her husband. The erotic allegory is evident in the representation of Venus, the goddess of love, as a sensual and delectable woman staring at the viewer who could not ignore her beauty. The light and warm color of her body is in contrast to the dark background, bringing out her eroticism. The dog at the feet of the woman is the symbol of marital fidelity while, in the background, the house maid looking down at the young girl as she rummages in the chest symbolizes motherhood. The strong sensuality of the painting was therefore consistent with its private and domestic purpose, as a gift from husband to wife.
The Venus of Urbino has so many artistic devices: the play of light on the girl’s body and Titian’s delicate chiaroscuro lends a sculptural quality to the nude and also intensifies the silk drapery of the bed and the tiles of the floor provide further linear perspective. It was certainly not common for pictures of an explicitly erotic nature to be commissioned to celebrate a wedding, although they would be intended for private viewing only. Titian says:
“The painter must always seek the essence of things; always represent the essential characteristics and emotions of the person he is painting...”
At first glance, Padovanino’s (Italian painter of late Mannerism) “Dresden Venus” is unquestionably re-apparition of Titian’s Sleeping Venus, looking more closely; she morphs into Titian’s Venus of Urbino. The elements are represented in a different configuration, the forms are slightly altered, and the props are rearranged. In Padovanino’s version, the goddess is depicted reclining en plein air like the Dresden Venus. Yet just in the Venus of Urbino, she is framed on the left side of the painting by a ponderous expanse of cloth. In Titian’s painting this curtain is green; in Padovanino’s it is red. Padovanino’s Venus, like the one in Dresden, is asleep, whereas the Urbino Venus is awake. Contextualizing Padovanino’s seemingly innocuous painting by referring to what immediately appears to be an obvious source unexpectedly turns into a complex endeavor. A close examination of Padovanino’s Sleeping Venus not only reveals referential nature but also disclose Titian’s repetition of the woman’s body from his own Sleeping Venus to the Venus of Urbino. As comparing to Edouard Manet’s (French painter of 19th century and a pivotal figure in the transition from realism and expressionism) “Olympia” the painting lacked color in many ways, as its primary tones were black and white. The blatant contrast in the painting brings vivid attention to the figure of Olympia while openly contrasting the black servant and black cat in the background. The flowers interestingly enough were positioned not towards Olympia’s line of vision as they “were not meant for Olympia’s eyes but for the viewer’s eyes and edification”.

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[ 1 ]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titian, accessed on March 21, 2016
[ 2 ]. http://www.titian-tizianovecellio.org/, accessed on March 21, 2016
[ 3 ]. http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/titian, accessed on March 21, 2016
[ 4 ]. Ibid
[ 5 ]. http://www.uffizi.org/artworks/venus-of-urbino-titian/, accessed on March 4, 2016
[ 6 ]. Ibid
[ 7 ]. Ibid
[ 8 ]. http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-paintings/venus-of-urbino.htm, accessed on March 7, 2016
[ 9 ]. Maria H. Loh. Titian Remade: Repetition and the Transformation of Early Modern Italian Art, (Getty Publications by Getty Research Institute), 1, 18.
[ 10 ]. Ibid
[ 11 ]. Ibid
[ 12 ]. Ibid
[ 13 ]. Ibid
[ 14 ]. Ibid
[ 15 ]. http://crimescandalspectacle.academic.wlu.edu/manets-olympia-the-scandal-of-nudity/comparing-manets-olympia-with-titians-venus-of-urbino/, accessed on March 4, 2016
[ 16 ]. Ibid
[ 17 ]. ibid