Titian’s "Venus of Urbino”
Understanding the Meaning Behind this Renaissance Masterpiece
The female naked body - a "nude" - is frequent subject matter of Renaissance painting. The nude body portrayed truth, beauty, friendship, and love.
It wasn't seen as negative but was glorified by artists, poets, and philosophers of the time.
The first female reclining nude in European painting is Giorgione's The Sleeping Venus, painted in 1510. It pictures a reclining nude as the principal and only subject of the picture. In creating this work, Giorgione was reviving a tradition of the female nude that can be traced back to ancient Greek art.
In fact, Giorgione's Sleeping Venus started what became one of the great themes of European art: the nude in an idealized landscape setting. Not painted for sexual desire, the nude is depicted as a demure goddess sleeping and unaware that a viewer is peeking in on her.
Titian's Venus of Urbino is a complete contrast to Giorgione's Venus. Instead of showing demure beauty and idealistic remoteness, Titian's painting is purposefully sensual. Venus is depicted on a couch in a room within an opulent palace. Two satiny white pillows support her head and shoulders. She displays none of the attributes of the goddess she is supposed to represent: she is not demure, idealized, unattainable, or remote. This Venus is a flesh-and-blood beauty, awake and fully aware of the viewer's presence.
How does an audience know that the artist is drawing attention to the woman's sensual beauty? One obvious way is how the canvas is split in half by the vertical line of the dark drape behind Venus. The drape ends just at Venus' hand, leading the viewer's eye to her loins although they're not visible because of being covered by her hand.
And how does the viewer know this is supposed to be Venus? In her hand she clutches roses, the symbol of Venus and of love.
In the background the girl's servants are assembling her clothing to dress her. Is the girl a goddess? A princess? The mistress of the man who bought the painting? Is the painting meant as a lesson primer for a new bride? This painting is typically interpreted as an allegory of marital love. Lying next to her is her pet dog, a symbol of faithfulness which could be related to the bond of marital love. In the window is a pot of myrtle: a symbol of constancy.
The most obvious alternative meaning for the painting would be an allegory of lustful love, which would simply amount to a painting of a voluptuous woman in her bedroom; but since Titian doesn't depict lewdness or pure provocative eroticism in his painting, there's little reason to believe this is the intended meaning. Perhaps Titian wanted to show that sensual pleasure can be a part of marital love. Scholars will probably continue to debate Titian's intention.
Today the masterpiece hangs in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, Italy.
Sources:
Delahunt, Michael. 2006. ArtLex on Symbols. ArtLex Art Dictionary. June 30, 2006. Retrieved July 25, 2006.
Protas, Allison. 2001. Dictionary of Symbolism. University of Michigan June 30, 2006. Retrieved July 26, 2006.
