MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / FIRENZE – Titian Vecellio: Venus of Urbino

In her right hand she holds a posy of roses and she holds her other hand over her genitals. She stares straight at the viewer. Its an oil painting on canvas – physically small (119 x 165 cm) – sumptuously realized by Titian Vecellio in 1538. By the time he executed this work, Titian was established as the leading master of Renaissance art in Venice. Above all, he was known for his remarkable use of colour. The “Venus of Urbino” it hangs in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence. http://www.uffizi.com/ What you can see in the sumptuous surroundings of a Renaissance palace, it depicts a nude young woman (the goddess Venus), reclining on a couch or maybe a bed. Often a symbol of fidelity, in the near of Venus background is a dog. The woman standing in the background is a matron (a chatelaine, the lady of the household), and she supervises a servant who is placing things into a chest. The “Venus of Urbino” was commissioned by the Duke of Urbino, it is celebrating marital love and the physical intimacy between man and wife, maybe to celebrate his 1534 marriage. http://www.urbino.com/ducal-palace-urbino-palace-of-urbino/?lang=en This painting is the origin of many of Western art’s most controversial images, like The Naked Maja (1797 by Goya) https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-naked-maja/65953b93-323e-48fe-98cb-9d4b15852b18 as well as Olympia (1863 by Edouard Manet) http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/search/commentaire_id/olympia-7087.html