The Venus of Urbino: A Goddess Unmasked?

Mark Twain probably denounced this work the most vehemently

when he wrote in A Tramp Abroad1

“…without any question it was painted for a bagnio

and it was probably refused because it was a trifle
too strong. The truth is it is a trifle too strong for
any place but a public art gallery.”

Along with Twain’s condemnation, it has been described at times as

“so and so reclining on a couch”,2 or “this Venus is no Venus at all’

and in the authoritative words of Grand Larousse “this composition

contains nothing mythical but the title”3. On the other hand, a

sophisticated viewer like Vasari who saw the Venus of Urbino in 1584

described it as “a youthful recumbent Venus with flowers and certain

light draperies about her”4.

One of the most controversial paintings by Titian continues to be the

Venus of Urbino completed around 1538. The controversy revolves

primarily around the following questions: is the Venus of Urbino a

1
Twain, Mark. Chapter L
2
Rosand, pg 41
3
Grand Larosse, as quoted in Goffen, Titian’s Women, pg 1
4
Vasari, as quoted in Goffen, Titian’s Women. Pg 1
wedding picture and thus a mythological representation of wifely

virtues, or is it the image of a courtesan whose impersonation of a

goddess “fooled no one”.5

The aim of this paper is to understand the nature of the painting by

exploring three considerations: the artist and his time, the

iconography, and the “look”.

The Venus of Urbino depicts a nude young woman, identified with the

goddess Venus, reclining on a couch or bed in the sumptuous

surroundings of a Renaissance palace. Unlike the prototype (i.e.

Venus Pudica or variants there off such as the Venus de’ Medici) this

Venus does not cover her breasts with her right arm, but instead

props herself up on pillows while clutching a bunch of roses. Her left

hand is curved over her pudenda. A small dog sleeps at her feet,

while her servants in the background attend to her clothes. Rich

drapery divides the space and a trimmed myrtle plant sits on the

window ledge6. Daniel Arasse points out that she is the first isolated

reclining female nude by Titian, represented outside of any action or

5
Goffen, Titians Women, pg 16
6
Goffen, Titian’s Venus of Urbino, Pg1
narrative, and “engaged with the viewer in a direct exchange of

glances”.7

The artists, Titian or Tiziano Vecellio was born in a small alpine

village of Pieve di Cadore, Italy now not far from the Austrian border,

where his family lived for many years. The exact year of his birth is in

dispute8 (Gould) but assumed to be between 1487 and 1489. His

parents, Lucia and Gregorio di Conte dei Vecelli, were respectable

people of modest means. In about 1498, at the age of nine or ten,

Titian and his elder brother Francesco were sent to Venice to start

their training as painters in the workshop of the mosaicist Sebastiano

Zuccato. Subsequently he worked with Gentile Bellini and Giovanni

Bellini. In 1507, Titian joined the workshop of Giorgione as his

assistant. The three years (until Giorgione's death in 1510), which he

spent with Giorgione, were a lasting influence on Titian to such a

degree, that some works, which contemporary art historians now

attribute toTitian, used to be attributed to Giorgione, and vice versa.9

Titian was immensely successful in his lifetime and since his death

has been recognized as the greatest painter of the Venetian school.

7
Arasse, Daniel. Pg 92
8
Gould, Cecil. Pg 1
9
Gould, Cecil. Pg 1
As Gould points out

His work illuminates more clearly than that of

any other painter the fundamental transition
from the 15th-century tradition (characterized
by meticulous finish and the use of bright local
colours) to that of the 16th century, when
painters adopted a broader technique, with
less defined outlines and with mutually related
colours.10

Titian was active during the fertile period of the High Renaissance a

time when Italy created a new world in literature, art and social life. 11

Most writers on the period have generally supported the notion that

the Renaissance was a time of “exceptional moral depravity”.12 While

manipulation had to a great extent replaced brute force in attaining

political and personal power, the return to the half-forgotten classical

antiquities suggested new ideals of life, and provided examples of

degenerative practices to both men and women.13 At the same time,

there was also a “progressive softening of manners,” an improvement

in the “position of women,” and a “growth in human sympathy”.14

10
Ibid
11
Boulting, William. Pg 1
12
Ibid
13
Boulting, Pg 1
14
Ibid Pg 4
Boulting points out that perhaps the most significant and valuable

advancements of the 16th century were the “enhancements that

women found in their own lives, the growth of their importance in

social life, as well as their influence over social development “.15

Around the close of the 15th century, a special kind of public woman

emerged. The unnatural conditions of conventional marriage had

favoured “both harlotry and concubinage”, and these positions

occupied recognized and important places in the social scheme.16 As

a result of the prevailing support for classical learning and the full and

free development of intellectual and physical potential, “intelligent

Magdalens” were able to seize the opportunity for self-improvement.17

This new woman represented the birth of the courtesan. Boullting

points out that “the courtesan, witty, widely instructed, accomplished,

and elegant”, fascinated a wide range of men including “worldly

potentate and princes of the Church”. As Boulting so aptly puts it, the

courtesans “commanded their homage and emptied their purses”.

Since men and women had for centuries been sold into matrimony,
15
Ibid Pg 5
16
Ibid Pg 296
17
Boulting, W. Pg 296
“love as a trade” was regarded with tolerance. Since the vile word for

prostitute “peccatrice” did not seem appropriate for a “creature so

adorable” and so the euphemism “cortigiana” replaced it. The

cortigiana or courtesan became the “inspiring model of the painter

and inspiring muse for the poet”.18

Titian as an artist was sensitive to these changes. However, contrary

to the prevailing misogynous attitude of men towards women, Titian

conceived his women as individuals. His artistic integrity and

reputation demand that the current day beholder respond to them as

such. As Goffen points out “representing physically vibrant women,

Titian also represented individual female personalities, imbricating

psychology and sexuality”.19 It should also be kept in mind that from

Greek and Roman art to Michelangelo and the Renaissance artists,

nudity has been used “to represent beauty, frailty, shame and power,

not just sex and sensuality”.20 Thus Titian was painting nudes in the

classical style popular in the Renaissance where Gods and

Goddesses were shown naked to demonstrate their divinity.

18
Ibid
19
Goffen, Titian’s Women. Pg 5
20
Rayme, Mary Pg 1
The High Renaissance was also a time that was rich in the

iconography used to tell a story or identify the nature of the painting,

especially in portraiture. When depicted in female portraiture the

iconography, as Tinagli points out, “identifies the sitter’s role within a

family and gives her social status”.21 The iconography in the Venus of

Urbino identified by numerous writers includes the roses, the

sleeping dog, the cassoni, the chambermaids, the trimmed myrtle

plant and the rich interior décor. Theodore Reff accepts Titian’s nude

as a model of domestic virtue.22 He saw the Venus of Urbino as a

marriage picture, the goddess of love characterized by her

surrounding attributes as a “protectress of marital love”. The floral

symbols in the picture including the roses, myrtle and flora in the

bedding and drapery are symbols usually associated with Venus, and

“combine to define the fruitful passion of licit love”.23

Lleone Ebreo a contemporary of Titian writes:

21
Tinagli, Paoloa. Pg 53
22
Reff, Theodore.Pg. 360
23
Ibid
 roses are assigned to her for beauty and
sweet scent and among plants the myrtle
both for its sweet scent and because, like
love, it is ever blooming.24

Reff goes on to explain that if

roses and myrtle designate the figure as

Venus, the Goddess of beauty and love, they
also suggest a particular kind of love, and that
is the pictures principal theme…. Myrtle
symbol of everlasting love was called myrtle
coniugalis in classical literature …and the
roses denote the pleasure of permanent
congeniality.25

Roses came to represent in classical literature the blush of

embarrassed modesty, and thus assumed the virginity of the woman

in the painting.

As Rosand points out, the little dog curled up at her feet in

“contented slumber” signifies the ideal marriage fidelity.26 Reff

reinforces this concept with the comment “the dog in the Venus of

Urbino…..is an emblem of loyalty and the power of true love” .27 He is

not aroused from his sleep because the person who has just entered
24
Ebro, Lleone, quoted by Reff, T. Pg 360
25
Reff, T. Pg 360
26
Rosand, David. Pg 41
27
Reff Pg 361
is a member of the household rather than an intruder.28

Tingali in her work Women in Italian Renaissance Art devotes a

chapter to marriage rituals and furniture. She points out that the

cassoni were part of a complex marriage ritual of the early fifteenth

century. Carried by porters they were part of the procession which

took the bride from her father’s house to her husband’s house.29

Through this procession the marriage was made public to the whole

community. Once placed in the bedroom, the cassoni were used to

store the bride’s clothes. When open the lids often contained nude

representations of idealized, reclining men and women.30 It was

believed that “the contemplation of physical beauty would help the

conception of beautiful children”.31

By providing a more private kind of imagery such as figures making

love, or nude infants, these images on the inside of lids are foretelling

the fertility of the couple. In some cases, a nude woman --perhaps

Venus herself-- reclines on this inner surface. Paola Tinagli has

suggested that the Venus of Urbino may be understood as such a

28
Goffen, R. “Sex, Space and Social History. Pg 68
29
Tingali, P. Pg 27
30
Tingali, P. Pg 27
31
Ibid
figure, “released, as it were, from the concealment and displayed in

the very bedroom that the cassoni themselves decorate”.32

As Goffen points out the “bridal context” explains another of the “most

idiosyncratic details” of the Venus of Urbino that is the two servants

who are either storing or removing clothes from the cassoni. 33

According to Goffen, the twin cassoni are “purposeful signifiers”, the

furniture equivalent of the myrtle plant and the sleeping dog.34

Reff support this position when he writes

……the servants at the chests reinforces the

impression of patrician domesticity already
given by the luminous chamber, its costly
draperies and marble floor….If Venus reigns
as the mistress of the palace, however, she
remains nevertheless the goddess of love, not
a wealthy courtesan or duchess as the
nineteenth century believed. 35

In the same context as iconography, the position of the reclining

figure and that of the her left hand help to establish the painting as a

marriage portrait. Venus in caressing herself is engaged in an action,

not in a passive covering up. This kind of self-caress was endorsed

32
Ibid, Pg 32
33
Goffen, Titian’s Women. Pg 146
34
Goffen, Titian’s Women. Pg 146
35
Reff, T. Pg 361
in only one particular situation based on the mistaken view of

conception. 36 From Galen’s37 time onward the “woman’s emission”

was believed to be essential for conception.38 Most authorities at the

time agreed that “when she does not emit sperm a child is not

made”. Most authorities also agreed that this emission should be a

simultaneous emission with her husband’s. “To achieve this

desideratum, female masturbation was deemed acceptable and

sometimes necessary”.39 In addition, Goffen goes on to explain that

the woman wishing to conceive a male child “should turn to her right

side during or immediately after intercourse”. The Venus of Urbino is

reclining on her right side, an additional signifier of her marriage

status. These gestures anticipate the consummation of the marriage

and conception of children as required within a Catholic marriage.40

Finally, understanding ‘The Look’ or gaze of the Venus of Urbino may

36
Goffen, R. Titian’s Venus of Urbino. Pg 78
37
Claudius Galen, was physician to five Roman emperors. He was a teacher,
philosopher, pharmacist and leading scientist of his day. During his life he produced five
hundred books and treatises on all aspects of medical science and philosophical
subjects and his ideas were to formulate many of the scientific beliefs which dominated
medical thinking for about 1 500 years.
38
Goffen, R. Titian’s Women. Pg 153
39
Goffen R. Titian’s Women. Pg 153
40
Goffen, R. Titian’s Venus of Urbino. Pg 79
be one of the most crucial piece of iconography in this painting.

Goffen points out that a woman’s gaze is one of the traditional

weapons she uses to enrapture or seduce.41 As Goffen summarizes

so aptly:

…..Titian's goddess has awakened to behold her beloved

directly, psychological tension (is) established by the
sexual demand explicit in her gaze …..the Venus of Urbino
adds assertiveness to independence: fully sentient,
cognizant, and self-aware, she reclines in a well-furnished,
modern (sixteenth-century) bedroom and addresses her
sexual power forthrightly to the beholder.42

In this painting, her glance, like her gesture is undeniably erotic. One

wishful art historian has characterized Venus' direct gaze as an

"unambiguous sexual invitation", but whether it is also wanton

depends on the object of her attention. The viewer cannot see the

object of that direct gaze. Instead the viewer is put in the position of

sharing his space and vantage point. As such the beholder is

effectively put in his place.43 According to Goffen “the invitation is

germane to the matrimonial context, however, and in no way

promiscuous”.44 She goes on to elaborate that although modern

41
Ibid
42
Goffen, R. Titian’s Women. Pg 154
43
Ibid Pg 153
44
Ibid Pg 153
viewers may not be comfortable when caught in the act of looking

--"caught in the act of voyeurism" -- Renaissance viewers would find

such attention in keeping with the expectation, “that a character

would acknowledge beholders with a glance or a gesture”.45

A full discussion of all the issues pertaining to the identity of the Venus

of Urbino is beyond the scope of this paper. Additional considerations

such as a comparison with Giorgione's Sleeping Venus, often referred

to as the Venus of Dresden; the analysis of the spatial disparity; if a

marriage portrait, whose marriage was it; who commissioned the

painting and why; as well as the role of pornography would help to

round out the arguments presented here in. Although the evidence

presented in this paper supports the notion that she is “both a woman

and a goddess,” an equally compelling case could be made for the

opposite position. Wilhelm Heinse, writing in 1785, may have been

the first to question her divinity, when he described her as

“naughty……with a languorous glance”.46 Charles Ricketts noted

that “this Venus or courtesan seems to have taken off her clothes in a

45
Ibid Pg 154
46
Goffen, R. Titian’s Women. Pg 147
mood of boring ostentation, and it has pleased the public to detect

purity…”47 Rona Goffen points out, this opinion was supported by the

writings of Fritz Saxl and more recently Robert Zapperi.48 Likewise,

Peter Porcol in his class notes and lectures, questions the godliness

of the Venus and provides supporting evidence that identifies her as a

courtesan.49

In summation, the arguments presented in this paper support the

notion that the Venus of Urbino is indeed a goddess. But it is beyond

the scope of this paper to present the abundance of the information

available. However, when all the information is in, it may well be that

the Venus of Urbino is a goddess unmasked.

47
Ricketts Pg 92
48
Goffen, R. Titian’s Women. Pg 147
49
Porcal, P. January to March, 1020
 Bibliography

Arose, Daniel. “The Archetypical at a Glance,” ed. Goffen, R,.

Titian’s Venus of Urbino. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge,1997. Pgs 91-107

Boulting, William. Women in Italy Methuen & Co LTD. London,

1910

Galen, Claudius 131 – 201 www.zephyrus.co.uk/galen.html

(accessed April 10, 2010).
Goffen, Rona. “Sex, Space and Social History,” ed. Goffen, R
Titian’s Venus of Urbino. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge,1997. Pgs 63-90.

Goffen,R, Ed. Titian’s Venus of Urbino. Cambridge University Press,

Cambridge,1997.

Goffen, Rona. Titian’s Women. Yale University Press. New Haven &
London, 1997.

Gould, Cecil. "Titian." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online,

www.oxfordartonline.com (accessed April 11, 2010).

Porcol, Peter. “Class Notes and Lectures”. OCAD, Florence, Winter

Semester, 2009-2010.

Rayme, Mary “The Nude in Art History” www.artsociety.suite101.com

(Accessed March 30, 2010).

Rosand, David “So-and Sp Reclining on a Couch,” ed. Goffen, R.

Titian’s Venus of Urbino. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge,1997. pg 37-62

Rickets, Charles. Titian. Methuen & Co., LTD. London, 1910.

Reff, Theodore. “The Meaning of Titian’s Venus of Urbino”.

International Zeitschrift fur Kunst Sonerdruck. Bruckman, Munchen,
1901

Saxl, Fritz. “A Heritage of Images: A selection of Lectures”, ed. H.

Honour and J. Fleming. Harmondsworth, 1970. pg 89-104.

Tinagli, Paola Women in Italian Renaissance Art: Gender,

Representation, Identity. Manchester University Press, Manchester,
1997.

Twain, Mark. A Tramp Abroad. Free Online Library

www.thefreelibrary.com. (Accessed April 08, 2010).
Wethey, Harold. Titian 3. The Mythological and Historical Paintings.
University press. Aberdeen, 1975.