Venus of Urbino

Title: Venus of Urbino

Artist: Tiziano Vecellio (Titian)

Location: Galleria Degli Uffizi

Date: 1538

Size: 65 x 47 in.

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Other information: http://www.titian-tizianovecellio.org/The-Venus-of-Urbino-1538.html

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/LX/Titian/VenusOfUrbino.html

Photo from: http://medializzy.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/titian_venus_urbino.jpg

Significance of the work:

Titian’s provocative painting is a tribute to Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus, but Venus of Urbino has none of the same subtly. She opening stares out at the audience, unashamed of her sensuality. The sleeping dog on the right side of the canvas is meant to represent fidelity. Venus of Urbino challenges her viewers to criticize her beauty, and many have. Mark Twain denounced the painting as, “the foulest, the vilest, the obscenest picture the world possesses”. Despite it’s overtly erotic nature, or perhaps because of it, Titian’s painting is one of his most famous and most studied