The Writer As Explorer

The painting Venus of Urbino was painted in 1534 by the Italian artist, Titian. It’s an oil painting currently located at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. What I found interesting about the painting, after I had chosen it, was how similar it was to the painting Olympia by Manet. Olympia reclines in the exact same position as Titian’s Venus—her left hand covers her genitals, and the angle at which her right arm bends is the same as Venus’s. The woman in the painting, Venus, is supposedly the Goddess of Love and Beauty. The Romans knew her as Venus, while for the Greeks she was Aphrodite.she is the ideal of feminine beauty, which is what this painting was made to represent.

In my research, I discovered that Titian set the standard for the reclining female nude. Venus reclines on her luxurious pillowed couch, inspiring generations of painters, like Manet. Though Venus’ pose in the painting is clearly modeled after Dresden Venus by Giorgione, Titian changed the background. He moved Venus to an indoor setting, engaged her with the viewer, and made her sensuality explicit; some even believe the figure is engaging in masturbation. Of course this feature stuck out to me, as this is exactly what transpires in Paris Red as Manet paints Victorine. There was clearly heavy research involving this painting as well as Olympia for the novel Paris Red.

The most disturbing part of this painting’s history, and possibly part of history as a whole, is the misconception of why this painting was made, or who it was for. While Titian claims the painting was for the 21-year-old Ippolito de’ Medici before he died, there is another assumption. When Guidobaldo II della Rovere, the 24-year-old son of the Duke of Urbino came to model for a painting with Titian, he wanted to buy it. Another story is that the painting may have been commissioned by Guidobaldo, possibly to celebrate his marriage in 1534 to the 10-year-old Giulia Varano. It’s an odd gift for sure, especially to a girl of that age. But Venus’s hand “caressing” her genitals as such a reference, as it was believed at the time that a female “emission” or orgasm was necessary for conception to take place, and female masturbation was therefore allowed only in cases where the male had ejaculated and withdrawn. Quite a disturbing gift with an odd message to portray to a 10-year-old, but the production of heirs was of great concern in elite marriages.