. .. u. ....
1%.... hr.

.... ...
, 12...“,

1-5-.
2%
’QLN.;V.S it...“

5a .

«A?

I:

Luann
$5.531...

) ...-u...
.51...” 3...
2*»: ..
h .1.
24...: .5: L 21
....Iuit.w%u.hwr .....yvu... ...n s u“
«5?... stun». , has? ...
.11.... 125. 1.... ?¢ 5..., a
thin“... ‘hfl’uuwl’i‘t- . 1 - ..I 1.“. Jfi I
. .rik. {anally as... Fauna»? tang: ...
0| .4 3 Aqua-... v6.16: ‘95.... .....i... ...!
an. . 1. 3| 13.33;! If:
.5 ..stm .3353:
.....u. : ......Ln

half}.

13L: It: ....I.
i a .
, fi mm”;

. ‘49..
.19. ‘3 5...; ‘ .... x

it: 3:291... A . 2
21.5.11...
.Ii.l§.:

V 3.: . a... it.
:1 .3. E.
3.5‘55. Ow

3.3:... n

3 5.25-5... .

71.22:: her, an .

, . . . »
Ii)! Inf’fw ’r! ',

. .. l...

(3...! wifidig

as...

$01....(a

. .r 1.. :41}?! ([36:96.
su I.

{zi‘ I i:
.5va .

\‘ 1\\
11" i.

Ln!!! .. If!
a!r.shvurii:
y|\?£~:~\x.
S :22:

u

...i.

homily?
3....) ....ix
a»: ..I ..

ilk. ...
. if
.u.‘ .....I:
\s . . ..
P $1. .345...
.. 2; . .n.
3 {3}

a

I. .5...

 

 

..

.\. 1.»...
(Q~.,.y.~v‘:..:v \.\|
......2. (l :Ly. .3.

2.;

Q! n. ,
;\1fi‘i>\)z..!\. u!!)\h
‘1 ox. . >1xiv~\vb)!9

l‘

I/T‘lllj

,31

wensmr LIBRARIES

Milli/ll!Hill/ill!l/Il/lI/Hl

93 01415 3351

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is to certify that the
thesis entitled

Titian's Venus Anadyomene and the Close-up
Female Nude: Its Sources and Context

presented by

Ann Christy Fisher

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

MasteLQLArLadcgree in Art History

Maser/‘4

Major professor

Date 6//5"/97

0-7639 MS U is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution

 

 

 

LIBRARY
Mlchlgan State
Unlverslty

 

 

 

.' .

PLACER RETURN lOXtomwoMMMMmm
TOAVOIDFINESMunonordeI-Iddom

DATE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wt

——————_7As_—i ‘_.

 

TITIAN'S XENHS_ANADXQMENE AND THE CLOSE-UP
FEMALE NUDE: ITS SOURCES AND CONTEXT

By

Ann Christy Fisher

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of Art

1994

ABSTRACT

TITIAN’S W AND THE CLOSE-UP
FEMALE NUDE: ITS SOURCES AND CONTEXT

By

Ann Christy Fisher

This essay explores the sources and context of Titian's
,yenns_Anad¥gmene (c. 1520). As a three-quarter—length,
close-up view of a solitary female nude, this painting is
unique as a type in the Renaissance. What sources might
have inspired such a rendering of a female nude? How might
the work have spoken to the tastes and expectations of its
artist, patron, and society? I propose that, in rendering
the Menus, Titian drew on his knowledge of a number of
contemporary sources including works by Giovanni Bellini,
Giorgione, Antonio Lombardo, Marcantonio Raimondi,
Michelangelo, his knowledge of antiquities, and also on
other Renaissance genres of painting that depict women.
These images of women all reflect a preoccupation with
issues of beauty - an emphasis which relates to social and
cultural attitudes predominating in sixteenth—century

Venice. Finally I suggest that Alfonso d'Este commissioned

Titian's 12W.

Copyright by
ANN CHRISTY FISHER
1994

I would like to thank the members of my committee:
Professors Webster Smith, Stanley Chojnacki, and Susan
Madigan, for the guidance and assistance that each gave for
this project. I would like to extend special thanks to my
advisor, Professor Webster Smith, who consistently and
patiently offered valuable direction through the research
and writing of this thesis.

My deep thanks also to Monique Shira for her thoughtful
corrections on the final rough draft, and to my family,
Alan, Carol, Garrett, Jim and Elisa, whose continued

encouragement and support was received with much gratitude.

iv

INTRODUCTION

The yenn3_Anadygmene,by Titian hangs in the National
Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh (Fig. 1). It measures 73.6
by 58.4 centimeters1 and portrays the ancient Greek myth of
the birth of Aphrodite, goddess of love. In Ihe_nndeL_A
fitnd¥_in_1deal_Egzm,Kenneth Clark describes this oil
painting as anticipating “the whole conception of the
subject [the nude]....the female body with all its sensuous
weight ... offered in isolation as an end in itself.‘2

Venus rises from the sea after her birth from the
shell, an attribute of the goddess of love that floats in
the sea to her right.3 IBending forward, she wrings the
water from her auburn hair. The predominantly deep blue
background of sea and sky contrasts with the light rosy skin
of the nude goddess. Earlier Renaissance artists such as
Botticelli in Florence and Jacopo Bellini in Venice depicted

this subject and had dealt in various ways with the

2
nude female form. The female nude is also a recurring theme
in the work of many of Titian's contemporaries (Giovanni
Bellini, Antonio Lombardo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael),
yet Titian's picture seems to be unique in its time. For
the first time in Renaissance art, Titian depicts the female
nude in a standing pose in isolation and yet as though
close-up to the viewer, as she appears in three-quarter-
length rather than full-length. Clark recognizes the
uniqeness of Titian's rendering of Venus and states that 'It
would be interesting to know under what circumstances Titian
conceived it."

Scholars have generally recognized the importance of
this painting in Titian's artistic career, and in the
broader scope of Venetian Renaissance art history.5 But to
my knowledge, only one, warren Tressider, in his unpublished
dissertation, 'Classicism in the Early WOrks of Titian“
(1979), has discussed this painting at length. Tressider
argues convincingly that the Venus is probably based in part
on a figure in relief by the sculptor Antonio Lombardo.‘

The present study of the ygnna_Anadmeg g proposes that
Titian drew simultaneously from a number of sources
including his master, Giovanni Bellini, and even

Michelangelo no less than Antonio Lombardo.

3

Scholars have also raised questions concerning the
original context of this work. The patron of the painting
and the place where the work was originally hung remain
unknown. Titian's subject -- a rather intimate and yet
idealized depiction of a woman -- also brings up social
issues. Where, and in what particular social setting would
it have been appropriate to view such a depiction of a
woman? What sorts of taste and expectation might such an
image have gratified? In the following sections of this
essay I will attempt to address these questions, first by
looking at the place of the Venus in Titian's career and
within his artistic circle, and then by suggesting what kind
of significance this painting might have had in Renaissance
society.

The following two sections attempt to determine the
date of the painting and its relationship to other
contemporary renderings of the subject. The third section
examines the relationship of Titian's painting to other
genres of the period that are concerned with the depiction
of a beautiful woman, particularly the sensuous half-length
image, which is the subject of a recent dissertation by Anne
Junkerman. These genres reflect social attitudes of the

time and thus, in turn, might shed some historical light on

4
Titian's yenns_Anadygmene. The fourth and fifth sections
address the question of the three-quarter-length view of
Venus, offering a look at the painting's significant
connection first to antique visual and literary sources,
particularly to Pliny the Elder's account of a lost ancient
painting of Venus by Apelles and, second, to a particular
type of composition of both religious and secular images,
which has been described as the “Dramatic Close-Up,‘ and
which frequently appeared in both Northern-European and
Italian painting in the late fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. Finally, in section six, I will speculate on who
might have been the patron of this work, and on where it
might have originally been located.

Titian's yenna_Anadygmene is a work that John Shearman
would describe as having 'a slow fuse."7 Such a painting
might require a person to return to it a number of times to
fully comprehend it, and it will most likely comprise visual
quotations or paraphrase other works of art as well as
allusions to literary sources. The yenns_5nadygmene is a
work that reveals itself to us, the viewers, bit by bit,
layer by layer, over time. We must return to it again and
again. Thus, each section of this essay will examine and

re-examine the Vanna, each time from a different angle. We

5
will see that the significance of this painting lies in part
in Titian's imaginative use of antique and contemporary
sources in his creation of a new kind of image of the female
nude, and in the capacity of this work to reflect artistic,

social, and cultural attitudes of the time.

1. Dating the I:nnn_finndxgngng

If one could understand the place of the Venus
Anadygmene in the development of Titian's style, one might
then begin to know the circumstances under which the
painting was made. Although no Renaissance document
specifically refers to this painting, art historians have
nevertheless arrived at a consensus on an approximate date
for the work: c. 1517-20.° Perhaps one can verify this by
relating the painting to Panofsky's scheme of Titian's
artistic development. He divides this development into six
phases.’ 'The first phase is characterized by a red and
green color scheme, illustrated in Titian’s early work,
SW (1515) (Fig. 2).10 In this ‘
composition the landscape consists of green trees and
meadows, and the sky has a soft green glow. The dress of
the woman on the left matches the color of the sky except
for the contrasting red of her sleeves and the red robe that
partially covers the otherwise nude woman opposite her. The

second stage in Panofsky's scheme is characterized by a blue

7
and red color scheme, a scheme that is not apparent in any
of the artist's later works. Panofsky states:
In contrast to the first, still somewhat tentative
phase, the second is an age of impassioned freedom and
self-realization...the tension between light and color
is resolved in favor of color. The grey shadows have
disappeared. The chromatic harmony begins to be
dominated by the chord of red and blue on the

terrestrial plane...rather than the Giorgionesque red
and green.11

Titian's Bacghna_and_Ariadne (Fig. 3) clearly illustrates
this second phase. It was executed for the Duke Alfonso
d'Este as part of the Camerino d'Alabastro and was finished
c. 1520—23.12 In this work Bacchus's brilliant red cape
ruffles before a bright blue sky and counters Ariadne's red
scarf, which is draped around her richly toned blue dress.
The mountains along the horizon appear as blue silhouettes.
This painting exemplifies the red and blue color scheme at
its peak.

Panofsky then cites elements in Titian's later works,
noting characteristics that have not appeared in the
artist's second phase of development. There is a return to
the red and green color scheme (seen in phase 1) in his
third and fourth phases, and an incorporation of genre
scenes into the background of compositions as, for example,

in the.IennS_Q£_flrhinQ, 1538 (Fig. 4). The tones of the

8
sheet and pillows that frame the reclining figure in this
later painting match the dress of the clothed woman in
Sag:ed_and_£rgfane_Lgye‘ and the red mattresses are close in
color to the dress of the woman in the background. Also
this venus is rendered in a provocative manner, for she
engages the viewer with an inviting and direct glance, a
frankness not seen earlier. This new sensuality becomes an
important element of Titian's later style: the fifth phase
in Panofsky's scheme.13

In this fifth phase Titian paints with comparatively
loose, even expressionistic, brush strokes and tends to
crowd his compositions more, as seen in his Diana_and
Agtegn, 1556—59 (Fig. 5). Titian would seem, moreover, to
have excluded the subject matter of Venus entirely from this
final phase.“

The predominant color chord in the yenns_Anad¥Qmene is
blue-pink, akin to the blue—red seen most decisively in
Bagghns_and_Ariadne, and thus seems most closely connected
in style to the second phase. warren Tressider has noted,
besides, a similarity between the yenns_5nadygmeng and a

nude in the W. another painting of

that phase (Fig. 6). Both figures, in Tressider's opinion,

typify the artist's classicism in the years of his early

9
maturity. At this point Titian breaks away from using
ancient sculpture as models for his painting. In such works
as the Bagghanal of 1520—24, Titian instead draws on a
literary source: Philostratus's Imaginea, a description, or
ekphrasis, of an ancient painting -- either real or imagined
-- of the same scene. This imaginative reference to a
literary source as well as to visual models inspired a new
freedom in Titian's art; his figures now appear as though
liberated from the quite sculptural and defined tendency of
his earlier works. They are more naturalistic and lively.
Tressider suggests that this new freedom also appears in the
yenua_Anadygmene, and he notes that the composition was most
likely intended as a recreation of one by the legendary
painter Apelles, as described by Pliny Elder.15 Other
historians have recognized this apparent connection as I

will point out in Section IV of this paper.

11. Contemporary Sources for the Innnl_nnadxnnnnn

If this painting can thus be placed at least
approximately within the chronological sequence of Titian's
works, what were, then, the more particular circumstances
under which Titian conceived it? One may argue that Titian,
a genius painter in his own right, primarily drew upon his
own individual creativity to conceive and paint such works
as the Venus. However, one must also remember that Titian
was not sequestered from the developing culture of
Renaissance Italy. He worked within a rich social milieu
that included artists and humanists, and their influential
clients. His brilliant imagination also fed on the
innovations of leading contemporary masters both inside and
outside Venice. Panofsky states:

One of the many things which makes Titian great is that

his horizon was not limited to Venice or even North

Italy. He learned what could be learned not only from

the antique (as Jacopo Bellini and Montegna had done

before him), but also from Durer, from Raphael, from

Michelangelo....“

It is possible, then, that Titian drew from a diversity

10

11
of sources in creating this new figure of the goddess. She
appears to reflect a keen response to innovations of other
sixteenth- century masters including Bellini, Giorgione, and
Antonio Lombardo in the North, and Michelangelo in Central
Italy.

One of the earliest and most profound influences on
Titian was that of his master, Giovanni Bellini, who, before
Titian, was the most respected painter in Venice.17 Tatian
arrived in Venice at the age of eight and soon entered the
workshop of Gentile Bellini. He soon became dissatisfied
with the old-fashioned style of this master: its tight,
meticulously rendered forms and compositions; he soon moved
on to the studio of Giovanni Bellini.“ To a greater extent
than any other Venetian artist of the time, this master
based his art on direct observation of the natural world.

He achieved a new sense of light and color that transcended
the careful outlinings and shadings of his contemporaries.
WOrking in oil paint, Bellini often layered translucent
color and glazes to create forms of unprecedented luminosity
and softness.19 In comparison to their Venetian
contemporaries and predecessors, Bellini's figures appear as

though 'unfrozen;' they seem to breathe.

One of Bellini's latest works, Lady_at_flez_1gilet of

12

1515 (Fig. 8), reflects his new sense of form and light.
Her contours are soft, and the picture is unusual, perhaps
unique for its time, as a type of depiction of the female
nude." She appears in three-quarter length view rather
than in full-length.21 She appears thus closer to the
viewer than any previous rendering of the female nude. It
is possible that Titian saw this work before he began to
paint the yanns_Anadygmene. Important similarities between
Titian’s Menus and his master’s work are certainly worth
consideration and will be addressed later in this thesis.22

By the first decade of the sixteenth century Titian
had already left Bellini's workshop and had begun to work
with Giorgione. Giorgione was also a former student of
Giovanni's and six years Titian's senior. Titian first met
this artist when they were both commissioned to paint the
facades of the Fondaco del Tedeschi in 1508, a building
which served as the German merchants' quarters in Venice.
Unfortunately little remains of this project. Until 1961
one knew of the frescoes only through descriptions, the
etchings by Piccini and Zanetti, and the discovery in 1937
of a portion of one of Giorgione's frescoes on the front of
the Fondaco, facing onto the Grand Canal. In 1961 the

Soprintendenza discovered extensive portions of Titian's

13

frescoes on the Fondaco's southern facade. From these
remains and the eighteenth-century descriptions one may gain
some notion of the original style of these paintings.23

Vasari describes Giorgione's figures on the Fondaco as
'well-grouped...and there are in it heads and parts of
figures very well painted, and most vivacious in colouring.
In all that he did there he aimed at being faithful to
nature.'*‘ In the surviving fragment by Giorgione a full-
length nude is depicted frontally and in a gnntzappgstg,pose
reminiscent of antique sculpture. One gets a glimpse of the
master's advanced coloristic sensibility in this piece,
which appears to progress even beyond the colorism in the
late work of Giovanni Bellini. This fresco still has traces
of different tints of red in an airy light space (Fig. 8).
Terisio Pignatti relates this vibrant colorism to other
works by Giorgione including Ihe_Ihzee_£hilgsgpheza (Fig.
32). In this painting the artist uses afnmatg to soften
edges and create subtlety in the definition of his forms.”
The artist models his figures with soft, vibrant hues that
blend harmoniously with the colors of the landscape behind
them. This new chromatic consistency is apparent in his
work during and after the Fondaco project. Johannes Wilde

describes Giorgione's figures on the Fondaco as

14

a new canon of the human figure, one that can hardly

have been acquired without studying examples of antique

art: figures with well articulated limbs and free

movements, and with draperies of broad, natural forms,

serving as a support as in ancient statuary.26
Giorgione was perhaps the first painter to have created
full-length female nudes of large scale in action poses.
This achievement of Giorgione's and also his emphasis on
color, are recalled, however indirectly, in Titian's Menus
Anadygmene. Rendered in soft pink hues, his goddess emerges
from the waves with a sense of freedom that she owes in part
to Giorgione's example. Venus's arms attend to her hair,
and her solid torso bends forward with grace and ease.

Titian painted the frescoes on the southern facade of
the Fondaco. From prints and descriptions we know that a
monochromatic frieze extended the length of this exterior
and a series of figures in fictive architectural niches were
painted beneath it. Above the main portal Titian painted
the figure of Judith slaying Holophernes. A fresco of a
nude woman, identified as Eve, was portrayed on the far end
of the facade facing the Rialto Bridge and a figure of
another woman, identified as Venus, matched her pose at the

opposite end of the wall (Figs. 10, 11).27

Titian presumably studied Giorgione's frescoes during

15

his own work on the Fondaco. From the salvaged portions of
Titian's paintings from the southern facade one recognizes
this younger artist's application of Giorgione's colorism as
demonstrated in the vibrant tones still apparent in his
fresco of Judith. One also recognizes the naturalism and
freedom of Judith's pose as she energetically raises her
sword. Morassi (1956) also suggests a difference in style
between these two artists that is evident in the Fondaco
frescoes. Where, in his characteristic manner, Giorgione
applied careful, meticulous strokes to his surface in his
painting of the nude, Titian applied paint in thick dabs.
There appears to be a new vitality and restlessness in
Titian's figures, exemplified in Judith, that does not
appear in Giorgione's peaceful, idealized renderings. Where
Giorgione adheres to the spirit of classical antiquity in
painting sculptural forms in gantzanpgatg, Titian breaks
from this mold to create figures, such as the Judith, that
appear weighted and as if they are indeed of flesh and
blood.“

One also sees these qualities in Titian's Venus
Anadggmene. Like Giorgione, Titian exhibits an interest in
the female form, seen in the Venus at the same time that she

does not appear in contrappgstg. Only her head is turned;

16

otherwise, her body leans forward, breaking out of the
classical pose. She bathes herself and wrings the water
from her hair in what seems like a natural, human gesture.

While he worked on the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, Titian
accepted a number of other commissions. Charles Hope states
that, from a young age, Titian actively sought patrons who
were prominent in the public sphere. He began to work for
Jacopo Pesaro, for example, as early as 1506. Pesaro was
the leader of one of the most powerful families in Venice.
It is also known that, as early as 1508, Titian accepted
commissions from the Barbarigo family and, in 1514, he
painted the famous work, Sacred_and_zzgfang_Lgye, for a
senior civil servant, Niccolo Aurelio.29 Titian also took
part in the redecoration of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio
in the Palazzo Ducale and thereby established himself as one
of the most important painters in Venice and, in 1516, he
began to work for the Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso d'Este.
The Duke commissioned Titian to paint the three famous
Bacchanals between 1518 and 1524. He was one of the few
patrons in Italy who took great interest in paintings based
on subjects admired in antiquity.30

It is at Ferrara that Titian came into contact with

works of still other renowned Venetians and, also, Central

17
Italian masters. Among these works the marble relief of
yann5_Anad¥qmene from the early sixteenth century by Antonio
Lombardo (fig. 12) may have proved especially important to
Titian when he began working on his painting of the same
subject, as Tressider has already proposed. Perhaps
Titian's Menna_Anadmeene reflects this rendering of a
female nude more than any other that he could have known.
Lombardo's Venus is portrayed above an inscription which
describes her pose: 'NVDA VENUS MADIDAS EXPRIUT IMBRE BMV'
of “Nude Venus rises from the sea and.wrings her dripping
tresses."31 This relief (now in the Victoria and Albert
Museum) was commissioned by Alfonso d'Este in the early
1500s for the Duke's Camerino di Marmo at Ferrara. This
Venus is based, at least in part, on a description by Ovid
of an antique gem.32 In the early 15203 the Duke
commissioned Titian to paint three Bacchanal scenes for his
Camerino d'Alabastro. It is generally thought that this
room was part of a five-apartment complex called the Via
Coperta, which connected the Castello Estense with the rest
of the Palazzo.33 This particular room was located next
door to the Camerino di Marmo. The younger artist probably

came into contact with Lombardo's work during this period.

A certain similarity of Titian's yenns_Anadygmene to

18
Lombardo's relief would lend support to the dating of this
picture to c. 1520, by which time Titian would presumably
have seen this relief at Ferrara.

One recognizes general similarities between the two
works in overall composition and in the artists' rendering
of the nude female form. As in Titian's painting,
Lombardo's figure appears in the foremost plane of his
composition. She even challenges the frontal space as her
right foot ventures out of the picture frame. Like Titian,
Lombardo includes little else in his composition besides an
indication of water and sky.

Most striking is the similarity between the two figures
in the way that they wring water from “dripping tresses.“

In both works Venus bends to her left, and one hand is
positioned above the other as they grasp a lock of hair.
There are also similarities in the soft curves and
voluptuous torsos of the nude forms. Indeed, Titian's Menus
seems more closely related in pose to Lombardo's figure than
to the nudes on the Fondaco.

The figure, then, was “intended“ as Tressider suggests,
“to be viewed by people who would not only appreciate the
sculptor's achievement, but who at the same time could

recall Ovid's lines.““

19

Images of thejyenns_Anadxgmene often appear on ancient
gems. Perhaps Lombardo was himself inspired by such a
visual ancient source no less than by Ovid. Edgar Wind
states, “From what is known of the frequent adaptation of
large sculptural or pictorial images to the diminutive scale
of ancient gems, coins, and terracottas, it would seem that
conflations of a statuesque posture with an Aphrodite_al
ngnille must have originated in the minor arts.”5

Tressider also proposes a possible link with an
engraving of Venus by Marcantonio Raimondi of 1506 (Fig.
13). He argues:

Before Antonio Lombardo entered the service of Alfonso
d'Este, Marcantonio Raimondi signed and dated (1506) an
engraving of a full length.yenna_Anadygmene which could
have been the prototype of Antonio's version and which
was possibly done in Venice. The greater harmony in
the resolution of the position of the arms in Antonio's
sculpture suggests that his is an improved version of
Raimondi's. This in itself raises a problem because,
from what is known of the engraver's working methods at
this time, it is quite possible that he himself was
utilizing another source which in all likelihood was
antique. The question therefore arises as to whether
Antonio used the same classical source as Raimondi or
simply borrowed from his print. The fact that
Antonio's figure is in reverse pose to Raimondi's print
could be taken as support for his utilization of a
common ancient source.36

Important similarities appear between the works of

Raimondi and Lombardo that support much of Tressider's

20
argument. Rendered in reverse image to Marcantonio's Menus,
Lombardo's figure shares with Raimondi's the gantrappgstg
stance, with one knee relaxed, and about the same gesture of
arms and hands. This gesture is not depicted in surviving
ancient renderings of the subject. It first appears in
Marcantonio's engraving. One might assume, then, that
Antonio consciously borrowed from Marcantonio in his marble-
relief figure.

Tressider acknowledges that Lombardo's Venus appears in
reverse in relation to Marcantonio's. As Marcantonio's
composition was inevitably reversed upon printing, his
original drawing would have more closely matched the image
of Lombardo's figure. Perhaps, therefore, as Tressider
suggests, both masters worked originally from a common
ancient source, or perhaps Lombardo saw Marcantonio's
original drawing or reversed the engraving -- the
possibilities go on and on. It is most likely, at any rate,
that both renderings are derived at least indirectly from an
ancient gem depicting Venus Anadyomene. One might then
suggest that Titian's version was itself based on an antique
source, perhaps the same one that could have inspired
Lombardo and Marcantonio.37 It is also noteworthy that

Titian had already been exposed to ancient statuary in his

21

earliest years as an artist, when ye entered Gentile
Bellini's workshop and then Giovanni Bellini's. Gentile
Bellini is reported to have owned a Praxitilian figure of a
venue Anadyomene. Unfortunately, it has not survived, nor
have sketches or drawings of it. No document refers
specifically to this figure, other than a stanza in a poem
by the fifteenth-century writer, Raffaele Zovenzone.
Tressider translates this passage:

Let the person who wishes to see the Paphian Venus

With nude breasts in the ancient marble of Praxiteles

Search the penthouse of Gentile Bellini, where it

stands.

But the image lives of itself.38

It is important to recognize also a distinct difference
between Marcantonio's engraving and A. Lombardo's relief
that Tressider does not mention; a difference that amounts
to more than just a mechanical reversal. The figures differ
from one another in the angle of the head in relationship to
the torso. Marcantonio's figure looks cyan her right
shoulder and away from the gesture of her arms while
Lombardo’s Vanna looks tgwazda the wringing motion of her
hands. Turning her head this way, she appears to be
listening to the sea rather than looking out over it as she

does in the engraving. Perhaps one can explain this

difference by using Tressider's argument that Lombardo's

22
form is an “improved“ version of Raimondi's, that Lombardo
wanted a greater “harmony in the resolution of the position
of the arms“ and, I might add, in the inclination of Venus's
head. In Marcantonio's print the goddess interrupts the
smooth contour of her form, as she breaks its curving line
to gaze back over her shoulder. In Lombardo's relief, on
the other hand, the goddess's inclining head continues the
curve established in the rest of her body and thus
harmoniously completes the arc of her form.

Although not mentioned by Tressider, this difference is
yet more compelling when it recurs in Titian/s Vanna. It is
most likely, although not demonstrated, that Titian became
acquainted with Marcantonio's print as it was circulating in
Venice. It is interesting that the gaze of Titian's figure
mirrors more closely that of Marcantonio's Venus than that
of Lombardo's. As in the print, Titian’s goddess looks away
from the gesture of her hands. I would argue that Titian's
Manna_Anad¥Qmana can be understood as an improved version by
comparison with both of these earlier renderings.
Maintaining the direction of the focus of Marcantonio's
figure, Titian also, at the same time, inclines the head of
his Manna in a manner not unlike Lombardo's, allowing the

head to complete the line of Venus's back and shoulder.

23
Furthermore, Titian differs with both Marcantonio and
Lombardo in the positions of venus's arms. The goddess's
left arm crosses over her torso below her breast rather than
above it, as in the earlier works. In this new position the
arm falls comfortably into the hollow of Venus's front torso
as she bends forward. Titian allows the gesture of Venus's
left arm to ride with her torso rather than apart from it
and thus he creates a more unified form. The figure's right
arm also plays an important compositional role in this later
piece as the gesture completes the arc established in the
line of her back and inclining head. Titian's Manna seems
to be listening and looking at the same time.

The figures of Marcantonio and Lombardo strive for
gantranpgatg -- both appear to lean into one hip with one
knee bent. In both the sculpture and the print the torso is
twisted: the lower part and the legs confront the viewer
while her upper part turns away to accommodate the motion of
her arms. By contrast, the lower torso and legs of Titian’s
goddess move together in the same direction as her upper
torso. Titian's Venus slips out of the contrappostal
formula in favor of a more natural-seeming pose; she is not
caught up in an aesthetic arrangement of limbs and torso;

she moves forward, through the water, with unprecedented

24
ease and naturalness.

Titian's yenus.Anad¥omene is in a way closer, rather,
to Giovanni Bellini's,Ladz_at_flaz_2gilatta (Fig. 7). If
Titian's yann3,were to be seen in reverse, then a strong
similarity would appear between the two pictures in the
positioning of the figures' arms. Venus's right arm falls
below her breast, as in Bellini's picture. Furthermore, the
right arm is related to the head in the same way in both
works. In the manner that Bellini's nude holds a mirror to
her face, Titian's Manna reaches up to grasp a lock of her
hair. In both figures the left arm continues and completes
this upward curve.

As I suggested above, this earlier painting, by
Titian's own master, and known as one of the first
depictions of a three-quarter-length female nude in
Renaissance Italy, was probably available to Titian before
he began to work on the Vanna_Anadggmana. The young,
intelligent Titian would have recognized its importance and
presumably would have wanted to emulate this figure in some
way in his own work. The strong similarity between
Bellini's Lady and Titian's Manua_supports the idea that
Titian borrowed from his own master in rendering the Manna

Anadyamana, no less than from Marcantonio or Antonio

25
Lombardo or an antique gem. Another possibility also
suggests itself: that Bellini's Ladxpwas itself meant to
recall the classical Anadygmana that Bellini is known to
have had in his possession. It seems, in any case, less and
less likely that Titian had only one inspiration in mind for
his new figure of venus.

The three-quarter view and the three-quarter length of
Titian's Manna are significant qualities not shared,
however, by any of the previously discussed renderings.
Might one then suggest that yet another image of the female
nude entered into Titian's thinking on the yann3_Anadygmana?
It has been noted that Titian characteristically drew
simultaneously from a number of sources that included the
innovations of leading artists in central Italy and Germany
as well as those of Venetian masters.39 Lombardo,
Marcantonio, Giovanni Bellini, and, very possibly, some
classical fragments, are perhaps only a few among a number
of possible sources for Titian's Manna_Anad¥gmana.

Could not even Michelangelo have entered into Titian's
thoughts concerning Venus? Creighton Gilbert has developed
an interesting argument proposing the possible effect of
Michelangelo on the earlier work of Titian.‘o I would like

to summarize Gilbert's argument here, on the next several

26
pages, before going on to suggest a connection between the
Manna_Anadmeana and a memorable figure of Michelangelo's
invention.

Gilbert adds onto a series of observations, initiated
by Johannes Wilde in the 19503, that many of Titian's
figures seem to have been drawn from works by Michelangelo;
Titian would present them in reverse, with slight
alterations, and in his own, different, contexts. Gilbert
specifically discusses a striking likeness, first noticed by
Wilde, between a reversed photograph of Titian's Murdar_9£_a
Hifa of 1511 in the Scuola del Santo in Padua (Fig. 14) and
Michelangelo's Eve in the Temptation scene on the Sistine
ceiling.‘1 He also recognizes similarities between the two
figures in Titian's Sagzad_and_2zgfana_Lgya and reversed
images of Michelangelo's Prgphat_agal and the Delphig_Syhil
on the Sistine ceiling.‘2

Wilde was the first Renaissance art historian to draw
such an unexpected comparison between Titian and
Michelangelo and also the first to examine in depth this
artist's use of reversal as an ingenious way of utilizing an
established image. Gilbert states that “Reversals of poses
from sources in the same artist's or another's work in this

period are quite often noticed in passing, though no special

27
study seems to have been made.““ It is noteworthy, for
instance, that Castagno in his Bassinn scenes in Sant'
Apollonia and Piero della Francesca at Arezzo and Monterechi
employed cartoons in reverse.“ Gilbert believes that this
method of re—using cartoons was a practical device as it
saved time and energy that would otherwise be spent making a
separate sketch for every last figure.

Michelangelo himself used the technique in over eighty
figures on the Sistine ceiling. For example, the series of
Ignndi that begin near the entrance of the chapel start out
as mirror images of each other. However, as they progress
along the length of the ceiling, their gestures and
expressions begin to digress more and more from their
“mirror images.“ The symmetry between the pairs of lgnndi
is not, as Gilbert explains, “mechanical.““ He states that
“The figures have precisely the same layout, but they differ
all over in details, to an extent increasing with the
distance from the entrance end.““ Perhaps Michelangelo
used a different cartoon for each form but it is more likely
that he used the same cartoon twice in at least several
instances, to establish the contours of the figures, and
then subsequently filled in details. Gilbert favors this

suggestion since, as previously stated, it would have been

28

more practical for Michelangelo to reverse cartoons in
painting such images as the Ignndi, bypassing the laborious
task of making a full-scale cartoon of every figure."

Titian had access to drawings of Michelangelo's work
on the ceiling through a number of sources in Venice, one
being his friend, Sebastiano del Piombo. Sebastiano
belonged to the same artistic and personal circle as Titian
in Venice and thus it is likely that the two artists
continued to communicate through letters when Sebastiano
travelled to Rome in 1511 to paint the lunettes in Agostino
Chigi's Farnesina.“ At this time artists in Rome were
making drawings based on Michelangelo's works and, in 1511,
these drawings began to reflect specifically the Sistine
ceiling. Gilbert suggests that Sebastiano probably wrote to
Titian from Rome and sent him drawings after Michelangelo,
most likely including sketches of the Sistine ceiling.‘9 It
can also be noted that Titian's Ferrarese patron, Alfonso
d'Este, also visited Rome, and even saw the Sistine ceiling
as it was in progress. He had the special privilege of
going up onto the “bridge“ to see the on-going work close at
hand, and he may have brought back with him copies after the
just-finished as well as projected scenes and figures.50 It

was at this time that Alfonso is supposed to have begged

29

Michelangelo for a sample of his work. Much later (c.
1530), Michelangelo did in fact paint a Lada_and_the_Swan
for the Duke although this work was never delivered.51

In the light of these observations by Gilbert and
Wilde, is it possible that Titian had not only A. Lombardo's
relief, Marcantonio's engraving, Bellini's yanns_at_har
Iniiatna, and some antique examples in mind, but also a
figure—in-reverse derived from Michelangelo? Among the
significant differences that I pointed out between Titian's
,yanns and those by Lombardo and Marcantonio is a difference
in pose: Titian's,yanns_breaks away from the established
nnntzannnstg stance frequently used in the Renaissance and
apparent in both of Lombardo’s and Marcantonio's depictions,
and in thus taking exception to that pose, she appears,
rather, to follow, in reverse, the unique example of Eve in
Michelangelo's Expulsion scene (Fig. 15) on the Sistine
ceiling. Like Titian's Venus, Michelangelo's Eve inclines
her upper body forward as she cringes away from the angel in
the Garden of Eden; and again like Titian's Venus, this Eve
is also portrayed in three-quarter view and looking back
over her shoulder.

There is also a similarity in the boxy torsos. Both

the contours of Michelangelo's expelled Eve and Titian’s

30
Venus appear almost rectangular in form, in a shape to which
other Renaissance female nudes will seldom, if ever, conform
- least of all, the voluptuous figures by A. Lombardo and
Marcantonio. I would suggest, then, that the resemblance —
- in reverse -- between Michelangelo’s expelled Eve and
Titian's bathing Venus is no accident.

In thus adducing such a variety of possible sources for
Titian's ysnns, I would nevertheless not describe this work
as merely eclectic. It does not exactly copy from any one
or two or three of these sources. It is an example, rather,
of assimilation. Gombrich explains “assimilation“ as a term
often used when talking about the Renaissance Italian style
all;_antina. It refers to the artist's way of using antique
visual sources in shaping his work. It does not refer to
mere copying of these models but signifies a deeper
understanding by the artist -- an incorporation of the
content of the ancient pieces into a new, original work of
art. He states: “The imitator must transform nectar into
honey, as the body assimilates nourishment... Assimilation
demands a degree of generalization. The artist must learn
how to create a figure that embodies his idea of the
classical style.“52 I suggest that Titian “assimilated“

elements also from contemporary masters. The position of

31
the arms and hands of his yanns appears to be a combination
of the gestures of Lombardo's yanns and Bellini's Lady, yet
the shape and inclination of the torso of Titian's figure
may well refer to Michelangelo's Eve. One does not see an
exact replica of any of these figures but rather a profound
understanding of the grace achieved in the gestures of
Lombardo and Bellini's figures, and in the power of Eve's
body reflected in its solid weighted form as her torso and
legs move together in one direction.

“Assimilation“ is closely connected in meaning to
“imitation,“ which is another term often used in art
historical discussions of the style ali;_antisa and which
seems to be of particular relevance to this analysis of
Titian's yanns_Anadygmans. John Shearman describes three
methods of imitation, two of which seem to be closely
connected to Titian's approach in painting the ysnns.
First, an artist might make visual references in his
painting to an earlier source to encourage the viewers'
comparison between two works of art. This manner of
imitation functioned to deepen the meaning of a work of art
by allusion. Its effectiveness relied on the audience's

knowledge of the quoted source. Parmigianino, for example,

based his Madnnna_nf_tha_Lnng_Nssk in part on Michelangelo's

32

Eiana. This comparison is essential to the power and
meaning of Parmigianino's painting as the link foretells the
death of Christ. The effectiveness of such a comparison
relied on the viewer's ability to remember the Biana.53 .One
might recognize a similar sort of imitation at play in
Titian's yanns if one relates it, as I would, to
Michelangelo's Eve on the Sistine ceiling. Any figure of
Eve is likely to evoke Venus - as well-known examples attest
(by Masaccio, Ghiberti, J. della Quercia, and Durer).
Titian’s painting has a particular poignancy in that it
appears to draw this conventional allusion in reverse: this
is not, as is usual, Eve-making-reference-to—Venus, but,
rather, uniquely, Venus-making-reference-to—Eve - and, at
that, the celestial Venus (she who was born miraculously of
the sea) to the fallen Eve (she who was expelled from
Paradise. The effectiveness of the “imitation“ presented
here would depend, of course, on the knowledgeability of a
highly select audience, which might see a recollection of
Eve on the Sistine ceiling as they viewed and contemplated
the W.

Shearman describes another method of imitation as
“imitation through emulation,“ where a work alludes not only

to a previous source but to one that the source in turn had

33
imitated - an imitation of an imitation of an imitation.
The painting or sculpture thus assumes a place in a line of
works executed by established artists and, by so doing,
declares its “lineage.“ To a certain degree, this younger
artist rivals or “emulates“ the work of his predecessors,
thus asserting his abilities as a painter and his place
among other renowned masters.“ I might then describe
Titian's yanns_Anadynmana,as “emulating“ Lombardo's relief
and Marcantonio's print, which in turn were possibly based
on a common ancient source.

Such methods of imitation were commonly practiced du
ring the Renaissance by artists employed at courts. By
quoting elements of paintings or sculptures that were
already in a patron's collection, the artist could make
allusions in his work that were accessible to his immediate
constituency. The artist could work in this manner in part
out of self—interest, aiming to please his patrons and
others of the court and to assert his place among the
respected and established masters in that environment.55

Titian is known to have used imitation extensively in a
number of his works such as the Banghns_and_Ariadns, which
Shearman describes as perhaps the “most deeply and broadly

allusive of Titian's secular paintings.-n This painting

34

not only offers visual references to works of antiquity and
of Michelangelo, Raphael, Giovanni Bellini, and Alfonso
d'Este's court painter Dosso, but Shearman also suggests
possible connections to written descriptions of the subject
by Philostratus, Pliny the Elder, Angelo Poliziano, Catullus
and Ovid. Alfonso d'Este, who commissioned the Banshns_and
Ariadna, deeply admired all of these artists and owned works
by many of them. He also owned copies of many of the
ancient and contemporary texts, which he kept in his
extensive library. It is of no surprise that Titian was
careful to incorporate such references into this work for
the Duke. Shearman explains:

Titian and Ariosto both assert their place in a

great tradition. This intention, if we are right, most

probably responds competitively -- Titian never

responded in any other way -- to the expected setting

of his work in the context of masterpieces by his

former teacher Bellini, by Raphael, by the Ferrarese

court painter Dosso, and probably by Michelangelo.57
As we have seen, the yanns_Anadydmana contains numerous
visual references. As previously stated, Titian assimilated
what perhaps were in his eyes the most graceful, natural
elements from former renderings of Venus into his own

depiction of the goddess. Perhaps Titian's work displays an

attempt to paint the most “perfect“ of all pictures,

35
emulating works of renowned masters in an attempt to create
an absolute image of idealized, celestial beauty. Titian
probably created this work with a specific patron and
context in mind, “a private patron with literary tastes““,
as Tressider says -- certainly one from the upper echelons
of society. He would have “imitated“ visual and literary
sources to which this audience had access -- they would
probably have known of Lombardo's relief, Marcantonio's
print, the work of Giovanni Bellini and Michelangelo, and,
as will be demonstrated in Section IV, they were probably
knowledgeable of classical literature.

Such an audience can be presumed to have been familiar
with a well known story told in Antiquity, and again in the
Renaissance, of Zeuxis and the Maidens of Croton, a story
which provides an analogy to the making of Titian's,yanns
Anadydmans. In the tale, the ancient Greek painter Zeuxis,
unable to find any woman beautiful enough to use as his
model in painting Helen of Troy, resorted to combining the
best qualities of five different models. This legend, first
taken up by Cicero and Pliny the Elder grew in popularity in
the Renaissance and was frequently referred to by artists
and writers.59 Palma Vecchio is thought to have selected the

most beautiful features from a group of women for his

36

Dresden painting, Ihraa_fiisnans. Writers such as
Giangiorgio Trissino and Federigo Luigini quoted this story
in their work. Luigini created word-portraits of ideal
figures, not of real individuals. He combined
characteristics of fictitious and historical figures to
create idealized depictions of beautiful women. Mary Rogers
suggests that such treatises were created for the pleasures
of men to read together at social gatherings. She adds:
“The art patronage equivalent to this would be an idealized
nude ordered by a male patron, which might be presented as a
contemporary woman, usually a courtesan, or a mythological
figure, or an ambiguous blend of the two.“60

This point is reinforced by the fact that the Zeuxian
approach is used in other genres of Renaissance depictions
of women -- specifically in female portraiture and in what
Anne Junkerman defines as the sensuous half—length image.61
These visual and literary images of women express, in any
case, an overriding concern for female beauty. But why,
then, this concern in the Renaissance? In search for an
answer to this question, it is important to look at the
social and cultural context of these paintings for, as
Margaret Miles explains, “no pictorial subject is more

determined by a complex web of cultural interests than

37
visual narrations of the female body.““ What interests,
then, anxieties, and needs of the artist, patron, and viewer
were reflected in these images of female beauty? Through an
analysis of the female portrait and the sensuous half-length
image with these questions in mind, the significance of
Titian's yanns as a Renaissance depiction of
a beautiful, idealized woman should become better

understood.

III. Titian's Ianns_3nadydnsns: Connection: with Female

Portraiture and the Half-Length Sensuous Image

The method of “assimilating“ various sources into a new
and improved work comes into play in female portraiture in
Renaissance Italy, in which the primary focus was on beauty.
AS Elizabeth Cropper has shown in her article, “The Beauty
of WOmen: Problems in the Rhetoric of Renaissance
Portraits,“ artists attempted to create the most idealized,
flattering depiction possible of a sitter while maintaining
a recognizable likeness to her. Isabella d'Este, for
example, is known to have commissioned a number of portraits
of herself, and the humanist, Trissino, in his Dialngns,
created another sort of portrait, a word-portrait (c. 1513),
of her, in which he tried to resolve issues of idealized
beauty with actual features of the Duchess. Junkerman
summarizes:

In the first part of the dialogue the physical

attributes of the woman are described; the method is
that of Zeuxis, from the enormously popular ancient

38

39
story of the portrait of Helen recounted by Pliny and
Cicero. The interlocutor descriptively gathers five
women, all known to his listeners, for the purpose of
creating a portrait of his as yet unnamed beauty. From
these five women he selects the best features, coming
in Zeuxian fashion, the hair of one with the eyes of
another. In this way he achieves -- certainly in a
Florentine rather than a Venetian mode -- a sketch, a
,disagnd, and then, using Petrarch's influential
catalogue of the attributes of Laura, he adds the
colors. He then provides details of costume and
setting. The finished portrait depicts an ideal -- but
Bembo, who has been listening to the speaker create
this verbal collage, suddenly recognizes the described
woman and identifies her as Isabelle d'Este.63

It is important to see that methods of female
portraiture in the Renaissance involved a different set of
criteria that applied to male portraits. Where men almost
always were realistically portrayed, women were idealized,
with often (as we have seen in the case of Isabella d'Este)
the “portraits“ holding little resemblance to the real
people. The beautiful woman provided a basis from which
artists could address more general problems of depicting
beauty in painting.“ This value placed on the
representation of female beauty is clearly illustrated in
Castiglione's Ihs_Bnnk_d£_Lha_CanLisr where one story tells
of Alexander the Great who commissioned his court painter
Apelles to create a portrait of the emperor's favorite

mistress, Campaspe. In Alexander's eyes, the final image

40
was so beautiful that he offered Campaspe to Apelles in
return for the painting. Alexander believed that Apelles'
image more closely matched concepts of ideal beauty than did
the real person. “Alexander decided to give his mistress to
the painter because the love inspired by beauty gives
greater pleasure to the one who discerns it best.““5.Apelles
was able to capture true beauty in his work, beauty that
surpassed the image Alexander held in his heart of Campaspe
herself.

The idea of being able to fully capture such beauty in
painting was widely disputed among Renaissance artists and
writers. Some argued that it was impossible to create a
perfect image, as a woman's beauty included those inner
parts of herself that could only be revealed over time. The
representation of intrinsic beauty was simply beyond the
painter's reach.“

It has also been suggested that the representation of
female beauty was understood in the Renaissance as a
metaphor for painting itself. By attempting to portray a
most beautiful idealized depiction of a woman, the artist
aimed to display his abilities to convey beauty and truth on
the canvas. “...The portrait of a beautiful woman,“

Cropper explains, “belongs to a distinct discourse from

41
which the woman herself is necessarily absent. In
portraying his mistress, it is the art of painting that the
painter desires to possess, even as the poet embraces his
own laurels.““

Anne Junkerman believes that “the beautiful woman was a
cool abstraction that, in Venice at least, constituted a
social role....“68 WOmen in Venice -- more perhaps than in
other cities in Italy -- were viewed primarily for their
physical appearance; “At least on a public level the
relationship between patrician women and men in Venice was
constituted by a relationship between image and viewer."9
Cultural and social circumstances of Venice, a city in which
Titian lived and worked for his entire career, surely helped
to shape the artist's and the patron's attitudes towards
women.

One finds varying interpretations of the specific
conditions of the Venetian WOman, although it is a
commonplace that she held a marginal position in society
outside of the male-dominated political and economic arena.
The world of the proper upper-class Venetian woman -— the
Patrician WOman -- was closely circumscribed, her main
function being the maintenance of her family and home. When

she was invited to participate in social events, her role

42

was primarily ornamental. As it was considered
inappropriate to engage in public discourse, a Venetian
patrician woman was recognized and admired at such events
foremost on the merits of her appearance, on her physical
beauty. Junkerman states, “The presence of women adorned an
occasion and -- calculated in simple numbers -- served as an
index of the expense and lavishness of an event.“70

The early historian Charles Yriarte believed that it is
hard to find any accomplished women in sixteenth-century
Venice, and he offered a rather pessimistic view of their
sheltered existence outside of the public sphere -- where
silence and virtue were their most important qualities.71
But modern historians such as James David, Patricia Labalme,
and Stanley Chojnacki argue that, although women maintained
a role on the periphery of the public circle and were
excluded from governmental and economic affairs, they,
particularly in the 1500s, assumed, a central place in the
domestic sphere, specifically in family strategies. In this
manner Venetian women experienced an ever growing and more
powerful presence in society.72 They achieved this because
of the increasing importance of the dowry.73

Marriage among the patriciate in sixteenth—century

Italy almost always involved a contract between the two

43

families. By providing a daughter with a good dowry, a
family enabled her to marry well and to maintain the
family's status. One third of the dowry was usually offered
to her husband to invest as he wished. Yet, at least in
Venice, the patrician wife was usually able to control the
rest. With this money a wife could do as she wished,
designating it for various children or investing some in the
dowries for her daughters. There are documented cases in
which mothers provided a sum of money for their daughters to
use if they decided not to marry." Chojnacki and Labalme
argue that, with the increase in the value of a dowry, in
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Venetian Patrician
woman achieved increasing autonomy and power in the family
structure."5

Furthermore, there are records of Venetian women's
participation in society. To begin, a young woman's wedding
was considered a rite of passage from the private protected
world of her childhood to a more social existence, as
Chojnacki describes of “society and pleasures.“76 There are
also numerous documented instances where the patrician woman
participated in social gatherings. For example, in a
gathering in a private home that accompanied the coronation

of the Dogaressa Zilia Dandolo, the late sixteenth-century

44
commentator Sansovino describes young women dancing with
each other until dawn for at least two nights in succession.
He speaks of many of such festivities and also of those in
which men and women danced together.77 Sanudo says that the
women's behavior at such events was very different from that
of the patrician sheltered woman isolated in the confines of
her home."

Along with the dowry increase developed a growing
emphasis on fashion which, by the end of the fifteenth
century had reached a maximum in lavishness.79 Female
fashion was a highly debated and controversial topic in
sixteenth-century Venice. Many contemporaries criticized
such lavish expenditures on the outfitting of women, arguing
that is was often at the cost of husbands and families.
Historians suggest that patrician woman used fashion as a
way to assert herself in a male-dominated culture who
excluded her from all public affairs, civil, commercial, and
intellectual. Thus, she asserted herself with the only
means available to her -- her appearance. WOmen’s
appearances -- their beauty -- became, along with their
control over a portion of their dowries, a source of their
power."0

As Venetian women began to claim their power through

45

this visual expression, the government felt the effects of
these practices. Junkerman states,

The government was watchful to keep this role within

the boundaries of “feminine“ behavior. In particular

it reacted against any threat of encroachment on male

prerogatives. At the beginning of the sixteenth

century, Venetian women did seem to be acting with a

new and potentially threatening boldness.81
The government reacted to this new found “boldness“ by
placing restrictions on the things women could wear. For
example, new sumptuary laws were passed in the early
sixteenth century, in part, placing limitations on the
expenditures for young women's weddings. Young brides were
not allowed to wear gold on their gowns for fear that it
would imply too much lavishness and self-indulgence. Men
attached moral issues to this frivolous behavior arguing
that such self-enhancement and self-interest was morally
corrupt. In sum, women used their economic independence not
always for the sake of their husbands but in their own
interests.82

Chojnacki and Labalme propose that the development of
increased pictorial sensuality in the 1500s, seen in
Titian's work and in many of his contemporaries, is a

product of a developing consciousness of patrician women in

their society, which was in turn reinforced by their

46
husbands. With the inflation of the dowry, men gained new
respect for their wives. This was partly out of their own
economic interests, and also out of a new appreciation for
women's individuality as they began to express themselves
more aggressively. Therefore, perhaps the increased
sensuality in painting is calling attention to those women
who were more free to express themselves visually and
participate socially and also, at the same time, is a
response of men to this enhanced female presence.“3

This interpretation also allows a possible context for
the yanns_Anadynmana. This is a personage totally at ease
with herself and her surroundings, and commanding in
appearance. The goddess breaks out of any established pose
and moves with apparent ease and confidence. For the first
time in Renaissance art, one sees a nude figure of only
three-quarter length, which in a way only enhances her
presence, as she appears closer-up to the viewer than would
a full-length figure.

Junkerman also recognizes increased pictorial
sensuality in Venetian painting during the first part of
sixteenth century, and raises some important questions
concerning the social conditions that may have supported

this new emphasis. In contrast to Chojnacki and Labalme,

47
she believes that we simply do not have enough evidence to
suggest that Venetian patrician women were actually gaining
more autonomy and power in their families as a result of
increases in their dowries. Did the dowry inflation instead
work only to reaffirm the importance of paternal lineage and
the patriarchal system? A marriage agreement was decided
and carried out by the men of a woman's natal and conjugal
families and thus operated in their interests. These
women's circumstances were almost always decided for them.
To what extent, then, would women have played a determining
role in such alliances? “Surely the women could contribute
significantly to inter-family harmony, but one suspects that
male expectations of such solidarity already existed on a
firm footing, supported by a strong sense of mutual
obligations and a keen awareness of extended relationships
within various clans.““ Where Chojnacki suggests that a
woman had some control over her dowry, and thus perhaps used
it as “psychological leverage“ in her family, Junkerman
also argues that in many cases it is “hard to gauge“” to
what extent a woman actually had control over this
inheritance and to what degree she accepted her position of
subjugation and allowed her husband to invest the sum as he

saw fit.

48

Along with Chojnacki and Labalme, Junkerman recognizes
the lavish, splendid presence of patrician women in venice
in the sixteenth century and its possible connection to an
increased emphasis on female beauty and sensuality in
painting. However, she identifies another phenomenon that
was specific to Venice in the sixteenth century and that
possibly had an effect on the portrayal of woman by artists
and writers: the rise of the courtesan.

The rise of this new class of women resulted from the
“restructuring of styles of prostitution in Venice.“86
Junkerman suggests that the increasing cultivation of
Renaissance society brought about the need for a new type of
woman in Venice who could provide not only sexual favors but
interesting discourse. The courtesan filled this role.
They were known to have participated fully in salon life,
perhaps singing or playing music for a male audience or
publicly taking part in conversations." They held a place
in society distinct from the patrician lady, in a sense,
acting as her antithesis.

It is interesting that the courtesan but not the
patrician lady was recognized and documented for her
achievements in the public sphere. Molmenti acknowledged

that the courtesan appeared more prominently than the “many

49
virtuous ladies who passed their days in the honorable
repose of the domestic circle.“" One cannot help but
recognize the paradox, between what was considered the
immoral acts of courtesan and a recognition of her public
accomplishments."9 She committed “unchaste“ acts by
engaging in public discourse, participating in activities of
the salon and maintaining a strong public presence yet, at
the same time, was recognized for her admirable achievements
as a singer, dancer, or musician.

Junkerman suggests that the rise of the courtesan in
Venice “resulted from the frustrations of talented women who
accepted the new lifestyle as the only means to self-
expression;“9° yet it is also important to realize that the
social position of such women was never really chosen since
most were born into this life. If a woman was not born into
nobility, this option provided one of the few ways that she
could make a living and lead a good life, at least for
awhile. Since beauty, youth, and desirability were directly
linked to the success of these women, by their late
thirties they usually lost many of their clients and found
it difficult to make a living. The famous courtesan-poet,
Veronica Franco, born to a mother who was an impoverished

courtesan, had little choice but to enter this life herself.

50

She was forced to support her mother with her own income,
and then by her mid-forties, found herself poverty-
stricken.“1

Perhaps, then, increased sensuality in paintings of
women also had much to do with the phenomenon of the
courtesan in Venice. These talented women achieved a public
recognition in an otherwise male-dominated sphere.“2 In
return, Venetian men turned to, among other things, visual
representations such as, perhaps, the ysnns under
discussion. This argument is well defined by Margaret
Miles. She states that one must recognize that paintings,
for the most part, were painted and bought by men and thus
must reflect, to a certain degree, their interests and
needs. Further, she says that “patriarchal cultures, in
spite of their many dissimilarities, share a common need to
preserve male control that is thought of simply as 'order.’
A central component of maintaining and reproducing social
order is the management of women, and a powerful strategy
for controlling women is their public representation.”3 If
this proposition is accepted, the portrayal of female beauty
in images provided a means for this culture to deal with
issues of developing female power. An image of a beautiful,

sensual woman (whether it was a portrait or mythological

51
representation) was possessible, manageable, and thus
reassuring.

Junkerman specifically relates the rise of the
courtesan to the establishment of a particular type of
painting in early sixteenth-century Venice: the sensuous
half-length image. It assumes a place between the fully
clothed portrait-figure and the full-length female nude.

Junkerman defines this type by a specific set of
characteristics. The female figure is always presented in
close-up view. Her sensuous body fills the frame of the
composition. She wears a simple white garment, loosened at
the neckline to reveal, or almost reveal, one breast. The
clothing is often identified as a caminia, a standard
undergarment in Renaissance dress. It usually appears in
disarray. The figure is often partially concealed by a robe
and is portrayed in a dark undefined setting. This dark,
ambiguous background has the effect of projecting the half-
length forward onto the picture plane, challenging the space
between image and viewer. The sensuous half-length is not
intended for public spectacle but for private view as she is
rendered in an intimate and suggestive state of dishahilis.
She appears neither fully dressed nor nude. Her hair is

loosened but not completely unbound. She presents the

52
viewer with a set of paradoxes. Her gaze is at the same
time seductive and distant. Her sensuality is real and
enticing yet at the same time the figure maintains space
from the viewer by her ambiguous and idealized presence.
She is not a portrait of any specific person, but rather an
idealized depiction of female beauty." This type shares
important characteristics with Titian's rendering of a
close-up, beautiful female nude that are worth consideration
here.

Junkerman argues that Titian's Elana (1520-22),
(Fig.18) is one of the most articulate examples of the
sensuous half-length genre. Again, one sees a close—up and
intimate portrayal of a female form. Her white namisia
stands out from the dark, ambiguous background, drawing
focus to its many loose folds and neckline. The diagonal
established in the neckline is, perhaps, the compositional
focus of the painting. It extends to the line of Flora's
neck, the hair upon her shoulder, and the fingers that hold
her robe and gamisia, as Junkerman suggests, “gently impel
the viewer's attention to the partly visible breast.“95 The
painting resonates with paradox. The half-length is
revealed, yet simultaneously covered by the action of her

left hand. Flora's gaze is suggestive rather than direct.

53
She both challenges the viewer's space in her close-up
presentation while maintaining a distance in her anonymous
and classicizing form.

Junkerman argues that the half-length sensuous image,
in all of its paradoxes, is closely related to the rise of
the courtesan. As the courtesan does not fit into an
established category of women in sixteenth—century Venice
she straddles social lines so the sensuous half-length image
fits into no other category of Renaissance painting that
depicts women -- she assumes a place of her own between the
formal portrait and the full-length nude. She forms a third
type.“

This third category of painting displays important
similarities to Titian's yanns_Anadydmana, Most
significantly, both compositions involve a solitary,
sensuous female figure with a mythological reference, in
close-up view. Both Flora and Venus fill their respective
picture frames, leaving room for little else. Flora is
painted from the waist up and the Venus appears three-
quarter-length, the lower portion of her legs concealed
beneath the waves. It is intriguing that Titian chose to

portray his yanns_Anadynmana in this new way. Before this

three-quarter length, close-up image, no such depiction of

S4
Venus appears in the Renaissance. Bellini's Lady_aL_hez
InileLLe (while not specifically a Venus Celestias) comes
the closest to this type. Other renderings appear either
full length and standing, such as Botticelli’s yenns_Bising
fixem_nhe_fiea (Fig. 19) and Raphael's nudes (Figs. 20, 21);
or full-length and reclining seen in Giorgione's Dresden
Menus and practically all other depictions of the theme by
Titian. The choice to depict a female nude in such a
partial view is indeed unique.

These close-up, partial, and highly sensual depictions
of a solitary woman indicate a feeling of privacy and
intimacy between image and viewer that the full-length nudes
cannot offer. The full-length nudes maintain a physical
distance between themselves and their audience, by appearing
further away from the viewer. There is less space between
either yenns_anadyemene by Titian or his Elena and their
viewers. Furthermore, there are no distractions from the
intensity of this direct relationship. The audience of
either picture focuses solely on the women's sensuous
appearance.

Privately located, such images would have belonged in
art collections -- stored in closets and taken out for

display —- or would have contributed to decorations for

55
bedrooms.97 It is the intimate, private qualities of
Titian'sjyenus_Anadyemene, in her close-up, nude, and
solitary depiction that will remind one most of his Elena.
Both pictures seem intended for a limited audience -—
perhaps only one or two people at a time.

Significant differences between the Menus_Anadyemene
and Elena are also worth consideration, however. Where in
the Venus_Anadyemene one sees a bit of sea behind the
figure, the background of Flora offers nothing but the
darkness that typically sets off figures of her kind. In
the Menus, then, the viewer sees a figure in a definite
setting. The figure’s identity is confirmed by this
indication of environment and particularly by the shell that
floats beside her in the waves. There is no question but
that this is Venus Rising from the Sea. The identity of the
figure in the half-length image is, by comparison,
ambiguous. Where historians have suggested she is Flora
(because of the flowers she holds)”, there is really
nothing in the composition that specifically confirms this.
She appears mysteriously and without attribute in front of
an undefined background without attribute. I might further
add that the state of Flora's dishabille is itself much less

defined than the clear state of nudity of Titian's Venus.

56
Flora's eamieia falls off her shoulder nearly revealing one
breast. She is somewhere on the borderline between nude and
clothed. On the other hand, one sees no ambiguity or
paradox in Titian's Goddess of Love. Her nudity is
proclaimed. It is forthrightly sensuous. Although it has
some affinity to the “courtesan“ image, this painting
belongs apparently in another genre.

To sum up: the Menus_Anadyemene seems to assume a place
henueen the half-length sensuous image and the full length
nude. By comparison with the half-length figure, she does
not appear as close to the viewer, nor as cropped; by
comparison with the full-length figure (either standing or
reclining) she does not appear as removed from the viewer.
She maintains a sense of intimacy and privacy, and yet a
lso, at the same time, some distance from whomever may look
at the picture. This distance is confirmed, moreover, by
her clear, straightforward identity as a goddess: indeed
the Celestial Venus, the one born miraculously of the sea.
Where the more sensuous half-length depiction lends a
nessibiliny,of access for the viewer, the venus suggests no
such potential. She maintains a place of her own. It is as
if, in rendering this female nude, Titian has created a

fourth genre of image depicting a woman -- neither a full-

57

length nude, nor a portrait, nor a sensuous half—length.

One is left with questions about the specific social
attitudes that helped to shape such an image as Titian's
Menus_Anadyemene. She is indeed sensuous, beautiful, and
bold, and, at the same time, idealized, silent, and
possessible. Perhaps her qualities can be attributed in
part to a reaction of the artist and, or, patron to the
increased autonomy of patrician women (as suggested by
Chojnacki and Labalme), or to women's developing public
expression through fashion, or, finally, to the rise of the
courtesan. But the uniqueness of this painting as a type of
image makes it less amenable to such explanations than
either the full—length nudes or the sensuous half—lengths
would appear to be. It is clear that Titian had a keen
understanding of those other types of images depicting
women. He is known to have painted prolifically in those
other genres. Why might he, then, have painted his Menus
Anadyemene in three-quarter length view, and thus situated
it outside of the established genres, making it one-of—a-
kind? The question of the three-quarter length view of the
Venus_Anadyemene has been addressed by a number of
historians, warren Tressider, Harold Wethey, Edmund

Pillsbury, Allessandro Ballarin among others."9 As I

58
suggested earlier in this essay, they have consistently
looked for answers in classical sources. At this point it
seems appropriate to reexamine Titian's enthusiasm for

ancient objects and texts.

IV. The Apelles Connection and Other Antique Sources
Earlier in this thesis, possible antique sources were
mentioned for Titian's Menus_Anadyemene, including an
ancient gem in the Duke Alfonso d'Este's collection at
Ferrara. It has been suggested that Lombardo and
Marcantonio both drew from this classical model in rendering
their versions of the yenus_Anadyemene. It is likely that
Titian also knew of this ancient source. As previously
stated, Titian was also exposed to ancient statuary from his
early years in Gentile Bellini's studio and then in the
workshop of Giovanni Bellini, including, in Gentile's
possession, an ancient marble figure of a Menus_Anadyemene.
By the time he worked on the yenus Titian had been
introduced to ancient texts that were being printed in his
time in Italian translation mostly in Venice, making them
ever more accessible. Titian worked for patrons who were
educated and well read in the classics. ”0

It is most likely that, through any of these patrons,

Titian knew the HiaLQIiE_NaLnIaliS by Pliny the Elder.
59

60

This thirty-six volume work was originally written in the
first century A.D. As early as 1476 an Italian translation
of this work was published in Venice, to be followed by
other printings and editions.101 By the late 15th century
most any well-educated Italian could have read Pliny's
account of the art of classical antiquity.102 Since a great
deal of classical sculpture and painting did not survive to
the Renaissance, these chapters were extremely important in
preserving the memory of these masterpieces.103

Two passages from Pliny's volumes seem particularly
relevant to the Menus_Anadyemene. In his section on marble
sculpture Pliny describes two statues of Venus by
Praxiteles."“ This account was well known in the
Renaissance to humanists and presumably to artists as well.
Pliny tells the often-cited story about the two different
Venuses by Praxiteles:

He had offered two statues of Aphrodite for sale at the

same time, the second being a draped figure, which for

that reason was preferred by the people of Kos with

whom lay the first choice; the price of the two figures

was the same, but they flattered themselves they were

giving proof of a severe modesty. The rejected statue

which was bought by the people of Knidos, enjoys an

immeasurably greater reputation. King Nikomedes

subsequently wished to buy it from them, offering

to discharge the whole of their public debt, which was

enormous.... They showed their wisdom, for by this

statue Praxiteles made Knidos illustrious. It stands
in a small shrine, open all around so that the statue,

61

which was made, as is believed, under the direct

inspiration of the goddess, can be seen from every

side....105

The contrast between the two Venuses was taken up, in
turn, in a Neoplatonic sense by Marcilio Ficino in the
second half of the fifteenth century. As the founder and
leader of the Platonic Academy in Florence, under the
protection of Cosimo de Medici, Ficino translated Plato,
Plotinus, and other ancient philosophers into Latin, wrote
commentaries on these writings, and thus made them
accessible to the educated public.““ 'Ficino's commentary on
Plato's Symnesiumywas published for the first time in Italy
in 1469. It inspired many artists and poets such as
Michelangelo and Pietro Bembo.“" The Idea of Love, Panofsky
explains, is “the very axis of Ficino’s philosophy.“ It is
the force which causes goodness and beauty and is symbolized
by two forms -- the Twin Venuses. The “venus Celestias“ the
daughter of Uranus, resides in the highest supercelestial
zone of the universe. She embodies “Caritas,“ the link
between the human mind and God. This Venus owns no earthly
belongings as she is connected only to divine realms. She
is often depicted nude. The “Venus Naturalis“ maintains a

place below the “Venus Celestias“ in Ficino's hierarchical

62
system of the universe and is therefore less perfect. She
remains closer to man's position in the universe and to
natural things and makes their beauty accessible to human
perception and imagination. She links the supercelestial
realms with earth. Ficino believes in the goodness of each
goddess as they express two different forms of love —-
divine and human, and a human being can find each within his
own soul.“” It has been argued that Titian's Saened_and
Enefiane_Leye (Fig. 2) illustrates the difference between
these two symbols. The woman on the left depicts “Venus
Naturalis.“ She is adorned with material things -- a
wedding gown and gloves -— that associate her with the
world, where the woman to her right is nude. This “Venus
Celestias“ holds a vase with the Flame of Heaven in her left
hand and raises it towards the sky. The left half of the
landscape is also different from the right half. One sees a
contemporary setting behind the “Venus Naturalis“ with a
castle and various figures and animals. The scene on the
right resembles the idealized landscape of Giorgione in his
Sleepine_yenus. A church appears underneath a Giorgionesque
sky, further evoking the divine realm. Wethey states in his
discussion on the Saened_and_Enefane_Leye, that “no one

doubts that the nude with the flaming lamp is Venus,

63
generally thought to be the 'Celestial Venus' of Marsilio
Ficino.“109 The venus appears again, nude. In Titian's
yenus_Anadyemene the very subject of the picture, the Birth
of Venus indicates the goddess in her celestial aspect.
Panofsky further supports the suggestion that Titian was
exposed to the ideas of Ficino through his circle of friends
and patrons: “The Renaissance was well acquainted with the
fact that Praxiteles had made two famous statues of Venus,
one draped, the other nude...friends of Isabella d'Este were
great authorities on “Platonic Love'.“no Isabella d'Este
was the sister of Alfonso d'Este, a great patron of Titian.
Thus Titian was presumably well aware of Neoplatonic ideas
at the time he painted.the genus_Anadyemene; by this time
both Isabella and Alfonso had become clients of his.

The second passage of Pliny's History worth considering
is from his account of painting in ancient times. In this
section he describes the Aehnedine_Eisine_fnem_nhe_Sea by
the renowned classical painter, Apelles. Apelles of Kos was
considered the best of the classical painters, the one who
came the closest to rendering truth and perfection in his
works.111 Thus it would not be surprising if Titian took
much interest in the artist's painting of Aphrodite and

recalled it in his own rendering of Venus. Pliny states:

64
His [Apelles'] Aphrodite rising from the sea was
dedicated by the god Augustus in the temple of his
father Caesar....[she was], like other works of the
kind, at once eclipsed yet rendered famous by the Greek
epigrams written in her praise. When the lower portion
was damaged no one could be found to restore it, and
thus the very injury redounded to the glory of the
artist.112
Here, as others have pointed out, may lie the explanation of
Titian's odd choice of a three-quarter length view. A
number of historians have suggested that in rendering his
own Venus, Titian felt that even he could not replace the
section of Apelles' painting that had been destroyed.113
Tressider suggests another possible source for the
,yenus that matches her three-quarter length view. He
relates the painting to a group of figures in Medieval
manuscripts.n‘ Tressider describes these figures as nude
and bathing in the sea. Some appear half-length and
wringing water from their hair. Others appear in three-
quarter length view. I would add to Tressider's findings
a group of mosaics and reliefs from the first century
B.C. that again depict Venus essentially in this way.115
Of particular interest is the subject matter of a
Pompeiian mosaic in which Venus appears to be swimming in

waves (Fig. 22). She floats on her shell and is assisted

by two winged putti. Both are waist deep in water. The

6S
viewer sees only three-quarters of the goddess's body.
The lower portion of her legs is immersed in the waves.
Other nudes appear in the mosaic, bathing themselves in
the sea. For example, to Venus's left, a nude appears
waist deep in the waves while Venus dries herself with a
towel. Although this particular mosaic was not
accessible to Titian (Pompeii was uncovered for the first

time in the eighteenth-century) one cannot help wonder,

T _"‘ __jl

given this distinct similarity, if Titian had access to
similar Roman depictions from other places. There was,
for example, a fascinating ancient relief from a portal
to a bath at Ephesus, where a nude Venus rises from the
sea, three-quarters of her body appearing above the waves
(Fig. 23). The Ephesian example would presumably not
have been known to Titian either, but it may well be of a
rather common type that somehow found its way to his
attention.

A partial view of Venus is also portrayed in a
Coptic relief from Ahnas, Cairo (Fig. 24).116 Venus is
identified in this version by the shell behind her.
Stylized waves conceal the lower portion of her legs. It

seems, then, that the three-quarter length view of Venus

66

in Titian's painting is not without precedent among
surviving visual examples, and it is possible that some
such examples were available for the artist to view first
hand. Perhaps it was not only Pliny's description of
Apelles Menus_Anadyemene that inspired Titian to create
his subject in three—quarter length view. Perhaps he
also knew of an ancient Roman example of the type seen in
the Pompeiian mosaic and used it, as well, along with the
other possible sources for the figure that I have
discussed above.117

One must also remember that Roman sculptures, too,
provided Titian with visual sources for his painting and
thus perhaps for the Menus_Anadyemene. Wethey describes
a Roman statue of a goddess wringing and arranging her
hair nonchalantly ( Figs. 25, 26). He states that the
“three-quarter length and the inclined body of Titian's
Venus imply inspiration from such figures."118 It was not
uncommon to see sculptures that consisted of a torso with
its legs or arms missing. Perhaps the “Praxitilean”
model owned by Gentile Bellini would have been one of
these. Titian was perhaps influenced by the broken

appearance or “three-quarter length“ views of such

67
statues.

Thus, one might conclude that in the painting of his
,yenus Titian was inspired both by visual and literary
sources from classical antiquity. The apparent
connection with Pliny's account of Apelles painting of
the same subject is especially convincing. Yet one is
still left with the fact that although Titian’s Menus
reflects qualities of both antique and contemporary
models, it remains one-of-a-kind within the Italian

Renaissance.

V. Tha vanus Anadyomana and tha Dramatic Gloss—Up Imago

The unique combination of qualities displayed in this
Menus_Anadyemene leads one to look at yet another type of
image. Popular in both the Italian and Northern Renaissance
by the end of the fifteenth century, it is a type that
Titian would have encountered in Venice. Sixten Ringbom
defines this genre as the DnamaLie_£lese;fln_flalf_LeneLh
.Deyetienal_lmaee.119 Pictures of this type were often called
deyeeim.or.diyeniene.12° Particularly popular in the late
fifteenth and early sixteenth century, they were used, along
with rosaries or prayer books, to assist in private
devotions.

These paintings are usually small in size and usually
include one or at most a few figures in the composition.
They often depict a scene or moment from the Gospel
narrative,“21 and yet look something like portraits, as the

figures appear in one-half to three-quarter length, and thus

68

 

69
close up to the viewer. There is little background in these
paintings. The primary focus is on the figures. The result
is a direct and personal relationship with the viewer (Figs.
27, 28, 29). Titian's Tributs_Mnne¥. 1516, (Fig. 30) is one
of the finest examples.

This type of composition also became utilized for
secular scenes by the early sixteenth century, and again
with the idea of bringing the viewer close up to the subject
of the picture, and inducing meditation. Titian's geneenn
(Pitti Palace) is an example. WIth the popular example of
the dramatic close-up on his mind, together with the well-
known story of the ancient yenus whose lower portion was
missing, Titian could have expected a receptive audience for
his picture of Venus -- in three-quarter length -- rising

from the sea.

VI. In Search for a Specific Contaxt for tha vanus

Anadyomana

As previously stated, no document has been found
directly referring to the commission of Titian's Menus
Anadyemene. Perhaps no document ever existed. Given the
fairly small size of the work, perhaps a verbal agreement
between artist and patron might have sufficed.

“Ready-made“ art seems to have been very popular in
both the Italian and Northern Renaissance. Peter Burke
points out the importance of the art market in the sixteenth
century. It is known for example that Isabella d’Este
wished to buy a number of works of art second-hand. In 1510
she specifically wrote to a Venetian merchant:

We are informed that among the stuff and effects of the

painter Zorgo of Castelfranco there exists a picture of

a night [una note], very beautiful and singular; if so

it might be, we desire to possess it and we therefore

ask you, in company with Lorenzo da Pavia and any other
who has judgement and understanding, to see whether it
is a really fine thing and if you find it such, to go

to work...to obtain this picture for me, settling the
price and giving me notice of it.“122

70

71

Ottaviano de Medici is also known to have bought two
paintings by Andrea del Sarto which had been originally
commissioned by someone else.123

Charles Hope argues that such interchanges between
patron and artist, or buyer and seller as it were,
contributed to a new attitude of acquiring works of art in
the sixteenth century. In many cases, a value of a work
depended not so much on its specific content but primarily
on the reputation of the artist. A patron such as Isabella
d'Este or her brother, Alfonso, would have been primarily
concerned with obtaining works by great masters and not so
much with exact content. Hope explains:

Something of this attitude is reflected in Alfonso's

original scheme for his eamenine, in which he planned

to include side by side, paintings by the foremost

representations of the different Italian Schools of Art

-- Bellini from Venice, Fra Bartolommeo from Florence

and Raphael from Rome. In the event, he was prepared

to accept changes in the actual choice of subjects

without apparent demur.u‘
Therefore, an established artist often was given freedom to
create works that were based primarily on his own artistic
inclinations, following, perhaps, loose guidelines on

subject matter. It is known from documents that Titian

worked in this manner with at least some of his patrons,

72

including Alfonso d'Este. In the early 1520s he
specifically wrote to the Duke:

[I am] convinced that the greatness of art amongst the

ancients was due to the assistance they received from

great princes content to leave to the painter the

credit and renown derived from their ingenuity in

commissioning pictures...I shall, after all, have done

no more than give shape to that which received its

spirit -- the most essential part, from your

excellency.125

Burke argues that the change in balance between patron
and artist was part of a growing new material culture in
Renaissance Italy. He terms the new culture as one of
“conspicuous consumption“ in which “nobles built to sustain
the honor of the house and to make their rival envious. The
house (especially its facade and its contents formed part of
a family's 'front,’ the setting and the stage props for the
long-playing drama in which their status was displayed.“126

Sixteenth-century noble families collected material
objects: antiques, furniture, bronzes, coins, and paintings,
of high value as a way of displaying their wealth and
prestige. Such collections of a high class patron were
usually concentrated in a few rooms of a palace. Huse
explains:

They [palaces] were not museums in the modern sense but

contained far more paintings, figures, utensils, and
ornaments than normally made up the furnishings of an

73

aristocratic house. The essential parts of a

collection were concentrated in relatively few rooms of

a palace, but these rooms were also lived in, and

important items of the collection could be found in

rooms used almost exclusively by the master of the
house, such as the bedrooms.“127
Having valuable objects in one's possessions again provided
a way of affirming the owner's social status.

It is impossible to say with exact certainty whether
Titian's yenus_Anadyemene,was part of such a collection. It
is documented for the first time in an inventory in the late
seventeenth century of the collection of Queen Christina of
Sweden . 13“

Tressider again seems to come the closest to suggesting
a context for Titian's painting, stating that it was
probably commissioned by an educated patron with “literary
taste,“13° yet, he takes this discussion no further.

Charles Hope, however, helps in narrowing down the
possibilities. He observes that few of Titian's patrons
took great interest in mythological subject matters and,
furthermore, in the female nude:

... only two of the artist's major patrons, Alfonso

d'Este and Philip II showed a marked enthusiasm for

such paintings; and in Philip's case this was combined
with an equally strong interest in religious subjects.

But Federigo Gonzaga and Charles V each acquired only

one work by Titian showing a female nude, and Francesco
Maria della Rovere none at all.130

74

Although Federigo Gonzaga commissioned some work of
Titian as early as 1523, Hope states that all early projects
were either portraits or devotional images. Titian likely
would not have created a mythological work for him until
much later, in the 1530s. Alfonso d'Este, was the only
patron of those mentioned that commissioned work from Titian
during the late 1510s and early 15203, the period suggested
in Section I for the Venus_Anadyemene. It was at that time
that Titian worked on the three mythological paintings for
the Duke's Camerino d'Alabastro; the wenshie_ef_Venus (1518-
19), the Andzinna (1523-25), and Bacchus_and_Ariadne
(c.1520-23). Wethey recognizes a stylistic connection
between these mythological scenes and the Venus, arguing
“The mastery of form in rendering the ideal nude body [in
the Venus] is that of a mature artist, who had reached the
phase of the Ferrara mythological figures.“131

There were five rooms in the Camerini sopra li volti in
Piazzetta dal Castello alle Camare Nove, each with elaborate
gilded ceilings. The Camerino d'Alabastro was located
between what has been thought to be the Duke's bedroom at
the north end of the Via Coperta and the Camera del

Poggiuolo. The Duke's chamber contained nine ceiling

75
paintings and a frieze of landscapes by Dosso Dossi.132

The inventory of the Camerino d'Alabastro is far from
complete. The entire room was dismantled in 1598. Not one
of the pictures removed shortly after by Cardinal
Aldobrandini was recorded. Many of these paintings,
including the three mythological scenes by Titian, were
taken to Rome in the early seventeenth century. It is of
interest that Queen Christina of Sweden travelled to Rome in
the mid-16003133 and purchased a number of works for her
collection including Titian's,Venus_And_Adenis,n‘ Perhaps
it was here that she also came upon Titian's Venus
Anadyemene. One cannot help but wonder why the Venus
Anadyemene appears along with this other work by Titian in
her inventory. Perhaps it had travelled to Rome from
Ferrara in 1598.

Unfortunately, there is only scattered documentation of
Titian's commissions at Ferrara. Through letters of
Tibaldi, we know that his first project consisted of The
Henshin_ef_Venus, on which Titian worked until mid-January
of 1520. The Baeehus_and_Aniadne was sent to Ferrara in
1523 where the artist also worked from mid-April to late
June 1524 and from early December 1524 to mid-February of

1525.135 The purpose of these trips has not been documented

76

although Tebaldi records that during this time, Titian
completed three projects all worth 100 ducati. Hope
suggests that two of these paintings were portraits of
Alfonso and the Duke's mistress, Laura de'Dianti, and
perhaps that a third was a portrait of Ercole, Alfonso’s
son. It is also noteworthy that the Venus, about the same
size as the portrait, also could have fit into the price
range mentioned by Tebaldi. Not one of the smaller
pictures, nor the Bacchanal scenes appear in the Duke's
Inventory. Hope further suggests that Titian possibly could
have worked on Bellini's Eeasn_ef_nhe_fieds,during this time
although it is more likely that this was completed on his
next visit to Ferrara in 1529.136

One might easily imagine that the Duke of Ferrara
desired the Venus_Anadyemene for his collection. It is a
beautiful painting, depicting a female nude and a
mythological subject. Again one might suggest that in such
a case, the exact content of the painting would not have
been of primary importance for the Duke, whose focus was
likely directed towards the acquisition of another beautiful
work by Titian. One remembers that Titian was given a great
deal of creative freedom in working for the Duke of Ferrara.

It is also possible (although given the patron—artist

77
relationship between Alfonso and Titian) not as likely, that
the Duke would have purchased the work already made.

But where would the Venus_Anadyemene_have been
displayed at Ferrara? One might remember in the preceding
discussion of the half—length sensuous female nude, that a
close-up, beautiful and sensual depiction of a woman in
dishahille would likely have been viewed in private
quarters, and one can say the same for Titian's Venus. It
may well not have appeared on a wall in the Camerino
d'Alabastro, a more public and formal space. One might also
remember Huse's explanation that the “Dramatic Close-up“
image, as it began to move away from only religious
subjects, began to appear as part of the interior decoration
of palaces, either in studies, bedrooms, or closets.

Perhaps this was also the case for Titian's Venus.

Perhaps, then, the Venus_Anadyemene,was commissioned
for another room among the Duke's Camerini sopra de volti.
Interestingly, there was a bedroom attached to the Camerino
d'Alabastro that contained a bath.137 One might suggest that
the Venus was painted for part of the interior decoration of
this room. Gronau mentions a letter from Titian to the Duke
in 1517 in which the artist states: “As for your 'Bath' your

most illustrious lordship has demanded, I have not forgotten

78
it, but am working at it daily and when you wish to see it I
will send it to you without delayu“t” Gronau suggests that
this letter referred to the Venus_Anadyemene. Perhaps the
“bath“ mentioned in the letter refers to the bath in the
bedchamber mentioned above or to another private room in the
Duke's palace.

As a follow-up to Gronau's suggestion, I would offer
one other. It is noteworthy that the dimensions of the
,Venus_Anadyemene are almost identical to those of a painting
by Titian that originally was located in the room next to
the Camerino d'Alabastro; his Inihune_Meney_(75 X 56 cm),
one of the great masterpieces of the “Dramatic Close-up“
(Fig. 30). This painting was designed to fit the interior
side of a cabinet doorut” .Although this work is actually a
panel painting, it was very common in Venice and neighboring
areas like Ferrara, to use canvas as a support.“0 One might
see this, for example, in the nine ceiling paintings in the
bed chamber of the Camerini sopra de volti. As the Venus
Anadyemene is almost the same in size and shape as the
Tnihute_Meney, so this mythological painting on canvas could
have found its way, too, onto the back of a cabinet door --

but in a room likely still more private than the Camerino

79
d'Alabastro and most likely for the benefit of only the most

privileged of viewers.

VI . CONCLUSION

One is left uncertain as to the exact function of
Titian's Venus_Anadyemene. Evidence supports the idea that
it was commissioned by Alfonso d'Este for some chamber of
his home at Ferrara. It most likely would have hung in a
private setting, such as a haene, and perhaps on the inner
face of a cabinet door. The painting seems to typify the
mature style that Titian achieved in the great mythological
paintings originally placed in Alfonso's Camerino
d'Alabastro. It shows full awareness of achievements of
Bellini, Giorgione, and Antonio Lombardo as well as of
Michelangelo in the Sistine ceiling. It also reflects the
artist’s knowledge of antiquities, and his knowledge of
concepts of beauty known through classical writers. This
knowledge is reflected here in this one unique form, this
three-quarter-length female nude seen against blue sea and
sky. Through the exquisitely balanced tensions created in
this form, the graceful curve of Venus's torso and head, the

gesture of arms, her attentive gaze over her shoulder, told

80

81
through soft glowing Venetian eelene, Titian declares, in a
most eloquent manner, his love of physical beauty.

As we have seen, this preoccupation with physical
beauty permeates all other types of Italian Renaissance
painting depicting women, and it is taken up in the thinking
of the period about, and by, women. Not just his own,
personal proclivities, but the social and cultural life of
the time prompted Titian into creating this exceptionally
beautiful image. Perhaps such pictures as the Venus
Anadyemene, together with other paintings of the period that
depict the beautiful female form, reflects in part a
developing consciousness and self-confidence of the
patrician woman as she asserted herself more in the social
sphere, and, also, men's concessions to and reinforcement of
this developing power. Or, perhaps as Junkerman suggests,
they signify a response by Renaissance society to anxieties
over the increasing presence of women in society, in
particular the courtesan.

Titian's Venus_Anadyemene, shares important
characteristics with the half-length type and other
depictions of woman in the sixteenth century and yet, at the
same time, is like none of them. As a type she is unique —

- perhaps originating in a personal request from Alfonso

82
d'Este -- and the picture itself is still, of course, a
product of the painter's unique genius. It is a fascinating

painting that still poses unanswered questions.

WIS
Alessandro Ballarin, Iinian (London, 1968), 38.

Kenneth Clark. W
(washington DC, 1956), 127.

Edmund Pillsbury, “The Rebirth of venus,“ Aunnjkama
LXXXII (April 1983), 110; Marion Lawrence, “The Birth
of Venus in Roman Art. “ . W
W ed. Douglas Fraser.

Howard Hibbard & Milton J. Lewine (London: Phaidon
Press, 1967), 10. There appear to be two legends of
the Venus Anadyomene. Hesiod recounts that Venus was
born from the genitals of Uranos. Cronos threw the
genitals of Uranos into the sea, and their foam
produced the Venus Anadyomene. This Venus is of the
Celestias type, and does not have a mother. “Mother“
is very close in meaning to “matier“ which signifies
earthly qualities. This type of Venus has no earthly
belongings, as she resides between God and the
supercelestial realms of the universe.(Hesiod, Iheeen,
188, as cited by Lawrence.) Refer to Section IV of this
thesis for further discussion. On the other hand,
Plautus, Tibullus, and Pompeius Festus described Venus
born from the shell. (Plautus, Eud., III, 3, 43;
Tibullus, III, iii, 34; Festus, III, 23; all as cited
by Lawrence.) One may gather that Titian depicted this
version in the painting, as the shell has been included
to the goddess's right in the composition.

Clark, Wm. 127.

Harold Wethey. W

MW (London: Phaidon
Press, 1975), 27; Ballarin, minian, 38; Pillsbury,

“The Rebirth of Venus,“ 110.

83

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

84
warren Tressider, “The Classicism of the Early WOrks

of Titian: Its Sources and Character“ volumes I and II
(Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1979), 271.

John Shearman. WWW
the_ltalian_Eenaissanee, The A. W. Mellon Lectures in

the Fine Arts 37 (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1992), 258.

Ballarin. Titian; Clark W
Earn.

Erwin Panofsky. W
Inonnnranhic (New York: New York University Press,
1969). 19.

Charles Hope, Titian (London: Jupiter Books, 1980), 2.
Panofsky. Win. 20.

Ibid., 5.

Ibid., 20.

Ibid., 20.

Tressider, “The Classicism of the Early WOrks of
Titian,“ 273.

Panofsky. Problamunlitian. 13 .

Rona Goffen. Qieyanni_Eellini (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1989), 2.

Ibid., 4.
David Allen Brown, 'Bellini and Titian,“ Ijgjan Erjngg

ef_£aintens (exhibition catalogue) (Venice: Marsilio
Editori, 1990), 57.

Hope. Titian. 30.
Goffen. GimmLBellini. 16.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

85

Another painting of particular interest is Giovanni's
Eeasn_ef_nhe_fieds (Fig. 7) which was executed in 1514
for Alfonso d'Este's Camerino d'Alabastro. It is
thought that Titian, himself, finished the painting.
(Hope, Titian, 54.) Here, again, attention is paid to
the female nude. This is seen specifically in the
lower right hand corner of the painting. A woman
reclines against a tree as her gown falls away to
reveal her torso.

Terisio Pignatti, “Giorgione and Titian,“ minian_2;ingg
ef_Eaintens (exhibition catalogue) (Venice: Marsilio
Editori, 1990), 68.

Giorgio Vasari . LixaLothaJnstminentJaintana.

Sculntnr3_and_Architects (transl. Gaston Du C. De Vere)
(London: Philip Lee warner, 1912-1915), vol Ix, 1.

Giorgione's influence extends beyond these frescoes.
.Ihe_Sleenine_Venus (1510-1511) (Fig. 24) is another
example of Giorgione's rendering a full length nude
woman in a new way. She is the first completely nude
figure to be presented in a landscape. It is thought
that Titian helped Giorgione in this painting, he is
said to have painted the landscape part. His specific
contributions are unclear as the styles of the two
artists have so much in common; however it is
generally believed that Titian is responsible for the
drapery. (Hone. Titian. 10.)

Johannes Wilde. Venetianmmhellinimitian
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), 79.

“Frescoes from the Fondaco dei Tedeschi,“ Ii;ian_Eninee
ef_2aintens (exhibition catalogue) (Venice: Marsilio
Editori, 1990). 135.

Ibid., 138.

Charles Hope, “Titian and His Patrons,“ Titian_Eninee_
Q£_2aintazs (exhibition catalogue) (Venice: Marsilio
Editori, 1990), 77.

Ibid., 78.

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.

36.

37.

38.

39.

86

Copy of label of Antonio Lombardo's,Venus_Anadyemene,
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, provided by the
Museum in 1992; Ovid, Ans_Amanenia, iii. 224.

Tressider, “The Classicism of the Early Work,“ 90.

Hope, “Titian and His Patrons,“ 80.

Copy of label of Lombardo's Venus_Anadyemene, Victoria
and Albert Museum, London, provided by the Museum in

1992. The placement of Titian's Bacchanal paintings in
Alfonso d'Este's palace has been a controversial topic
among several art historians. In his article, “The
Camerino d' Alabastro. A Reconsideration of the
Evidence.“ WW (symposium
in the National Museum, Stockholm, 18- 19 Mars 1987),
ed. G. Cavalli-Bjorkmann (Stockholm: Nationalmusei
Skriftserie, 1987), Charles Hope believes that the
pictures formed part of the interior decoration of the
Camerino d'Alabastro, the north-east room in the Via
Coperta adjacent to the Camerino di Marmo. Beverly
Louise Browne generally agrees with Hope, yet Dana
Goodgal believes that these paintings were located in
another Camerino d'Alabastro.

Edgar Wind. WWW.
(Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1967), 264.

Tressider, “The Classicism of the Early WOrks,“ 91.
Ibid., 91.

Ibid., 35. The original Italian version of the poem
appears in Zovenzona, Qanmi, p. 109, no. 135:

“In Venerum Gentilis Bellini. Qui
Paphiam nudis Venerem vidisse papillis
optet in antiquo marmore Praxiteles
Bellini pluteum Gentilis quaerat, ubi
stans, trunca licet membris, vivit
imago suis.“

Erwin Panofsky. ProhlamanJntarnretatinn.13.

40.

41.

42.

43.

44.

45.

46.

47.

48.

49.

50.

51.

52.

53.

54.

55.

56.

87

Creighton Gilbert, “Some Findings on Early WOrks of
Titian.“ ArtJullatin LXII (March 1980), 36-72.

Ibid., 37.
Ibid., 45.

Ernst Gombrich, Nenm_and_Eenm (London: Phaidon Press,
1966), 95, also mentions such a phenomenon in the
Renaissance.

Gilbert, “Some Findings,“ 38. Kenneth Clark, Eiene
dallajrancesca. London. 1951.

Gilbert, “Some Findings,“ 45.

Ibid., 46.

Ibid., 48.

Ibid., 48. Documented by vasari and others.
Ibid., 44.

Harold Wethey, op. cit., 23.

Johannes Wilde. W
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989).

Gombrich. W. 126 .

Shearman, John. iny_£enneetnni, 250. Imitation could
also be used to aid an artist in painting or sculpting
difficult poses. Instead of attempting to pose a
complicated set of actions in a studio, the artist
often found it easier to copy similar groupings and
movements already captured in classical models. Cf.

Gombrich. W. 95 .
Ibid., 246.
Ibid., 246.

Ibid., 252.

57.

58.

59.

60.

61.

62.

63.

64.

88

Ibid., 258. Shearman points out elements in Titian's
Baeehus_and_Aniadne that were perhaps drawn from
written texts. Pliny the Elder in Eisnenia_Nanunalis
(XXXV. 99) gives a brief account of a painting of
Baeehus_and_Aniadne by Aristides. Descriptions are
also found in Poliziano's Le_Stanze of the late 14703;
Catullus, Cannina xiv. 50-75, 251-64, and Ovid's Ans_
Amatena i. 525-64. For a full discussion of the
relationship of these texts to Titian's painting, see

Shearman. Onl¥_Cnnnact_111. 255-256.

Tressider, “Classicism in the Early Works,“ 269.

Mary Rogers, “The Decorum of WOmen's Beauty: Trissino,
Firenzuola, Luigini and the Representation of WOmen in
Sixteenth-Century Painting,“ (Ph.D. diss., University

of California at Berkeley, 1988). 50.

Mary Rogers, “The Decorum of WOmen's Beauty,“ 54.

Anne Christine Junkerman, “Bellissima Donna: An
Interdisciplinary Study of Venetian Sensual Half-
Length Images of the Early Sixteenth Century,“ (Ph.D.
diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1988). 57.

Margaret Miles, “The Virgin' 3 One Bare Breast: Female
Nudity and Religious Meaning in Tuscan Early

Renaissance Culture.“ Eamala_Bndx_in_wastern_Culture1_

Contemnnrar¥_Persnactixas ed. Susan Suleiman
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986),

195. In this article, Miles analyzes Quattrocento
paintings of the Nursing Virgin, relating them to
texts, to other genres of painting, and to social and
economic conditions resulting from the plague that hit
Italy in the fourteenth century.

Junkerman, “Bellissima Donna,“ 122.

Elizabeth Cropper, “The Beauty of WOmen: Problems in
the Rhetoric of Renaissance Portraiture,“ Reunitine_the
E . . I] E' . E 5 J E'EE .

Eanly_Medenn_Euneee ed. Margaret Ferguson, Maureen
Quilligan, and Nancy Vickers,(Chicago, 1986), 180-

81.

65.

66.

67.

68.

69.

70.

71.

72.

73.

74.

89

Ibid., 181.
Ibid., 181.
Ibid., 191.
Junkerman, “Bellissima Donna,“ 430.
Ibid., 290.
Ibid., 229.

Charles Yriarte, La ng d'nn patrician de Mania: 5 “MI
Siénla. Paris, s.d.. 1874. More recently Ruth Kelso

describes this subjugation of women in sixteenth-
century Italy. She seems to base many of her
assumptions on prescriptions made by a number of
sixteenth-century commentators such as Trotto and
Barbaro. Trotto states (as translated by Kelso):

The wise wife never contradicts, even if right,
never opposes, disputes, blames, interrupts, or
answers back if chided. Silence is a great
preserver of love in husbands, who thus are not
plagued by idle words but are listened to
reverently when they wish to speak.

[Ruth Kelso. W

(Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1956), 26.]

James DaviS. WW
lVQQ (Philadelphia, 1975); Patricia Labalme, “WOmen's

Roles in Early Modern Venice: An Exceptional Case,“
WWW
ed. Patricia Labalme,(New York, 1981) 129-52; Stanley
Chojnacki, “La posizione della donna a Venezia nel
CinquencentO.“ Tiziann_e_lenezia._£nn1enno_

WWW (Vicenza: N.
Pozza, 1980), transl. Kate Ross, 65- 70.

Chojnacki, “La posizione della donna a Venezia,“ 69;
Labalme, “WOmen's Roles in Early Modern Venice,“ 132.

Stanley Chojnacki, “The Most Serious Duty: Motherhood,

75.

76.

77.

78.

79.

90

Gender, and Patrician Culture in Renaissance

Venice.“ ReflnurinLEmMrsnentixasMsndeLand
the_Italian_Renaissanc.e ed. Marilyn Migiel and Juliana
Schiesari (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press,
1991), 137-138.

This inflation of the dowry has also been documented in
other Italian cities in the early Renaissance. It
would also be interesting to study its effects on the
position and autonomy of women in families outside of
Venice. See Diane Owen Hughes, “From Brideprice to

Dowry in Mediterranean Europe,“ Journal_nf_Eam11¥_
History. 262-296.

Stanley Chojnacki, “La posizione della donna a Venezia
nel Cinquencento,“ 69.

Ibid.. 5. SansovinO. W. 414-
415, as cited by Chojnacki.

Mario Sanudo. I_diazzi. ed. R. Ralin etn_aln,
(Venezia, 1879-1903), XXIX, c. 547, as cited by Stanley
Chojnacki in “La posizione della donna,“ 65.

Chojnacki, “La posizione della donna,“ 65. On a trip
to Venice in 1494, the Milanese canon Pietro Casolo
recounted his observations on female fashion:

Their women appear to me to be small for the most
part, because if they were not, they would not
wear shoes -- otherwise called.eianelle -- as high
as they do. For in truth I saw some pairs of them
sold, and also for sale, that were at least half a
Milanese hnaeeie in height. They were so high
indeed that when they wear them, some women appear
giants; and certain also are not safe from falling
as they walk, unless they are well supported by
their slaves. As to the adornment of their heads,
they wear their hair so much curled over their
eyes that, at first sight, they appear rather men
than women. The greater part is false hair; and
this I know for certain because I saw quantities
of it on poles, sold by peasants in the Piazza

San Marco.... These Venetian women, especially the
pretty ones, try as much as possible in public to

91

show their chests -- I mean the breasts and
shoulders -- so much so, that several times when

I saw them I marvelled that their clothes did no
fall off their backs. Those who can afford it,
and also those who cannot, dress very splendidly,
and have magnificent jewels and pearls in the
trimming around their collars. They wear many
rings on their fingers with great balass rubies
and diamonds. I said also those who cannot afford
it, because I was told that many of them hire
these things. They paint their faces a great
deal, and also the other parts they show, in order
to appear more beautiful...these Venetian

women, both high and low, have the pleasure of
being seen and looked at; they are not afraid of
the fleas biting them, and therefore they are in
no great hurry to cover themselves if a man comes
upon them unexpectedly. (translated by Junkerman,
“Bellissima Donna,“ 197-98).

80. Junkerman, “Bellissima Donna,“ 141; Chojnacki, “La
posizione della Donna,“; Labalme, “The Roles of WOmen
in Early Modern Venice.“

81. Junkerman, “Bellissima Donna,“ 286.

82. Ibid., 216. In his WM.

9r., Sansovino describes as follows (as translated by
Junkerman, 215):

The costume of the women in the past has always
been varied and diverse, just as their fickle
minds are varied and diverse, because now they are
modest, now lascivious, now pompous, now frugal.
And it is true that all ages have conceded to
women more license in the manner of adorning
themselves than to men. And surely this has not
been without cause, for it is appropriate that
they accompany the grace of their dear beauty
with the elegance of adornments and rich fabrics.
But the license was so great and had grown to such
an extreme level that our Senators agreed to
restrain such unbridled will with laws.

83. Chojnacki, “Le posizione della donna,“ 68.

84.

85.

86.

87.

88.

89.

90.

91.

92.

93.

92

Junkerman, “Bellissima Donna,“ 190.
Ibid., 189.
Ibid., 313.

Ibid., 314. This rise also resulted in part because of
an increased number of young bachelors in Venice. This
resulted from the marriage system in which a family,
concerned about keeping their wealth consolidated,
often let only one of their sons marry. The family's
inheritance, thus would not be dissipated among many
family branches. Courtesans were visited by these
unmarried young men and even men of nobility such as
Alfonso d'Este.

Pompeo Molmenti. WW
IJEJ'Ei' 111E] 11'

Transl. Horatio Brown, (Chicago, 1907), 288.
Junkerman, “Bellissima Donna,“ 302.
Ibid., 316.

Margaret Rosenthal . W

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 15.

Veronica Franco herself passionately attempts to
persuade a mother to not allow her daughter to become a
courtesan stating that she would “kill in one blow not
only a soul but also your own honour and that of your
daughter...you can do nothing worse in life..than to
force the body into such servitude...To give oneself in
prey to so many to risk being despoiled, robbed or
killed....“ See Georgina Masson, geuntesans_ef_the_
Italian_Eenaissanee (London: Secker and warburg, 1975),
165.

Margaret Miles, WW
RelininuLMaaningJLthaJhristianmest. (Boston:

Beacon Press, 1989), 167.

94.

95.

96.

97.

98.

99.

100.

101.

102.

103 0

104.

105.

106.

107.

108.

93
Junkerman, “Bellissima Donna,“ 23-24.
Ibid., 359.
Ibid., 362.

Norbert Huse and wolfgang wolters, Ihe_Ann_ef

.Eana1aaanga_Ian1ca1__Arshitettura1_Sculntural_and

Baintinei_1460;lfiflfl_transl. Edmund Jephcott (Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press, 1990), 259.

For a discussion on the identification of Elena, see
J.S. Held, “Flora, Goddess and Courtesan,“ Essays_in

WW. ed. M. Meiss (New York. 1961).
210-218.

WetheY. Tha_£aintings_of_Titian. 27: Pillsbury. “The

Rebirth of Venus,“ 109; Tressider, “Classicism in the
Early WOrk of Titian,“ 272.

Hope, “Titian and His Patrons,“ 80.
Ruth Wedgwood Kennedy, “Apelles Redivivus,“ Essays_in_

.Memnry_of_Karl_Lahmann ed. Lucy Freeman Sandler.
(New York: Institute of Fine Arts, New York

University, 1964), 162.

Pliny the Elder. Histnria_Naturalia_ynlumaa_31_;_16
transl. K.J. Blake (Chicago: Argonaut Publishers,

1968).

Wethey. Tha_£aintings_nf_Titian. 27.
Pliny the Elder. Historia_Naturalis. 195.

Ibid., 195.

Paul Oscar Kristeller. The_Philnsnnhy_nf_Marsilin
Eieine transl. Virginia Cineunt,(New York: Columbia

University Press, 1943), 13.

Ibid., 146.

FicinO. commentary_nn_Platan_Symnnsium_on_Lnya.

53-54, transl. with introduction and notes by Sears

109.

110.

111.

112.

113.

114.

115.

116 O

117.

118.

119.

94

Jayne (Dallas: Spring Publications, Inc., 1985), 53-
54.

Wethey. Win. 21 .

Panofsky. Brnblama_in_Titian._Mostly_Itonogranhin.
153.

Pliny the Elder. HiatnriaJaturalia. 129.
Ibid., 159.

Tressider, “The Classicism of the Early Works of
Titian.“ 272: Wethey. ThLEaintinnLnLTitian;
Webster Smith, Michigan State University; Pillsbury,
“The Rebirth of Venus,“ 109; Kennedy,“Apelles
Redivivus,“ 162.

Tressider, “The Classicism of the Early WOrks of
Titian,“ 129. Images of these figures are reproduced

in Erwin Panofsky. RenaissancLancLRenasm-zngm
Hestenn_Ant_2nd ed. (Stockholm: Almquist and Wiksell,

1965), Fig. 58.

Reproduced in Marion Lawrence, “The Birth of Venus in

Roman Art. “ WWW
Budelf_flittkeuen ed. Douglas Fraser, Howard Hibbard,
and Milton J. Lewine (London: Phaidon Press, 1967),

Fig. 7.

Reproduced in Marion Lawrence, “The Birth of Venus,“
Fig. 18.

Comprehensive documentation of all antique works
available to Renaissance artists is being compiled by
the Getty Museum. Until it is available to the public,
such questions must be left unanswered.

Wethey. ThLPaintinnuLTitian. 27 .

Sixten Ringbom, Ieen Le Nannatiye; Ihg 353g gf the
D I' :1 _ . E'El |]_: . ]
Raintine (Acta Academiae Aboensis, Ser. A, Humaniora,
XXXI:2)(Abo: Abo Akademi, 1965).

120.

121.

122.

123.

124.

125.

126.

127.

128.

129.

130.

131.

132.

133.

134.

95

Huse. VenetiaLArtJnLAmhitestnra. 190.

Ibid., 190.

Peter Burke. ThLItalianJanaissancaLSulturemd
Seeiety_in_1taly (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 1986), 118.

Ibid., 121.

Hope, “Problems of Interpretation in Titian's Erotic
Paintings,“ 113.

Burke. ThLItaliaLRanaissangaJultunLanLSnciath
Italy, 103. Originally stated in Crowe and

Cavalcasaller, 1881, 181.

Ibid., 140.

Huse. VenetiaLArLandJrchitat'tnre. 259.

Sven Stolpe, Chnistina_e£_5neden_ed. Sir Alec Randall,
(London: Burnes and Oates, 1960), 149.

Tressider, “Classicism in the Early Work of Titian,“
269.

Hope, “Problems of Interpretation in Titian's
Erotic Paintings,“ 27.

Wethey. Wm. 27. The large

mythological works, including the previously discussed

painting, Eeasn_e£_the_fieds, were all completed for the
Camerino d'Alabastro. This information was found in

the inventory of the Estense property in Ferrara.
Summarized in Charles Hope, “The Camerini d'Alabastro

of Alfonso d'Este-I,“ Eunlineten_Maeazine, CXIII
(1971), 641.

Hope, “The Camerini d'Alabastro,“ 642.

Wethey. Tha_P.aintings_nf_Titian. 31.

Venturi, 1928, as cited by Hope, “The Camerini
d'Alabastro,“ 26.

135.

136.

137.

138.

139.

140.

96

Asmo, Canino, vol. labelled “1522 -- Cantina“ inscribed
“1522 Zornale de la Canipa“ fol. 61, pp. LXIII-LXV.),
as cited by Hope in “The Camerini d'Alabastro,“ 26.

Hope, “The Camerini d'Alabastro,“ 26.

From Label of the Venus_Anadyemene at the National
Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, proof for 1993
published catalogue.

Hope, “The Camerini d'Alabastro,“ 642.

Gilbert, “Some Findings on the Early WOrk of Titian,“
63.

Jean Cadogan, Eleanor Lamont Cunningham Curator of
European Painting, wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ballarin, Alessandro. Titian. London: Thames and Hudson,
1968.

Birney, Margaret. “The Cult of Venus in Roman Britain.“ MA
Thesis, Department of Art, Michigan State University,
1990.

Blade. Melinda K. Education_of_WQmen_in_tha_Ranaiasanca
Mesquite, Texas: Ide House, 1983.

Bober, Phyllis Pray and Ruth Rubinstein, with additional
material by Susan Woodford WWW

Antieue_$eulntune. New York: Oxford University Press,
1986.

Brendel, Otto J. “Borrowings from Ancient Art in Titian.“

Win XXXVII (1955), 113-125.

Brown, Beverly Louise. “On the Camerino.“ Baeehanals_by

Titian_and_Ruhens symposium in National Museum,
Stockholm, 18-19 Mars 1987. Edited by G. Cavalli-
Bjorkmann, Stockholm 1987 in Nationalmusei
Skriftserie.

Brown, Clifford M. “The Grotta of Isabella d'Este.“ Gazente
Des_Eeaux;Anns XXXIX/vi (May/June 1977), 155-174.

Brown, David A. “Bellini and Titian.“ Tinian_Eninee_ef
Raintens (exhibition catalogue) Venice: Marsilio
Editori, 1990, 57-67.

Bullard, Melissa. “Marriage Politics and the Family in

Florence: The Strozzi-Medici Alliance of 1508.“

AmeritaLHistnritalJayiaw LXXXIV (1979). 668-687.

97

98

Burckhardt . Jacob. Tha_C1yilizatign_g.f_thLEenaissanca_in
Italy, Volume II. New York: Harper & Row Publishers,

1958.

Burke. Peter . Wm
in_ltaly, rev. ed. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton

University Press, 1986.

Capra, Luciano. “La regina Cristina a Ferrara,“ in.Queen

WW. Edited by
Magnus von Platen. Stockholm: Kungl. Boktryckeriet P.

A. Norstedt & Soner, 1966, 74-82.

Chojnacki, Stanley. “Comment: Blurring Genders.“ in special
section, “Renaissance Studies: Recent Trends, The

Family. Set. and Marriage.“ W. XL:4
(Winter,1987), 743-51.

. “Dowries and Kinsmen in Early

Renaissance Venice . “JonrnaLoiJnterdiscinlinary
Histeny 5 (1975). 571-600.

 

. “Kinship Ties and Young Patricians in

Fifteenth- -Century Venice.“ Renaissanee_Quantenly
XXXVIII: 2 (1985) 240- 70.

 

“Patrician WOmen in Early Modern

Venice.“ Stnd1aa_in_the_Renaissanga 21 (1974). 176-
203.

 

. “La posizione della donna a venezia nel
Cinquecento. “ in T121ann.e_Yenezia_Cnnyagno

W. Vicenza: N.
Pozza, 1980, 65- 70.

 

“ 'The Most Serious duty': Motherhood,
Gender, and Patrician Culture in Renaissance Venice,“
E E' . H . E I' 3 i ll]
ItalianJenaissanca Edited by Marilyn Migiel and
Juliana Schiesari. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University
Press, 1991, 133-154.

clark. Kenneth. WWI—£52m. Kingsport

Tennessee: Kingsport Press, Inc., 1964.

 

99

Cozzi, Gaetano. “La donna, l'amore e Tiziano.“ Tiziane_E_

M . . 3 . . ] i' | i' ll .
.1215. Vicenza: N. Pozza, 1980, 47-63.

Cropper, Elizabeth. “The Beauty of WOmen: Problems in the
Rhetoric of Renaissance Portraiture.“ ,Reunitine_the_
E . I] E' E S ] E'EE .
W Edited by Margaret Ferguson.
Maureen Quilligan, and Nancy Vickers. Chicago, 1986,

Ficino. Marsilio. WW
Translation, with introduction and notes by Sears
Jayne. Dallas: Spring Publications, Inc., 1985.

Fletcher, Jennifer. “Patronage in venice,“ The_£enius_e£

,Veniee_l§QQ;leQQ. Edited by Jane Martineau and Charles
Hope. London, 1983, 16-20.

Furtwangler. Adolf. WW
StainsnhneinhkunaLmLKlassisnhexLAltartum. Leipzig and

Berlin: Glesecke und Devrient, 1900, I, Taf. XXXVII,
30.

GibbonS. Felton. MW

Eennana. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University
Press, 1968.

(Silbert, Creighton. “Some Findings on Early WOrks of
Titian.“ Ant_Eulletin LXII (March 1980). 36-75.

Goffen, Rona. fiieyannLEellini. New Haven, London: Yale
University Press, 1989.

. “Renaissance Dreams.“ Benaissanee
Quantenly,XL:4 (Winter 1987), 682-696.

Goloubev, Victor. W

au_Bnitish_Museum. Bruxelles: G. van Oest & Comp.,
1884.

 

GOInbrich, Ernst. W. London: Phaidon Press.
1956.

100

Gould. C. W
W. London,
1969.

Gundersheimer. Werner L. Earrara:_The_Styla_nf_LRanaissanca
Desnetismi Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973.

Haskell, Francis. “Titian -- a New Approach?“ Tiziane_e
ll . . : I | . ] 3 5| 1' M .
1215. Vicenza: N. Pozza, 1980, 41-45.

Held, J. S. “Flora, Goddess and Courtesan. “Essays_in_Henen_

e£_Ennin_Eanefisky. Edited by M. Meiss, New York, 1961,
210- 218.

Hope, Charles. “The Camerino d’ Alabastro. A Reconsideration
of the Evidence.“ W113.
[symposium in National Museum, Stockholm, 18-19 Mars
1987] Edited by G. Cavalli-Bjorkmann, Stockholm, 1987,
in Nationalmusei Skriftserie.

. “Problems of Interpretation in Titian' 3

Erotic Paintings . “W

W. Vicenza: N.
Pozza, 1980,111-124.

 

. “The Camerini d'Alabastro of Alfonso
d'Este-I.“ Bunlineten_Maeazine CXIII (1971) 641-646.

. “Titian and His Patrons.“ Titian_2ninee
ef_£aintens (exhibition catalogue) Venice: Marsilio

 

 

——. . Titian. London: Jupiter Books, 1980.

Hughes, Diane Owen. “From Brideprice to Dowry in

Mediterranean Europe.“ Jsurnal_gf_Eamily_History III
(Fall, 1978), 262-96.

Huse. Norbert and Wolfgang Wolters. W
1! . . E 1. i 1 i . . JIED-
lfiflfl. Translated by Edmund Jephcott. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1990.

101

Junkerman, Anne Christine. “Bellissima Donna: An
Interdisciplinary Study of Venetian Sensuous Half-
Length Images of the Early Sixteenth Century.“ Ph.D.
Diss. University of California, Berkeley, 1988.

KeISO. Ruth. Doctrine_fgr_the_LadLnf_the_Renaiasance. With
a foreword by Katherine M. Rogers. Chicago: University
of Illinois Press, 1956.

Kennedy, Ruth Wedgwood. “Apelles Redivivus.“ Essays_in
Memeny_ef_Kanl_Lehmann. Edited by Lucy Freeman Sandler.
New York: Institute of Fine Arts, New York University,
1964, 160-170.

. H J i I i'l' . I' . , E |
Northampton, MA, 1963.

 

Kirshner, Julius and Molho, Anthony. “The Dowry Fund and the
Marriage Market in Early Quattrocento Florence.“

Winters: L:3 (September. 1978). 403-
38.

Klapisch- Zuber. Christiane. Womanhfiamilyhandiituaun
Renaissanee_ltaly,. Translated by Lydia Cochrane.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.

Kristeller. Paul Oscar. W
Celleeted_Essays. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1964.

 

O W. . . . . 0
Trans. Virginia Cineunt. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1943.

Labalme, Patricia. “Women' s Roles in Early Modern Venice. An
Exceptional Case.“ W
the_Euneeean_East. Edited by Patricia Labalme. New
York: New York University Press, 1981,129-52.

LaClotte, Michel. “Giovanni Bellini et la 'maniera moderna.“
1e $19213 d3 Titian. Ilage dog: de la Dal'ntllre a Elenise
(exhibition catalogue) Paris: Grand Palais, 1993, 263-
68.

102

Lawner, Lynne. WWW
Renaissance. New York, 1987.

Lawrence, Marion. “The Birth of Venus in Roman Art.“ Essays
W. . 0
Edited by Douglas Fraser, Howard Hibbard and Milton J.
Lewine. London: Phaidon Press, 1967, 10-16.

Masson. Georgina . W.
London: Secker & warburg, 1975.

Miles, Margaret R.Carnal_nngu1ng.1_Eamale_Nakadnass_and
Wat. Boston:

Beacon Press, 1989.

. “The Virgin' 3 One Bare Breast: Female
Nudity and Religious Meaning in Tuscan Early

Renaissance Culture . Wm

We. Edited by Susan
Rubin Suleiman. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard

University Press, 1986, 195-208.

 

Molmenti . Pompeo . W

W. Part
II -- The Golden Age, volume II. Translated by Horatio

F. Brown. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Company, 1907.

Nash, Jane C. VeileLInlaseaJitianiLmthnlnsicaLEaintinns
fen_Ehilie_ll. Philadelphia: The Art Alliance Press,

1985.

Panofsky. Erwin. WWW.
Copenhagen, Denmark: Almquist & Wiksells, 1960.

in_the_Art_of_tha_Renaissanc.e. New York: Harper and Row
Publishers, 1962.

New York: New York University Press, 1969.

 

 

 

piSInatti, Terisio. “Giorgione and Titian,,“ Titian_Eninee_e£
Eaintens. (exhibition catalogue) Venice: Marsilio
Editori, 1990, 68-76.

103

Pillsbury, Edmund. “The Rebirth of Venus“ Ant_Nems 82
(April, 1983), 110.

Platen. Magnus von (ed). WW

Deeuments_and_fitudies. Stockholm: Kungl. Boktryckeriet
P.A. Norstedt & Soner, 1966, 74-82.

Pliny the Elder. HistoriaJIaturalisJLolumaLlitlfi.
Translated by K.J. Blake. Chicago: Argonaut Publishers,

1968.

Pope-Hennessy. John. We. New
York, 1966.

Queller. Donald. ThelenetianiatriciatasJealitwrsus
Myth. Urbana and Chicago, 1986.

Riggs, Arthur. Titian the Magnifieent and the Veniee ef His
Day. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1946.

Ringbom. Sixten . WW1:
Clese—ue in Eifteenth-Centuny Deyetienal Raintine [Acta
Academiae Aboensis, Ser. A Humaniora, vol. XXXI] Abo:
Abo Akademi, 1965.

IRogers, Mary. “The decorum of women's beauty: Trissino,
Firenzuola, Luigini and the representation of women in

sixteenth century painting.“ Renaissanee_£tudies II:1
(1988), 47-73.

IRosand, David. “Ermeneutica Amorosa: Observations on the
Interpretation of Titian's Venuses.“ Tiziane_e_
I! O . c I I O 1 i. l i. ll 9: 1225.

Vicenza: N. Pozza, 1976.

___ . E . I. . 3. I M . . I'l'

' . New Haven: Yale University Press,

 

1982.

. W. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1982.

ROSenthal, Margaret F. W

Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992.

 

 

 

88

SC

SC

Va

We

We

We

Wi

104

Sachs, Hannelore. The_Renaissanee_Weman. New York: McGraw-
Hill Book Company, 1971.

Scire, Giovanna Nepi. “Titian, les anneés 1520-1550.“ Le

(exhibition catalogue) Grand Palais, Paris, 1993.

Shearman, John. “Alfonso d' Este' s Camerino,“ in _1l_se

renditJLItaliaLfitudemtfartmthastel. Rome

et Paris, 1987, 209- 230.

. Only_£:nna:t_._._.Art_and_thLSne:tatgr_in
the_1talian_Benaissanee. [The A.W. Mellon Lectures in

the Fine Arts. V01. XXXV: 37]. washington, D.C.: The
National Gallery of Art, 1988.

 

Stolpe, Sven. Chnistina_ef_£meden. Edited by Sir Alec
Randall. London: Burns & Oates, 1960.

Tressider, warren David. “The Classicism of the Early WOrks
of Titian: Its Sources and Character.“ 2 Volumes. Ph.D.
Diss. University of Michigan, 1979.

Vasari. Giorgio. LinWinentJaintars

S:nlnt:rs.&.Anchita:ts_by_.G1:r:1:_Vaaari_ Vol. IX
Trans. Gaston Du C. DeVere. London: Philip Lee

warner, 1912-1915.

Walker. John. B:llinLand.Tit1an.at.Eerrara1_A_Study_:f
Styles_and_Taste. New York: Phaidon Publishers, Inc. ,

1956.

“kiterhouse, E.K. “Queen Christina's Italian Pictures in

England. “ WW
Studies. Edited by M. von Platen, Analecta reginensia
I, Stockholm, 1966, pp. 372-375.

WEthey, Harold. 1W

WW3. London: Phaidon
Press, 1975.

Wilde. Johannes. Venetian_Art_fr:m_Ballini_t:_Tit1an.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

105

wind. Edgar. W victoria.

Australia: Penguin Books, 1967.

Yriarte. Charles . WW
sieele. Paris, 1984.

BIBLIOGRAPHY NOT YET CONSULTED ( Material not available)

Hope. Charles. W
Relating_t:_th9_Life_and_E:rk_gf_Titian. (D. Phil
thesis) Oxford, 1974

Goffen, Rona. “Bellini's Nude with Mirrors.“ Venezia
WI I: 1991: no 2: 185-199.

FIGURES

106

107

 

Figure 1. Venus_hnadyemene, Titian c. 1520, National
Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh (73.6 x 58.4 cm)

108

 

Figure 2. W. Titian. 1515. Borghese
Gallery, Rome.

109

 

Figure 3. Baeehus_and_Aniadne, Titian, c. 1520-23, National
Gallery, London.

110

 

 

Figure 4. Venus_ef_L1nhine, Titian, 1538, Uffizi, Florence.

111

 

Figure 5. Diana_and_Aeteen, Titian, 1556-59, National
Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh.

112

 

Figure 6. Ba::hanaLof_tha_Adriana. Titian. c. 1525. Prado.
Madrid.

113

 

Figure 7. Lady_at_H:I_IQil:tt:, Giovanni Bellini, 1515,

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

114

 

Figure 8A. Drawing after Zanetti, 1760; Giorgione's Nude on
the Fondaco del Tedeschi, c. 1508.

115

 

Figure 8B. Giorgione's Nude on the Fondaco del Teceschi, c.
1508, Ca d'Oro.

116

 

Figure 9A. Drawing after Zanetti, 1760; Titian's Judith on
the Fondaco del Tedeschi, c. 1508.

117

 

Figure 9B. Judith, Titian, c. 1508, figure on the southern
facade of the Fondaco del Tedeschi.

Pi.

118

 

Figure 10. Eve, by Titian, c. 1508 (print by Jacopo
Piccino) for the southern facade of the Fondaco del
Tedeschi.

119

 

 

Figure 11. Venus, by Titian, c. 1508 (print by Francois
Mole) for the southern facade of the Fondaco del
Tedeschi.

120

 

Figure 12. Venus_Anadyemene, Antonio Lombardo, early
sixteenth century, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

121

 

Figure 13. W. Marcantonio Raimondi, 1506.

122

 

Figure 14. Munden_ef_a_wife, Titian, c. 1511, Scuola del
Santo, Padua.

123

 

Figure 15. W911. Michelangelo. c.
1510, Sistene Chapel, Rome.

124

 

Figure 16. EneehetJeel, Michelangelo, c. 1510, Sistine
Chapel, Rome.

125

 

Figure 17. W, Michelangelo, c. 1510, Sistine
Chapel, Rome.

126

 

Figure 18. Elena, Titian, c. 1520-22, Uffizi, Florence.

127

 

Figure 19. WW. Botticelli. after
1482, Uffizi, Florence.

128

 

Figure 20. Raphael's sketch after Leonardo's Leda_and_the
SEED.-

129

n“ .’ r
v
. .'
. ,5
’0‘

”1.”..-

 

 

 

Figure 21. Etching after Raphael's Venus, Marcantonio
Raimondi.

130

 

Figure 22. Pompeiian Mosaic of Venus, first century B.C.

131

 

Figure 23. Portal of Bath at Ephesus, c. 323 B.C.

132

 

Figure 24. Coptic Relief of Venus, Ahnas, Cairo.

Fig

 

133

 

Figure 25. W, Roman School, Museo Vaticano,
Rome.

 

134

 

Figure 26. Wm, Roman School, Naples.

135

 

Figure 27. Visitatien, so-called Hortulus Master, fifteenth
century, Munich.

136

 

Figure 28. WWII. Book of HourS. Simon

Mannion, British Museum.

137

 

 

Figure 29. W, so-called Hortulus Master,
fifteenth century, Munich.

138

 

Figure 30. W. Titian, 1516, Dresden.

 

Figure 31. _Sleeeine_Venus, Giorgione, c. 1510—11,

Staatliche Gemaldegalerie, Dresden.

140

 

Figure 32. WW. Giorgione.

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

N STATE UN V. L

Ifllflfljfifln‘l‘s

I

2930141

nxcurcn
(WWII Ill
3‘)