Titian's Venus of Urbino Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Titians genus Venus of Urbino - Essay ExampleVenus is the Roman goddess of love, beauty, sexual seduction, and fertility. The sexualized nature of Venus mythological roots made her a ripe subject for Renaissance artists seeking to embrace this new freedom of expression. age perhaps not the most(prenominal) seminal incorporation of Venus imagery, Titans Venus of Urbino painting is highly sensational in its depiction of a nude woman on a couch indeed, Mark Twain even once referred to the work as a form of pornography. This essay desexualises Titans Venus of Urbino at heart the context of the gender situation in Renaissance Italy and compares it with another(prenominal) Renaissance versions of Venus imagery, ultimately arguing that the image indicative of progressive Renaissance values, and to an issue an early incarnation of distaff objectification. Analysis In gaining a thorough contextual understanding of Titians Venus of Urbino (Fig. 1) its first necessary to situate the wor k in relation to the socio-cultural values, artistic trends, and gender perspectives of the time of the works creation. Fig. 1 Venus of Urbino One prominent such consideration is the nature of the work as framed in a windowpane like format. There is a great many connotations within such Renaissance window imagery. One theorist notes that, the window was often viewed as an erotically charged space for both prostitutes and -- at certain times proper women.1 While for Venus of Urbino this sexuality is in part indicative of Renaissance moral liberalization, in the context of Venus imagery this work is highly sexualized relative to other works. While the images highly sexualized nature is clear, the extent that this sexuality is indicative of progressive Renaissance values, or rather an early incarnation of female objectification is a debated subject. While individuals such as Joan Kelly has notably argued in favor of female objectification, Chojnacki instead contends that the Renaissan ce witnessed a shift in favor of womens rights. He writes, The spatial dimension of the states regulation of sexual behavior was more concretely present to Venetians in the case of prostitution.2 In this mode of understanding one could potentially view the image as one empowerment. Still, its important to consider the nature of nude prostitutes and courtesans as world models for Venus. The image then can even be argued to take on a subversive quality, rebuking increased state regulation of sexual behavior. While a plethora of artists implemented Venus imagery during the Renaissance, this subject was a cyclical theme in Titians work. One of Titians prominent implementations of Venus occurs in his oil painting Sacred and Profane Love. Featured in Fig. 1 below, this work shares with Titians Venus of Urbino the nude depiction of Venus. While the important focus in Venus of Urbino was on the Venus figure, in this image Venus seemingly plays a secondary role to the depiction of the brid e. Still, scholars have in any case argued that the bride is actually a different representation of Venus. Tinagli notes, the two women represent two aspects of the goddess of love, respectively the Celestial Venus (platonic love) and the Terrestrial Venus (sensual love). Nakedness stands here for the rightness of spirituality.3 Fig. 2 Sacred and Profane