A Certain Type of Woman: Part I of V

7:00 AM

Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538
By MARK LUCE

Titian had been painting certain kinds of women since he was an apprentice with Venetian master Giorgione, who also painted certain kinds of women. Only most of Titian’s commissions were for women with names like Mary, Virgin Mary, Madonna, Mary Magdalen, or simply Mary. While Titian was not only a shrewd businessman, but also an incredibly talented painter - one who felt at home painting the Annunciation, the mythic Danae, or even portraits of high-society Venetians, Popes and Kings. While Titian’s brushwork and colors can be incredibly bold, it wasn’t until the early 1530s, that he painted what would become, posthumously, his most brazen work.

In polite company we call her Venus, as it’s okay to look at people without clothes if they are mythic and nude. No less a humorist than Mark Twain had a chuckle at such attitudes when in Tramp Abroad he wrote, "There are pictures of nude women which suggest no impure thought -I am well aware of that. I am not railing at such. What I am trying to emphasize is the fact that Titian's Venus is very far from being one of that sort. Without any question it was painted for a bagnio and it was probably refused because it was a trifle too strong. In truth, it is a trifle too strong for any place but a public art gallery.While Twain has a chuckle at the expense of museums, on some level he’s right. For you see Titian’s Venus of Urbino, well, she’s certainly an unconventional woman.

Over the years I have learned more than a few varying accounts of the commissioning and purpose of the painting, most of them claiming the painting was explicitly for a gentlemen’s pleasure, perhaps of his mistress, or his favorite courtesan - or both.

But if that’s the case, then why do servants pull clothes from a marriage chest, a traditional gift of matrimony? Even the most callous philanderer wouldn’t have a painting commissioned that showed his mistress reclining nude in his wife’s boudoir. Or would he?

Editor's Note: This week's posts are an adaptation of a lecture given in January. Enjoy.

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