Agnolo Bronzino, Guidobaldo il della Rovere, 1531

Titian, never one to let an opportunity for profit pass (and perhaps on the hint of Aretino) decided to do something rather naughty. He had Angela model for a portrait, the one we now call Venus of Urbino. Titian, perhaps letting his bawdiness get the best of him, thought Ippolito would get a kick out of this souvenier of Ippolito’s presumably enjoyable evening.

Only Ippolito never came to pick up the painting. And thus it sat in the studio for more than five years, until Guidobaldo il della Rovere, the young Duke of Camerino, saw it while sitting for a portrait.

On March 9, 1538 he told his agent in Venice to pick up the portrait and a picture of a nude woman. But there was a catch, Guidobaldo was a bit cash poor, and worried that Titian might sell the work. So he asked his mom for some money – seriously- she agreed and Guidobaldo received the painting before he took over the dukeship of Urbino in October of 1538.

Titian, Detail - Venus of Urbino, 1538

Oh, and another thing, Guidobaldo was married (for political and economic reasons, of course) to Guilia Varano in 1534. He was 20. She was 10. So, could it be possible that this unconventional Venus, the one who stares directly at us and seemingly invites us to sit on her daybed, actually be more an instructional gift from Guidobaldo to his young bride? This, my sweet, is how we do things her. This is how we how we pose artistically. Don’t worry, the servants will get your dresses.

We will never know quite for sure what Guidobaldo wanted with the portrait – whether what Mark Twain deemed high-class smut, or as the matrimonial embodiment of the most beautiful goddess. We do know, however, that our Venus of Urbino cuts a rather broad swath through the next 400 years of Western painting.
Editor's Note: This week's posts are an adaptation of a lecture given in January. Enjoy.