Ad Blankestijn: Venus with a Mirror by Titian (1555)

The picture shows a semi-nude woman sitting on her bed and looking into a mirror held by a plump Cupid - another Cupid is about to place a victorious wreath on the woman's head. The woman is seated on a bed that can be closed by a heavy curtain. Her head is shown in three-quarter profile. The straight nose, the natural, thin lips and the well-shaped chin correspond to ideal antique ideas. The elegant hairstyle with a braided pearl necklace is in keeping with Renaissance fashion. She also wears a variety of jewelry on her hands and wrists. With her left hand raised, the woman covers the nakedness of her left breast, while with her right hand she pulls a magnificent dark red velvet cloak with precious fur trim and pearl embroidery over her lower body. Her beauty is hidden and revealed at the same time. This erotic play is supported by the light blush on her cheeks - observing her flushed cheek, one can almost feel its warmth. Note also that the viewer's position resembles that of an undetected voyeur.

[Venus with a Mirror by Titian]

What are we seeing?

As the title of the painting suggests, we see Venus, the goddess of beauty, love and physical desire, with two cupids. She is sitting and looking intently into the mirror, apparently checking her toilet. It is an intimate scene.

The pose of Titian's Venus is reminiscent of the Venus Pudica ("Modest Venus"), a classical type from which many statues were made, such as the Venus Medici, an ancient statue from the 1st century B.C. that was owned by the Medici family in the 16th century and is now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

[The Medici Venus]

The Cupid, holding the mirror, has a wing on his back (it is a bit unnaturally attached). Such ugly little boys were called "putti" in Italian (single: putto) from the Latin "putus," a classical motif that reappears in the Renaissance. Putti often hold an object and are shown accompanying Venus, leading to an association with romantic love; they may also be associated with heaven or with peace and prosperity.

The whole scene is enhanced by a golden-red glow that was a trademark of Titian. The beautiful woman gazing at her reflection is a favorite theme of Renaissance love poetry, in which the writer envies the lucky mirror that enjoys his lady's splendid image. Titian shows us a sensual, modern Venus who, as she pulls a fur-lined shawl around her, reveals her body as much as she conceals it.

Titian made a number of paintings of the same subject, but this is believed to be the earliest and the only version entirely by Titian's hand, without additions by his assistants. It remained in his home until his death in 1576. The painting is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and is considered one of the highlights of the collection. Already in its own time, it became a frequently copied work, sometimes with variations, but always showing Venus looking into a mirror. Famous examples include paintings by Rubens and Velázquez.

Titian

Over the course of his long career, Titian (c. 1488-1490) - one of the most important and influential painters of the High Renaissance - evolved from virtuoso, original variations on the work of Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, and Raphael to a free, loose style in which compositions were built up with seemingly spontaneously applied splashes of color, a process that sometimes took him years to complete. His portraits, altarpieces, and mythological scenes were admired and copied by Peter Paul Rubens, and his increasingly complex painting technique and use of color were a source of inspiration and challenge for Anthony van Dyck, Diego Velázquez, and Rembrandt in the 17th century. In the 19th century, Édouard Manet created a modern version of Titian's Venus of Urbino with his Olympia.

Titian's preference for oil painting over fresco technique contrasted with the Florentine painting tradition. He lived during most of his career in Venice, although he had many patrons from outside the Republic.

Venus in Furs

The painting was the inspiration for the protagonist Severin's imagination in the 1870 novel Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. The framing story concerns a man who dreams of speaking to Venus about love while she is wrapped in furs like in our painting. It is of course interesting to meet a woman who wears a fur coat and nothing else. The unnamed narrator tells his dreams to a friend, Severin, who tells him how to break himself of his fascination with cruel women by reading a manuscript, "Memoirs of a Suprasensual Man."

This manuscript tells of a man, Severin von Kusiemski, who is so infatuated with a woman, Wanda von Dunajew, that he asks permission to become her slave, and encourages her to treat him in progressively more degrading ways. The novel draws themes, like female dominance and sadomasochism, from Sacher-Masoch's own life. Wanda von Dunajew, the novel's central female character, was modeled after Fanny Pistor, who was an emerging literary writer. The two met when Pistor contacted Sacher-Masoch, under the assumed name and fictitious title of Baroness Bogdanoff, for suggestions on improving her writing to make it suitable for publication. And so the Venus painting by Titian sends its echo even into modern times...,

Also see my post "Best European Novels: Austria."