{"id":20736,"date":"2024-04-10T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/areademo.beculture.it\/?p=20736"},"modified":"2024-04-10T09:10:08","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T07:10:08","slug":"venere-by-tiziano-analysis-and-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/areademo.beculture.it\/en\/venere-by-tiziano-analysis-and-history\/","title":{"rendered":"The Venere di Urbino: all the nuances of Tiziano\u2019s incredible masterpiece"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Venere di Urbino<\/em><\/strong> by Tiziano<\/strong> is not just one of the masterpieces of the 16th<\/sup> century, but it is also among the most enigmatic paintings in the history of art. Its iconographic power is confirmed by its acclaimed fame among artists of all times. Perhaps it’s because of the soft nudity, the mysterious identity of the young woman, and its still obscure meaning.
Today, the painting is preserved at the Galleria degli Uffizi and is undoubtedly one of the good reasons to visit the museum<\/a>. In this article, we revisit the genesis and analysis of the work<\/strong> to fully enjoy its beauty and complexity when viewed in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commission<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the few things we know for sure about the Venere di Urbino<\/em> is the year it was purchased, 1538. This is confirmed by correspondence that took place in the spring when its commissioner, Guidobaldo Della Rovere, Duke of Urbino<\/strong>, communicated with Gian Giacomo Leonardo, the ambassador of Urbino in Venice. In the first of these letters, Guidobaldo instructs his agent, Girolamo Fantini, to retrieve the two paintings made for him by Tiziano<\/a>: his portrait and ‘the nude woman’, as he refers to the painting. He insists that Fantini “leave Venice with no one\u2019s account but his own without bringing them”. Regarding payment, the duke continues, he guarantees it will be made and that if he cannot attend to it himself, his mother, Eleonora Gonzaga<\/strong>, will settle the debt with the painter.
However, something goes wrong because a few months later, the lord of Urbino finds himself writing to the ambassador again, demanding the delivery of the second painting, the Venere<\/em>. He promises to pledge something of his own in exchange. We can suppose that Gonzaga \u2013 a God-fearing mother \u2013 had readily agreed to pay for her son’s portrait but not for the nude woman. A subject that Guidobaldo was not willing to give up<\/strong> and which, in a manner unknown to us, he finally managed to obtain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten years after the acquisition, the canvas was admired in the Wardrobe of the Dukes by Giorgio Vasari, who first identified it as a Venere<\/strong>. Indeed, we owe the name of the work now at the Galleria degli Uffizi<\/a> to Vasari and the painting’s provenance. Following the marriage of Vittoria della Rovere, the last of the house, to the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando II de\u2019 Medici, this and other works from the collection were transferred to Florence.
For a long time, the Venere di Urbino<\/em> was displayed in the Tribuna degli Uffizi, next to the so-called Venere dei Medici, probably to juxtapose two different interpretations of the same subject: the classical and ideal beauty of ancient sculpture and the sensual, fleshly beauty of the 16th<\/sup> century painting.<\/p>\n\n\n