Venus in front of the mirror (Titian / workshop)
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| Venus in front of the mirror |
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| Titian / workshop , 1555–1560 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 117.5 × 101 cm |
| Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud , Cologne |
Venus in front of the mirror is a painting createdbetween 1555 and 1560 from the workshop of Titian , which is now in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud in Cologne . “The topic exists in innumerable versions. Today, the painting in the National Gallery of Art , which comes from Titian's estate, isunanimously recognized as an autograph work by Titian. ”With this, the painter developed the pictorial type Toilet of Venus .
“ State of preservation: relined canvas , heavy plastering, many treated cracks, retouching ; almost the whole picture is painted over with glaze ; the Cupid standing behind Venus was temporarily painted over and was exposed at the beginning of our century; this overpainting was old, possibly an original Pentimenti ; Kilényi (1906) derived further, sometimes considerable, compositional changes from this. "
plant
An intimate and at the same time erotic scene in the sense of the 16th century is depicted . The picture shows a sitting half nude of a woman on her bed. Almost naked, she looks into a mirror held by two winged putti . Iconographically , the lady can be identified as Venus with Cupid . That is why this motif is also known as Venus with Cupid at the toilet.
Venus , the goddess of beauty, love and physical desire, sits on a contemporary bed, of which the futon can be seen at the bottom right and a heavy curtain on the left edge of the picture, with which the bed and the people in it are hidden from the eyes of others could be, or that at the same time provided for the warmth in the night.
The gaze position on the picture is that of an undiscovered voyeur . In the center of the picture is a mirror carried by two putti. The head of Venus is shown in three-quarter profile . The straight nose, natural, narrow lips and a well-formed chin correspond to ideal-typical ancient ideas. The elegant hairstyle with braided string of pearls corresponds to the fashion of the Renaissance .
Furthermore, Venus wears various jewelry on her hand and wrist. She covers the nakedness of her left breast with her left hand raised, while with her right hand she pulls a splendid, dark red velvet blanket with valuable fur and pearl embroidery over her pubic area . So their beauty is concealed and revealed at the same time. This erotic game is supported by the slight blush on her cheeks.
On closer inspection of the body of Venus, it is noticeable that the head and hands are perfectly painted in the highest art and the skin color appears completely natural. Arms and shoulders, on the other hand, appear to be more masculine in their proportions despite the same perfection , which was due to the fact that there were no female nude models , as this was considered improper.
The pose in which Titian is represented Venus, reminiscent of the type of shameful Venus ( Venus pudica ) and the Medici Venus , an ancient statue from the 1 cent. BC ., In the 16th century belonged to the family Medici was . The literature also refers to a similarity in the representation between Titian's toilet of Venus from 1555 and Giovanni Bellini's Young Woman at the Toilet from 1515.
Next to the foot of the boy in front is a bow with a quiver and arrows, as if put aside because a more important task has to be done.
Hardly noticeable, a blanket hangs in the boy's hand area. Both boys look at Venus. In the picture from the National Gallery of Art , the rear Cupid holds a laurel wreath of flowers over the head of Venus, while in the picture from the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud both boys hold the mirror. For her part, Venus looks at her reflection. In both pictures, the viewer becomes a witness of a momentary event.
The eroticism of the depiction is enhanced by a golden-red shade of the scene, which is a trademark of Titian's painting style (Titian red ).
interpretation
"The portrayals of the goddess are characterized by complex interpretations, humanistic interpretations, baroque allegories and depth psychology". The mirror motif with the ability to show a person from different sides enjoyed great popularity throughout Europe during the Renaissance. In the competition of the arts ( Paragone ), the mirror was therefore of particular importance in painting. In addition, a mirror could also be used as a “magic mirror” to reflect a crystal divination.
In the picture from Titian's workshop, the mirror image is not painted very clearly and shows few details of the face and shoulders of the goddess. It seems as if Venus looks in the quiet self-indulgence at her reflection and "tried almost theatrically their natural and artificial stimuli, body, clothes and jewelry in her delicious weighed interaction." With this, image "which mirrored woman as a typical embodiment of vanity “To interpret.
This is somewhat different with the painting that Titian painted himself. The reflection of Venus reveals a clearly aged woman. This turns it into a vanitas picture that illustrates the warning: “ Know yourself ”.
Workshop
If a boy showed sufficient artistic talent at the time, he could enter the workshop of an established painter and begin an apprenticeship there. Only with the establishment of the first art school in 1563 by Vasari in Florence this changed slowly. Regardless of whether the apprenticeship began in a workshop or the study at an art academy, the training lasted two to four years. “The apprentices took part in the production of works of art at an early stage by executing subordinate parts of the picture or making copies of the master's work. The imitation of the teacher served not only to produce works for sale, but also to practice and acquire a specific manner. "
Titian's workshop consisted mainly of family members.
“All contemporaries agree that the family members mentioned, like the other workshop assistants, were not very independent, and Vasari said reproachfully that Titian had failed to teach them and promote them artistically…. Not without reason it was said in Venice: If his students hadn't done a lot of work for him, Titian would never have been able to complete so many pictures . "
"The demarcation between handwritten repetitions, workshop repetitions and later repetitions and copies is naturally controversial here."
Titian painted “alla prima”. ... Figures could be added and others disappear, ... with the naked eye many of these Pentimenti can still be recognized in the finished picture.
Before the picture from Cologne was cleaned at the beginning of the 20th century, only one Cupid was holding the mirror. The second Cupid, who holds the mirror behind Venus, was originally painted over. It could not be determined who made this change. However, many copies of the motif have only one or no cupid and are probably copies of the copy.
"After all, there are numerous copies ... in the state of the erotic standing behind Venus, which was painted over ."
Provenance
The provenance can be traced back to the first previous owner in 1643. The picture has been on loan from the Federal Republic of Germany in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne since 1968 .
literature
- Stephen Fry : Myth of what the gods tell us today. Berlin, 2018.
- Ulrike and Jörg Rücke: Gods and Myths of Antiquity. Munich, 2010.
- Christina Irlenbusch : Giorgio Vasari The life of Titian. 2nd edition Berlin, 2017.
- Ian G. Kennedy: Titian . Cologne, 2018.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ Iris Wenderholm: Tiziano Vecellio (workshop), Venus and Amor with a mirror, Berlin, Gemäldegalerie. Free University of Berlin, accessed on February 27, 2020 .
- ^ Venus with a Mirror. In: NGA Online Editions. National Gallery of Art Washington, accessed February 26, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c d e Tizian, (workshop) |: Venus in front of the mirror / toilet of Venus |. In: Image index of art & architecture. Photo archive Marburg , accessed on February 26, 2020 .
- ↑ GF Hartlaub: Magic of the mirror . Munich 1951, p. 79 .
- ↑ a b Georg Gronau : Review by Hugo von Kilényi: A rediscovered picture of Titian . In: Monthly Issues of Art History Literature . tape 3 , no. 1 , 1907, p. 7-8 .
- ↑ Aphrodite - the classic ideal of beauty for women | The gods. Retrieved February 26, 2020 .
- ↑ Style and hairstyle of the Renaissance period | Hairdresser expert. Retrieved February 26, 2020 .
- ↑ Hartlaub, Gustav F .: Magic of the mirror: history and meaning of the mirror in art . Munich 1951, p. 79 ff .
- ^ SwissEduc - Ancient Languages - Realien: Materials by Anton Hafner (KZU Bülach). Retrieved March 2, 2020 .
- ↑ Oskar Zwintscher: Between Symbolism and New Objectivity . Baden-Baden 2019, p. 209 .
- ↑ Gustav F. Hartlaub: Magic of the mirror: history and meaning of the mirror in art . Munich 1951 .; Joachim Kahl: Titian's toilet of Venus. (PDF) Retrieved March 2, 2020 .
- ↑ Gustav F. Hartlaub: Magic of the mirror: history and meaning of the mirror in art . Munich 1951, p. 74 .
- ↑ Mirror, mirror on the wall ... Accessed March 2, 2020 (German).
- ^ Daniel Hess and Dagmar Hirschfelder (eds.): Renaissance Baroque Enlightenment Art and Culture from the 16th to 18th Century . Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg 2010, p. 250 .
- ↑ a b c Wilhelm Schlink: Tizian's life and work . Beck, Munich 2008, p. 22nd ff .