The story of one masterpiece: “Earthly Love and Heavenly Love” by Titian. “Heavenly love and earthly love”: what is encrypted in Titian’s painting Painting of earthly and heavenly women
Titian considered one of the greatest painters of the Renaissance. The artist was not yet thirty years old when he was recognized as the best in Venice. One of his most famous paintings is “Heavenly Love and Earthly Love” ( Amor Sacro and Amor Profano). It conceals many hidden symbols and signs, which art historians are still struggling to decipher.
Having written a masterpiece, Titian left it without a title. In the Borghese Gallery in Rome, where the painting has been displayed since the beginning of the 17th century, it had several titles: “Beauty, Embellished and Unadorned” (1613), “Three Types of Love” (1650), “Divine and Secular Women” (1700), and finally “Heavenly Love and Earthly Love” (1792).
Due to the fact that the author left his painting without a title, art historians have several versions of who is depicted on the canvas. According to one of them, the painting is an allegory of two types of love: vulgar (naked beauty) and heavenly (clothed woman). Both are sitting by the fountain, and Cupid is the mediator between them.
Most researchers are of the opinion that this painting was supposed to be a gift for the wedding of the secretary of the Council of Ten of the Venetian Republic, Nicolo Aurelio, and Laura Bagarotto. One of the indirect confirmations of this version is the coat of arms of Aurelio, which can be seen on the front wall of the sarcophagus.
In addition, the picture is filled with wedding symbolism. One of the heroines is dressed in a white dress, her head is crowned with a myrtle wreath (a sign of love and fidelity). The girl is also wearing a belt and gloves (symbols also associated with the wedding). In the background you can see rabbits, implying future offspring.
The background on which the women are depicted is also fraught with symbols: the dark mountain road signifies fidelity and prudence, and the light plain signifies bodily pleasures.
The well in the form of a sarcophagus does not quite fit into the picture. In addition, it depicts the ancient scene of the beating of Adonis by the god of war Mars. Researchers are inclined to believe that this is a kind of reference to the damaged reputation of the bride Laura Bagarotto. Her first husband took the side of the enemy during the war between the Venetian Republic and the Holy Roman Empire. He was sentenced to death as a traitor. The same fate befell Laura's father. So the plot on the sarcophagus could well be a reminder of her past.
It was not only Titian who filled his canvases with hidden symbolism. In the painting of another Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli
Once upon a time, there lived the greatest master of the Renaissance, Titian. He wrote a lot - religious subjects, mythological ones, and portraits. Sometimes everything was in one picture at once. As, for example, in the case of “Earthly love and heavenly love.” The mixture of symbols and the absence of an author's title ensured the painting's fame as one of the most mysterious in the history of not only Titian himself, but also world painting.
Titian. Heavenly love and earthly love. OK. 1514
Oil on canvas. 118 × 279 cm
Galleria Borghese, Rome. Wikimedia Commons
Clickable - 6009px × 2385px
Plot
Let's start with the fact that there is nothing precisely defined in the story with the plot and title of this painting. The modern name appeared much later than the painting itself, and there is no agreement among fellow art critics about who is depicted and why. The two main versions do not cancel each other; rather, on the contrary, they complement the mosaic of meanings.
So let's start with the mundane. It is believed that the painting was painted by order of the secretary of the Council of Ten, Nicolo Aurelio, who was going to marry Laura Bagarotto. The painting was supposed to be a gift to his young wife. There is an abundance of wedding symbolism in the picture. The girl is dressed in a white dress; on her head is a myrtle wreath (a plant of Venus, symbolizing love and fidelity); she covers the cup with her hand (in such vessels grooms presented wedding gifts to Venetian brides); she is wearing a belt and gloves (the first is a symbol of marital fidelity, the second is an attribute of a wedding dress, which grooms gave as a betrothal gift as a sign of the seriousness of their intentions).
The painting received its name 150 years after it was painted.
The wish for numerous offspring - of course, in the form of rabbits. And the bride-like goddess Venus blesses this union. Cupid here is the mediator between the goddess and the woman. The landscape is also symbolic: on the one hand, the road up the mountain is a difficult path of prudence and fidelity, on the other, there is a plain, meaning bodily pleasures.
If you suddenly thought that Laura Bagarotto looked like the woman in the painting, then you were mistaken. If this had been a portrait, then the nude Venus would have been painted from Laura, which in those days would have damaged the reputation of a decent woman. Titian created an idealized image of the newlywed.
Titian. Venus of Urbino. 1538
Venere di Urbino
Oil on canvas. 119 × 165 cm
Uffizi, Florence. Wikimedia Commons
“Venus of Urbino” (1538), which 300 years later would inspire Edgar Manet’s scandalous “Olympia”
And now about the sublime. Naked Venus is heavenly, she personifies the desire for truth, God. Dressed Venus is earthly, her image says that on a human level, truth can be known through feelings. In the context of Renaissance philosophy, truth and beauty are identical.
We see that Venus is equal. That is, both the earthly, bodily, and the heavenly, spiritual are equally important for a person. After all, through both the first and the second one can know the truth. Earthly Venus holds flowers at her hem, which means a combination of several types of love.
Titian was called Divine for his talent
It is indicated on the canvas what happens to a person for whom love is only bodily pleasures. On the marble well we see an image of a horse (a symbol of passion) and a scene of punishment. A person who is mired in mortal joys will face punishment.
Context
The painting received its current title in 1693. Prior to this, art historians, based on various interpretations of the plot and symbolism, called the canvas “Beauty, embellished and unembellished.” Until the 20th century, no one paid much attention to wedding symbols. And the coat of arms of the Venetian family was not noticed on the well. But especially attentive researchers saw that the owner of the coat of arms was Nicolo Aurelio. His marriage to Laura Bagarotto, a young widow from Padua, was the subject of speculation. The reason for this is the bride’s difficult past.
Titian loved women very much, especially experienced ones and in body
Laura's first husband, the Paduan aristocrat Francesco Borromeo, at the height of the military conflict between the Venetian Republic and the Holy Roman Empire, took the side of the emperor. But Padua was subordinate to Venice, so Borromeo was arrested and probably executed by the verdict of the Council of Ten as a traitor. Many of Laura's relatives were imprisoned and exiled. Her father Bertuccio Bagarotto, a university professor, was hanged in front of his wife and children on the same charge, which in his case was unjust.
"Allegory of Prudence" (1565−1570). Portraits of Titian, his son Orazio and nephew Marco are combined with the heads of a wolf, lion and dog, representing the past, present and future
Permission for the marriage of a high-ranking Venetian official with the widow and daughter of state criminals was discussed by a commission headed by the Doge, and it was received. It is possible that the painting, commissioned from the most prestigious artist in Venice, was supposed to add respectability to the marriage in the eyes of fellow citizens.
According to one version, the well is a marble sarcophagus. The relief on the marble depicts the beating of Adonis by the jealous Mars - the young man died at the hands of the god of war. This is not only an indication of the tragically ended love of the goddess Venus, but also a reminder of the sad past of Laura Bagarotto.
The fate of the artist
Venetian Renaissance titan, nicknamed Divine. Titian praised life and sensual beauty. Largely thanks to him, colorism became what we know it today. If it were not for his genius, the artist’s works would be called insolence and blasphemy. But no one could remain indifferent to the power of Titian's talent. His paintings are full of life, strength, dynamics. Canvases with religious subjects literally shine and glorify God. Portraits depict complex psychological types. And mythological stories are full of bliss and a sense of peace and harmony in merging with nature.
Self-portrait, 1567
In 1527 Rome was captured and sacked. Art responded to this with mechanized subjects and dark colors. Darkness is coming, there is no salvation - approximately such sentiments reigned in Italian art. Titian continued to paint a strong man, a fighter.
For his era, he lived an indecently long life. And he died either from the plague or from old age - there is no consensus. The second version is supported by the fact that the artist was buried not in a plague cemetery, but with all due honors in the Venetian Cathedral of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari.
“Heavenly Love and Earthly Love”, Titian, ca. 1514. The painting is kept in Rome in the Borghese Gallery
Plot and title
In the foreground of the picture are two women. They are very similar, but dressed differently. One is dressed in the typical Venetian attire of a married lady, and the other is naked. Cupid separates them. Women sit on a sarcophagus decorated with a magnificent bas-relief. It is filled with dark water. The restless god of love plunged his hand into it.
The painting received its familiar title – “Heavenly Love and Earthly Love” – in 1693. Based on it, art critics identified women with identical faces with two hypostases of the goddess of love.
However, the painting was first mentioned in 1613 with the title “Beauty, Embellished and Unadorned,” and we do not know what the artist himself called his masterpiece.
Riddles and symbols
Only in the 20th century did researchers pay attention to the abundance of wedding symbols and the coat of arms of the Venetian family on the canvas.
Let's also take a closer look at the picture. So, the background of the canvas is a green plain. On the left it smoothly turns into a mountain on which the castle rises. If you look closely, you can see eared rabbits, a rider on a horse and a group of people waiting for him.
On the right, the plain alternates with hillocks. An attentive observer will also be able to spot two horsemen and a dog chasing a hare.
The woman on the left is wearing a dress with a chastity belt and gloves on her hands.
Wreath. Evergreen myrtle is a plant of Venus, symbolizing love and fidelity. Wreaths woven from it were an attribute of weddings in Ancient Rome.
For Titian's contemporaries the symbolism would have been obvious:
- The road uphill is the difficult path of prudence and unshakable fidelity, the plain is bodily pleasures in marriage.
- Rabbits – fertility.
- A dress with a chastity belt and gloves is marriage.
- Myrtle (plant of Venus) - love and fidelity. Wreaths woven from it are an attribute of ancient Roman marriage rituals.
Art historians also paid attention to the sarcophagus and the coat of arms of the Venetian family on it.
They concluded that the owner of the coat of arms, the secretary of the Council of Ten Nicolo Aurelio, commissioned the painting from Titian on the occasion of his marriage in 1514 to Laura Bagarotto, a young widow from Padua.
As the Venetian chronicler of that time, Marin Sanudo, noted, this wedding was “discussed everywhere” - the newlyweds had too difficult a past.
In 1509, at the height of the military conflict between the Venetian Republic and the Holy Roman Empire, Laura's first husband, the Paduan aristocrat Francesco Borromeo, took the side of the emperor. Padua was subordinate to Venice, so Borromeo was arrested and probably executed by the Council of Ten as a traitor.
Many of Laura's relatives were imprisoned and exiled. Her father Bertuccio Bagarotto, a university professor, was hanged in front of his wife and children on the same charge, which in his case was unjust. The chosen one of the high-ranking official was Laura Bagarotto. She was the widow of a Paduan aristocrat who was executed for rebelling against the Venetian authorities during the war with the Roman Empire.
The same fate befell her father. The innocent professor was hanged in front of his family.
Permission for the marriage of a high-ranking Venetian official with the widow and daughter of state criminals was discussed by a commission headed by the Doge, and it was received. Through the efforts of the groom, Laura’s previously confiscated rich dowry was returned the day before the wedding. The painting, commissioned from the most prestigious and by no means cheap artist in Venice, was probably supposed to add respectability to the marriage in the eyes of fellow citizens.
According to experts, the sarcophagus reminds of the innocently murdered father of the bride. And the water flowing out of it symbolizes the emergence of new life.
In 1608, the painting got a new owner. It was bought by the Italian Cardinal Scipione Borghese. Since then, it has been kept in the Roman gallery that bears his name.
5 - "Heavenly Love, Earthly Love"
How much commentators have suffered in order to understand the real meaning of Titian’s painting, listed under the title “Heavenly Love and Earthly Love” (Borgese Gallery in Rome). Now it is as if, thanks to Vikhof’s research, the enigma has been solved. The naked woman is Venus, the dressed one is Medea, whom the goddess persuades to surrender to the love of Jason. However, this is not an illustration of an ancient fairy tale; Titian used the plot as an excuse and created something completely independent and not even remotely reminiscent of the theme. If we already talk about love in front of this picture, then only about earthly love, about love for all nature, for all life as a whole, in which these two beautiful women have the meaning of parts of the whole, and not “heroines”. How much praise was expressed for the landscape that forms the background of the picture, as if the whole thing was not a “landscape”, not our beautiful land on which life is so beautiful, on which so much pleasure is given by virgin nature, and the works of people, and the beautiful naked body, and luxurious outfits, and pastures, lakes, groves, and villages, cities and castles!
The depicted area is shrouded in the twilight of a voluptuous night; - only high on the castle tower and the white glow of dawn burns out in the clouds. A mysterious moment of calm, respite. The bustle of people retreats to peace, travelers hurry home, and the hour of Venus comes, holding a lamp in her hand to shine in the darkness, the hour of Eros, stirring up the magic pond and turning its dark waters into a wonderful potion. The royal girl listens to all the rustling in the grass, to the splash of water, to the rustle of foliage thickened in the fading light, to distant cries and singing, and it seems to her that she is being called somewhere, she imagines the gods of love pleasures, she listens to the vows of future embraces and conceptions.
“Earthly Love and Heavenly Love” is a type painting not only of Titian, but of all of Venice 76 . Both Titian and Giorgione painted paintings that were even more luscious, even more beautiful in color, more free in concept 77 . But nowhere are so many different elements in which we can see the manifestation of the “taste of Titian”, “Venetian taste”, united into one whole, as in this painting. And what is especially striking about it is the character of some kind of massiveness and density. Medea's heavy dress should restrain her impulses and make her movements slow 78 . The naked body of Venus also does not speak of speed or passion, but reflects a calm nature, alien to rebellion. In the composition itself, in this preponderance of one (left) part of the picture over the other, the same tendency towards heaviness, towards some kind of “materiality”, which was already visible in the later paintings of Giambellino and which, as we have seen, turned into apathetic boredom in Palma, is reflected . Not a trace remains here of Paduan asceticism, of purely spiritual aspirations, which were still so clearly expressed in the art of the last Vivarini.
In the marble city of lagoons, whose inhabitants looked at the mainland as if it were a promised land, dreamed of the expanse of fields, the heady aromas of flowers, fruit trees, and herds of animals as the most seductive thing in the world, the art in which this " nostalgia for the earth" received the expression of a full-voiced, grandiose poem. The dream of every Venetian was to save enough money to buy himself an estate on terra ferma, and wasn’t this dream expressed in Venetian painting in some sometimes even excessive worship of earthly flesh, in some kind of “enthusiastic materialism”? It is possible that among the natives of terra ferma, who settled forever on the “ship of Venice,” this dream was especially strong. After all, it was those Venetians who were born among the Alps or on their slopes who depicted this “enjoyment of the earth” best, more fully, more enthusiastically than others: Titian, Palma, Giorgione and Bassano.
Notes
76 This painting was probably painted in 1512-1513 by order of Niccolo Aurelio, the great chancellor of the Venetian Republic, whose coat of arms adorns the pool occupying the middle of the composition.
77 Unfortunately, the painting has suffered from time, and perhaps because of this it is deprived of the freshness that is inherent in other homogeneous and simultaneous works of the master.
78 If this is really Medea, then the costume anachronism that Titian allowed himself here is striking. Is this ignorance or something deliberate? The assumption of ignorance is excluded simply because, without a doubt, an elementary and external acquaintance with the ancient world should have been available to a resident of Venice - at that time one of the main centers of humanism. It can also be assumed that Titian was somewhat unfriendly towards the revival of antiquity. Isn’t this attitude expressed, for example, in his caricature of the group “Laocoon with his sons,” discovered in 1506 and depicted by him in the form of convulsively writhing monkeys (we know this drawing by the wood engraving master Boldrini)? Titian was also distinguished by his freedom in relation to the forms of the ancient world in subsequent times, when he began to increasingly resort to subjects from ancient mythology. During his stay in Rome, in 1545, he was delighted with the treasures of art that he studied here (Titian reports this to Aretin in his letters) and even declared to Charles V that he was “learning from the wonderful ancient stones, in order to more worthily portray the emperor's Victoria in the East." However, even in the last years of his work, his passion for antiquity did not prevent him from placing a typical Venetian housekeeper next to Danae, presenting hunters in modern costumes next to Antiope, depicting a gentleman in a necklace, collars and a sword next to the Madrid Venus, under the guise of Venus (Hermitage) a type of Venetian courtesan, give a Gothic shield with the coat of arms of the “Holy Empire” into the hands of a soldier at the Holy Sepulcher, depict Pilate’s palace as a building of Palladium; residents of Jerusalem in the form of those characteristic figures that could be met on a holiday in the Piazza, students in Emaus - in the most philistine costumes, etc., etc. The impressions of the surrounding “living life” were obviously too overshadowed in Titian impressions gleaned from books and conversations with friends.
September 22, 2018
Golden-haired beauties of Venice
The concept of “Titian woman” came to us from the 14th century. More precisely, “Venetian”, since the stately golden-haired beauties filled the canvases of Venetian painters since the time of Carpaccio. The “golden hair” of Venetian women was artificial - Desdemona’s compatriots (it is possible that she too) simply dyed their hair. "Take", - said one old book, - “four ounces of centaury, two ounces of gum arabic, and an ounce of solid soap, put on the fire, let it boil, and then dye your hair with it in the sun.”. The hair acquired a golden-blond color, the fashion for which came from Northern Europe, where Venetian merchants transported overseas goods. If you wanted your hair to turn red, use added henna. Based on the ingredients in the recipe, it was not difficult to trace the geography of Venetian trade. Soap came here from the Middle East back in the 12th century, and in the next century the Venetians established its successful production at home. Gum arabic was brought from North Africa, henna - through Persia from distant India. Only centaury grew as a weed everywhere in Italy.
The scope of Venice's trade relations was enormous. At the beginning of the 16th century, it continued to reign in the Mediterranean. New sea routes were just being developed. Columbus made his first voyage to the shores of America recently, in 1492, and Cortes would land there almost thirty years later. The Spaniards and Genoese did not yet compete with the Venetian Republic - it still firmly held Europe's trade with the East in its hands. At sea, she was threatened only by the Ottoman Turks and gangs of robber pirates. But to protect the waterways, Venice created a powerful fleet, which had no equal in Europe at that time. It consisted of more than three thousand ships.
The Republic's wealth grew. Gold, spices, precious stones, incense, ivory, brocade, silk, porcelain - all types of oriental luxury were brought to the feet of the winged lion, the coat of arms of Venice, the symbol of St. Mark the Evangelist, its heavenly patron. The influence of the East, especially Byzantium, which by that time had fallen under the rule of the Turks, was felt everywhere. The Venetians were especially attracted to the pomp and pageantry of Byzantine traditions. Therefore, they generously paid tribute to all types of celebrations and theatrical performances from Christian holidays sanctified by the church to the ceremony of “betrothal to the sea” of the Venetian Doge, the head of the Republic.
And the Venetian women! It was to them that Europe owed the fashion for openwork lace, mirrors and precious glass locally produced fur and freshwater pearls from snowy Muscovy, Persian carpets and Chinese porcelain, silver cutlery from Byzantium. No one was famous for such refinement in choice incense and cosmetics, no one had so many silks, brocades and velvets. Nowhere was there such unbridled fun, lavish dinners and balls, where so many elegantly dressed beauties reigned. And in no city in Italy was there an artist who could glorify all this luxury and splendor of female youth with such tangible sensuality. Was in Venice -
it. Tiziano Vecellio (1488-90 - 1576)
class="hthird"> A native of the provincial town of Cadore in the Dolomites on the northernmost edge of the Venetian lands, he was brought to Venice at the age of ten. He began his training with a famous mosaic artist Sebastian Zuccato. At that time he was working on the mosaics of St. Mark's Cathedral. Little Tiziano helped him and kept him for the rest of his life. passion for sparkling colors, scope and scale of execution. As a teenager he moved to the workshop of Bellini brothers. First he studied with Gentile, then with Giovanni. From them he fully mastered the art of painting and began to give preference to color as the main expressive means of painting.
“In color he had no equal...” -
his biographers will write later. Had a great influence on him Giorgione, his senior workshop comrade. They worked together for a while and Titian was so successful in imitating the master from Castelfranco, that contemporaries often confused their works. And even now, centuries later, experts are wondering which of the two is the author of this or that painting. In a word, the young artist quickly absorbed the best that the Venetian school had managed to produce by that time.
Titian's creative path
At the end of the first decade of the 16th century, Venice faced serious trials. Created by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg Cambrai League Catholic states captured the northern Venetian territories in 1509. The cities closest to Venice, Verona, Padua and Vicenza, went over to the enemy. With great difficulty the Venetians managed to regain their lands, but victory came at the cost of great losses. The following year, the city suffered a new misfortune - plague epidemic, during which Giorgione died.
He left Venice for a while, and when he returned, in gratitude for his deliverance from a terrible illness, he wrote altarpiece for the city church of Santa Maria della Salute. His name became famous. Soon he received his first state commission to paint battle scenes in the Hall of the Council of Ten in the Doge's Palace, where the government of the Republic met. The work was a great success. Titian's real triumph was his altarpiece "Assunta" - "Ascension of the Madonna"- which he painted at the request of the Franciscans for the church of Santa Maria dei Frari. Disregarding established traditions, he depicted the Mother of God rapidly rising in the heavens to the throne of God, surrounded by a whole host of angels. Below, the shocked apostles looked at her along with the parishioners. The illusion of authenticity and solemnity of what was happening was complete due to the precisely calibrated composition and original color scheme. His fame as the best colorist in Italy began with this picture.
Having secured the reliable support of the church and authorities, he became the first contender for the post of official artist of the Venetian Republic, which at that time was held by the elderly Giovanni Bellini. All that remains is to find influential and wealthy patrons. At that time, the personal representative of the Pope in Venice was appointed Cardinal Pietro Bembo. In his youth, Bembo was part of the “circle of intellectuals” at the court of the Duke of Urbino. Him among 
The main characters were mentioned by Castiglione in his book “Cortegiano” - “Courtier”. Well-educated, Bembo wrote poems, poems, works on history and philosophy, and translated from Greek and Latin. Titian's "Assunta" made a strong impression on him, he drew attention to the rare talent of the young Venetian. Bembo knew a lot about painting - Raphael grew up before his eyes.
The cardinal took Titian under his protection. It was he who recommended the artist to the aristocrat Niccolo Aurelio, Secretary of the Council of Ten of the Venetian Republic. He ordered Titian to create a large allegorical composition for his wedding, which was later given the code name “Earthly and Heavenly Love.”
Earthly Love and Heavenly Love
Love earthly and heavenly. 1514-15 Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (1488/90 – 1576) Borghese Gallery, Rome....Aurelio's order was very important for Titian. This was a chance to find “my” regular clients among the most influential people in Venice. Of course, work commissioned by the Republic was prestigious and created a strong reputation, and Titian was ambitious. He wanted to succeed in life, to achieve what he was rumored to have achieved in Rome. Here, in Venice, life also cost a lot of money, you just had to be able to earn it. Monumental church and government orders paid well, but took a lot of time. Don’t lie under the ceiling for four years, painting it with frescoes, as the Florentine did Michelangelo, even by order of the pope himself! For relatively small paintings it was possible to receive from rich customers three times, four times what the stingy state paid, as, for example, the late Giorgione received. And Niccolò Aurelio was not just rich and noble. He held a prominent position in the Council of the Republic. All of Venice knew him. He had great connections. If Titian had managed to please Aurelio, a brilliant prospect would have opened up before him. He would put in a word before the Council, and Titian would be appointed the official artist of the city, bypassing all his competitors, even Bellini, who was still alive at that time. Aurelio would recommend Titian to his friends, and a stable clientele belonging to the “cream of society” was always the key to success for any artist.
The complexity, even some piquancy, of the situation that Titian faced, having received an order from Aurelio, was this. Niccolo was going to marry a certain Laura Bagarotto, a young beautiful widow with whom he had been passionately in love for a long time. Laura was the daughter of the famous Paduan lawyer Bertuccio Bagarotto, who during famous events went over to the side of the League that was at war with Venice. For treason against the Venetian Republic, the Council of Ten sentenced Bertuccio to death with confiscation of property, including his daughter's dowry. Francesco Borromeo, Laura's husband, was arrested along with him. Without waiting for a verdict, he died in prison. Evil tongues said that the initiator of his arrest was the Secretary of the Council Niccolo Aurelio, who wanted to eliminate his hated rival. Three years later, through the efforts of the same Aurelio Laura, her dowry was returned, but her father and husband could no longer be returned. The love and tender care with which Aurelio surrounded the young woman had their effect: she reciprocated. But it was not easy for the pious Venetian woman to decide to marry a man involved in the death of people close to her. Aurelio directly told Titian that his fate largely depended on what decision Laura would make. The future picture was supposed to influence the beauty's decision. Expenses didn't matter.
"Aurelio told Titian directly,
that his fate largely depended on
What decision will Laura make?
The future picture was supposed to influence
to the beauty's decision. Expenses didn’t matter..."
Titian thought about the plot for a long time. He did not receive a good classical education and had problems with Latin all his life. But years of communication with Bellini and Giorgione taught him to understand ancient and modern literature. He turned to the poem “The Alosans,” popular in Venice, the author of which was his patron Cardinal Pietro Bembo. It mentioned Plato's famous Symposium and his theory of sublime "Platonic" love. He himself had not read Plato - he did not know ancient Greek, but he laughed at discussions about disembodied love. Let the refined Florentines talk about it; they, the Venetians, thank God, have living blood flowing in their veins, and not water diluted with Tuscan wines. But since it became so prestigious, it was possible to write on this topic, just not to forget “Hypererotomachy of Polyphemus,” a poem by Francesco Colonna. Its plot was partially used by Giorgione in his “Venus”. This is what Venetian experts said. “Hypererotomachia” - “The Battle of Love in the Dreams of Polyphemus” - was, as Titian believed, closer to Aurelio in his state - it was not difficult to guess what kind of dreams were overwhelming him. Titian himself was in love then.
...Niccolò Aurelio for a long time could not take his eyes off the almost three-meter canvas, sparkling with paints that had not yet dried. Two beautiful young women sat at the corners of a small marble pool from which floating roses were caught little Cupid. One of the women, who appeared to be Venetian, in a magnificent wedding dress, with golden hair flowing over her shoulders, was clutching a casket with jewelry. Another, completely naked, whose luxurious nakedness was emphasized by a scarlet silk cloak, held in her hand a bowl of smoking incense. Behind the beauties, a charming summer landscape opened up to the eye: on the left - a castle and a tower on a forest-covered hill, on the right - a river valley and the silhouettes of a town behind a darkened strip of trees. Right there, in the meadow, a flock of sheep was grazing, rabbits were being hunted, and lovers were kissing “under the canopy of trees.” The marble pool in its outline resembled the sarcophagus of Adonis, the mythical lover of Venus, killed while hunting by an angry boar. On the side wall of the pool there was a bas-relief with the corresponding scene from Ovid's Metamorphoses and the coat of arms of the Aurelio family. This was a direct hint that in case of refusal, Niccolo Aurelio could expect an equally sad consideration. The naked beauty, apparently Venus herself, persuaded the “Venetian” to surrender to the all-conquering feeling of love and promised the quiet joys of marriage, which personified the pictures of peaceful rural life behind her, first of all rabbits are an ancient symbol of fertility. But, apparently, the “Venetian” had difficulty giving in to the admonitions of the goddess. Her indestructible virtue was emphasized by the powerful walls of the castle and a sprig of thistle in hands is a sign of marital constancy. At the same time, she was in no hurry to return the casket with wedding gifts, and this inspired some hope.
Everything in the picture was filled with the shimmer of evening light, the shimmer of silk, and the glow of pink and white female bodies. The soft “pastel” colors of the summer evening created a thoughtful and lyrical mood. Love passion flowed into tenderness. The captivating “earthly” femininity of the Venetian softened the eroticism of the “heavenly” nudity of the goddess:
“Her smile, living grace,
and gold hair, and tender lips -
and all of her is beautiful and pure,
descended from heaven as the embodiment of paradise.
And I repeat without getting tired,
that everything in the world is decay and vanity,
Only this beauty is imperishable,
even if this earthly woman is mortal" -
this is what he said about the Venetians Portuguese poet Antonio Ferreira, who visited Venice at the beginning of the 16th century and was captivated by their charm. What he succeeded in poetry, Titian embodied in painting. Aurelio shared the same feelings. He was very pleased with the artist's work. On Laura Bagarotti The picture, apparently, also made a gratifying impression, for their wedding took place. Titian gained recognition and customers in the circles of the Venetian aristocracy. He was no longer looking for wealthy clients - they themselves besieged him with requests to paint portraits and allegories for them.
There were then three of them in Venice, the most famous representatives of the “fine arts”: he, Titian, Pietro Aretino, a brilliant pamphleteer with an irrepressible character and a rich, caustic satirist’s language, and Jacopo Sansovino a renowned architect who decorated the banks of the Grand Canal with the facades of his magnificent creations. Friends often gathered in the artist's large house on Birri Grande, where he moved immediately after the death of his wife. Cecilia died after giving birth to her daughter Lavinia, having been married to him for only five years and leaving him with three children. Titian never married the second time. His house became one of the richest and most visited in Venice. He loved to live in grand style, preferred cheerful companies, noisy feasts, and the company of beautiful and carefree women. Like a true Venetian, he loved money and all the benefits it gave: comfort, fashionable clothes, gourmet food, expensive trinkets. They provided him with relative independence, and he learned to earn them. His brush gave birth to masterpiece after masterpiece.
He loved to live large
preferred cheerful companies,
noisy feasts,
beautiful society
and carefree women...
In the mid-thirties of the sixteenth century, the theme of “heavenly and earthly love”, which he began fifteen years ago with a painting for Niccolo Aurelio, was continued in his work. This time his customer was Guidobaldo della Rovere, future Duke of Urbino. For him, he created his “Venus”, decisively rethinking the image of the goddess of beauty in his own “Venetian” way. Only compositionally it resembled Giorgione’s “Sleeping Venus”. It was a symbol of sensual carnal love and a happy marriage in the guise of a real earthly woman. The model who posed for Titian "Venus of Urbino", became his new heartfelt affection. He painted a whole series of portraits of her, one of which he simply called “La Bella” - “The Beauty”. The name of this woman remains unknown. For all the openness of his passionate nature, Titian was very delicate in his relationships with his lovers. His life as the official painter of the Venetian Republic was in the public eye, but he was never involved in any alcove scandal. He deliberately protected his personal life from prying eyes.
Titian was never carried away by the ideas of Neoplatonism like Botticelli or the search for ideal beauty like Raphael. He simply enjoyed her. Meeting a young beautiful woman on his way, he fell in love with her and turned her into a goddess. In this image she appeared on his canvases, combining heavenly and earthly. It was not important for him to know who she was: a duchess, a model, his beloved daughter Lavinia, a housekeeper in the house or a flower girl from St. Mark's Square. All of them were “Le Belle” for him - “beauties”, personifying the sensual charm of his beloved Venice, the embodiment of the bright joy of life. He was an optimist and trusted his feelings, without losing the sobriety of a pragmatist. Love “earthly and heavenly” merged in him and his creations.
