Titian at the Getty
By: Donald Rock
The focus of this essay will be Titian’s Venus and Adonis. It was painted using oil on canvas for the Spanish prince, Philip II, circa 1555-1560.
I picked this work by Titian because of its interesting mythological subject matter, and its intriguing use of light and color. The size of the piece also got my attention, and combined with its other qualities, seems to draw the viewer in.
The piece resides at the Getty Center in Los Angeles and occupies an easily accessible segment of wall in which the work is situated at eye level so that it can be easily viewed from a few feet away and also allow for close-up inspection. The placement of the lighting around the piece has the effect of emphasizing the beauty of this mythological scene by enhancing the optical qualities of Titian’s use of rich colors throughout the painting. He uses deep and moderately dark brown and gold hues that seem to add to the drama of the subject. He paints the nude Venus using a very light value that contrasts with the background of these different variations of brown and gold. This contrast of values creates a warm radiating glow from the body of Venus that draws the viewer’s eye in her direction. Aside from Titian’s use of color and value, the large size of the painting, which is 63”x77 3/8”, also plays a big part of what gets the viewer’s attention. Proper placement and lighting in the museum allows the viewer to get the full sense of what Titian was trying to accomplish. The painting as it exists in the museum is situated such that there is very little to distract or detract from the painting in any way. Overall, the presentation of this work made for a great viewing experience.
Titian’s Venus and Adonis is about love and perhaps as a result of this love, Venus’s higher intuitive sense of the ensuing fate of Adonis. This is displayed by her actions. As Adonis tries to leave her to go hunting, she struggles to hold him back while he and his dogs pull in the opposite direction. Adonis seems emotionally unmoved by Venus’s efforts as he pulls away from her. The emotionless determination of Adonis conveys a stoic message of men as being heroic and emotionally stronger than women. According to mythological legend a boar fatally wounds Adonis during this hunt, thus validating Venus’s concern.
The use of this painting would have been for aesthetic purposes and personal enjoyment as it was not created nor commissioned for public viewing. Originally, this piece would have been displayed in the home of the 16th century prince, Philip II. A letter from Titian to Philip in 1554 discusses the shipment of this painting in which Titian states, “And since the Danaë [a painting of another nude goddess], which I have already sent to Your Majesty, is seen from the front, I wanted to vary in this the other poesia [mythological representations], showing the figure from the opposite side, so that the room in which they are to hang will be more appealing. Soon I will send you the poesia of Perseus and Andromeda, which will offer still another view, different from these; and the same with Medea and Jason” (Rosand 41). This letter indicates that Philip had commissioned several works from Titian that he intended to hang in one room together. Apparently Titian had taken into consideration how these paintings were to be viewed in order to achieve a desired effect; one that is appealing due to the orientation of the paintings in which they will offer different views of similar subject matter. The curators at the Getty were not able to follow Titian’s plan unfortunately. This painting is the only one of this subject by Titian that can be found at the museum, and it is displayed with his High Renaissance contemporaries in no obvious pattern.
This work fits into the Venetian High Renaissance period and illustrates the unique path that artists from Venice were taking that made their art different from that of Northern Europe and Southern Italy. Venetian artists believed that art should be more pleasurable, without much of the intellectual and religious content of their southern contemporaries. While Southern artists such as Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo were creating more esoteric, intellectual themes concerning “the epic of humanity, the masculine virtues, the grandeur of the ideal, and the lofty conceptions of religion involving the heroic and the sublime” (Kleiner et al. 666), Venetian artists produced somewhat secular art pursuing more lyrical and sensual themes. Titian’s portrayal of Venus as a nude and the use of mythological subject matter follows this trend of Venetian art during this time.
Like other artists of the High Renaissance period, Titian illustrates an interest in the natural environment as observed visually, but in a stylized manner. Titian’s loose brushwork is evident and one can see how he differed from southern Italian artists in his use of rich color. Venetian art of this period focused on color, and Titian illustrates this in his choices of rich hues that he uses to set certain forms apart from one another as well as to direct attention to certain forms.
The subject of Venus and Adonis and the style in which it was painted typifies that of the Venetian period. A similar piece is Titian’s Venus of Urbino. Like Venus and Adonis, it is a secular work and makes use of a nude mythological Venus. This painting is also inspired by beauty and was generally commissioned by male aristocrats for personal enjoyment, which was typical in 16th century Venice. This work also can be compared to some of Botticelli’s work as many of his non-religious paintings also depicted Venus in a similar lyrical way. Even though Botticelli was doing this approximately 80 years earlier, like Titian, his paintings tell a simple story in a mythological setting thereby creating a similar poetic, fictional context. Unlike Botticelli, Titian’s figural representations are much more realistically defined, as Botticelli creates figures in smooth, curvilinear, idealized manner with the use of line as a noticeable formal element. Titian’s figures are represented more closely to that of what would be considered visual realism although not perfect realism. The figures are shown with muscle definition as well as proper proportion, but not with the sculptural qualities of his southern contemporaries, such as Michelangelo and Raphael.
This work also relates to a piece that comes much later – a piece that comes from the Impressionist period. In 1863, Manet would create in the tradition of Titian but in a controversial manner. Manet’s painting, Olympia, was influenced by Titian’s nudes, but Manet’s representations were less idealized with less of an emphasis on beauty and more on capturing the essence of the human body. He created a differentiation between a “naked” body and a “nude” body. The nakedness of Manet’s pieces was less about pleasure derived from beauty, but about showing people for what they are. Like Titian however, Manet’s nudes positions the viewer such that they are bluntly confronted with the women in these paintings.
From the standpoint of an art student, Titian’s work offers great insight into the style that exemplifies 16th century Venetian art. From the standpoint of having an interest in beautiful art, his paintings offer the viewer much to be enjoyed.
Works Cited:
Kleiner, Fred, et al. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages. New York: Harcourt, 2001.
Rosand, David. Titian. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1978.