The Venus of Urbino also known as Reclining Venus [ 1 ] is an oil painting by Italian painter Titian , depicting a nude young woman, traditionally identified with the goddess Venus , reclining on a couch or bed in the sumptuous surroundings of a Renaissance palace. Work on the painting seems to have begun anywhere from or , and was perhaps completed in , but not sold until It is currently held in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence.
The figure's pose is based on the Dresden Venus , traditionally attributed to Giorgione but for which Titian completed at least the landscape. In his own painting, Titian has moved Venus to an indoor setting, engaged her with the viewer, and made her sensuality explicit; some even believe the figure is engaging in masturbation.
Interpretations of the painting fall into two groups; both agree that the painting has a powerful erotic charge, but beyond that, it is seen either as a portrait of a courtesan, perhaps Zaffetta, or as a painting celebrating the marriage of its first owner who according to some may not have commissioned it. This disagreement forms part of a wider debate on the meaning of the mainly Venetian tradition of the reclining female nude, which Titian had created, or helped to create, some 25 years before with the Dresden Venus of around — For Charles Hope , "It has yet to be shown that the most famous example of this genre, Titian's Venus of Urbino , is anything other than a representation of a beautiful nude woman on a bed, devoid of classical or even allegorical content.
The painting's subject stares straight at the viewer, not embarrassed by her nudity. In the near background is a dog, often a symbol of fidelity. In a different space in the background two maids are shown rummaging through a cassone chest, where clothes were often kept. The detailed depiction of the interior setting is unusual, perhaps unique, for a Titian painting. He was trying to pursue a military career, and was a papal diplomat.
On 20 October , he spent the night in Venice with Angela del Moro, or Angela Zaffetta, a leading courtesan in Venice and occasional dining companion of Titian and Aretino , the latter a friend of the cardinal. Titian painted Ippolito's portrait, and it seems likely that he was asked to add a nude portrait of Angela Zaffetta, or that Titian decided to paint one in the hope he would like it. On 20 December , Titian wrote to Ippolito's chamberlain in Rome saying that he had been working on a painting of a woman for the cardinal.
