Titian's Venus with a Mirror and Two Cupids

Titian, Venus with a Mirror and Two Cupids, 1555, oil on canvas, 124.5 x 105.5 cm.

Is not this just the most beautiful, decedent, luxurious thing your eyes have ever laid upon? It is thought that Titian loved this so much that he could not part with it and kept the original for himself, and for his visitors to admire. Many variations and copies were made by himself and his workshop. While Peter Humfrey, the author of my research text Titian, hardly touches on his painting, I wanted to discuss it because it is the sort of painting that captivates its viewer; a timeless beauty. 

I find that Venus has a very similar hair style to Diana from the previous paintings which I have discussed, Diana and Callisto and Diana and Diana and Actaeon. Although she is bedecked in jewels her skin seems to outshine them, and the ruby red jewel tones of her lips is reflected in her embroidered velvet cloak, which is barely covering her. 

Titian's use of color, contrasting red with dark shadings of green, and the rich textures of silks, jewels, velvet and furs create a very real and tangible setting for the senses which engages the viewer. Venus gazes into the mirror which two cupids are holding, and she seems to be gazing at herself as if somewhat surprised and modest about her beauty.

For one of Titian's later paintings Venus is very luminescent, much more reminiscent of his Venus of Urbino. However, the expressive strokes with which he rendered the material objects around her created a vivid atmosphere, in which his later style served him greatly. This can be seen in the bottom left corner of her velvet cloak, the roughness and painterly style of the strokes lend authenticity to the texture of the fabric. This is perhaps one of the most luxurious depictions of the goddess Venus that I have seen thus far, and it is entirely unique in that it does not simply focus on her body, but also compares her beauty to the most precious of materials and stones, and she entirely outshines every one of those objects.

Titian's Last Painting - The Pieta

Pieta, 1570- 1576, oil on canvas, 378 x 347 cm.

Towards the end of Titian's life he began to paint Pieta for the church of the Frari, where he wished to be buried. In the bottom right hand corner the viewer can see the painter himself and his son Orazio kneeling before Mary and Christ, in a small devotional tablet. However, upon examining the canvas it has been found that it is indeed made from several canvases, patched together as the composition evolved around the Virgin and Christ. But the evolution never came to be fully realized, as Titian and his son Orazio both died in an outbreak of the plague in August of 1576. 

The painting then passed into the hands of Palma Giovane who completed what Titian had left undone. It is speculated that really the only part which Palma worked on was the flying angel in the top right hand corner, as the rest of the painting is highly reminiscent of Titian's Death of Actaeon and its muted color pallet.  It is also thought that Titian was trying to show is humble awe and love for the sacrifice that Christ made by including some of his personal facial features into the kneeling Saint Jerome.

While Titian obviously knew his time to meet the Lord was coming, he was still cut short by the plague, of which few realized he actually had and attributed his death to fever instead. In the chaos of the outbreak there was not time or the organization to afford Titian and his son the funeral of a great renaissance painter, like Michelangelo had. Indeed, his grave was only marked by a simple tile in the Frari church until  half way through the nineteenth century. With no one left to defend their house or works of art, fellow artists helped themselves to the contents of Titian's home. 

Titian and Workshop Reproductions

Titian and Workshop, Diana and Callisto, 1560-1565

As a major high renaissance painter Titian had quite a lengthy process between sketching, preparing a canvas, and the actual finished product. This process would have left a whole lot of by product for his workshop and apprentices to work from, and Titian was not opposed to reproduction and interpretations of his previous accomplishments. Diana and Callisto  is a good example of this, most notably the differences between the original and the reproduction above is the fountain which has gained significant height, the shortened depth of field, and the added clothing to the figures. 

There is no telling exactly how much of a hand Titian had in all of these reproductions, at times they seem very true to his style, and others merely based upon his concept and composition. It is frequently possible to find various forms of brushwork on the canvas, and it appears that Titian would leave the majority of the reproduction to his workshop in the intermediate layers, and then work on the upper layers himself.  

Titian did not limit the reproductions of his work to paintings, he frequently turned towards printmaking at the end of his life, apparently for its efficiency in getting his images to the general public and circulated. A wonderful example of this is Adoration of the Trinity (La Gloria) by Cornelis Cort, after Titian in 1566. 

This print, is essentially the mirror image of the original, which was reproduced from Titian's studio, proves that the renaissance artist kept all forms of his preliminary sketches. Otherwise Cornelis Cort would not have had the material to work from in the area that the print was reproduced. Instead of going to see the actual famous painting, many of these reproductions were made from the cartoons and preliminary materials which Titian kept on record not only for his personal use, but also for those who belonged to his workshop. These reproductions serve as proof to his artistic method, despite the actual cartoons having been lost in modern day. 

Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto - Titian

Diana and Actaeon- 1556-1559,Titian, Oil on canvas, 190.3x 207 cm  and Diana and Callisto - 1556-1559, Titian, Oil on canvas, 188 x 206 cm

Of the ten major mythological paintings that Titian created for King Philip of Spain,  Diana and Actaeon, and Diana and Callisto are said to be the most coherent of the pairs. Both of these paintings depict those who have betrayed Diana, the chaste goddess, in some way and the punishment that she bestows upon them. In Diana and Actaeon, Actaeon (the man on the left) stumbles upon Diana bathing. As punishment for laying eyes on her, Diana splashes Actaeon in the face, turning him into a stag for his own hounds to chase and then feast upon. 

In content Diana and Callisto is very similar. As one of Diana's nymphs Callisto also has committed to a life of virtue and chastity. However the god Jupiter wanted to sleep with Callisto, so he disguised himself as Diana, and forced her to betray her vow, thereby impregnating her. When she refused to undress to bathe with the other nymphs, Diana ordered her to undress and reveal her transgressions. Callisto was then expelled from the goddesses company, and turned into a bear in the wilderness. 

When looking at visual similarities, the first thing that might strike the viewer is the composition. Both groupings are nearly the same, and feature water at the base of the canvas, figures in the middle along with sculptural elements, and then landscape in the upper half of the canvas. One difference however, is that Titian enclosed the figures in Diana and Actaeon within a Gothic structure that seems to blend right in with the forest around it, where as in Diana and Callisto there are no architectural elements besides the fountain in the center. Also, both paintings depict the most climatic moment in both myths, that of the discovery. Titian ties to two paintings together by the stag motif. In Diana and Actaeon a stag skull hangs among the trees, a premonition of what is to come for Actaeon; in Diana and Callisto the fountain also features a stag, which references previous punishments executed by Diana. Titian also ties the two paintings together by painting in diagonally slung curtain, which serve almost as a frame, telling the viewer that the two paintings are meant to be viewed together. 

As for the style, Titian's brushwork is highly evident within these two paintings, creating a sense of luxury and wildness to the surrounding nature. This separates this pair from his previous mythological paintings such as Bacchus and Ariadne , where his strokes where much more smooth and created almost gem-like surfaces. These two paintings suggest a wildness, fierceness, and potential decay that its predecessors did not. Which may lead the viewer to questioning Diana, despite her virtuous intent, perhaps she is much too severe.