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''The Worship of Venus'' is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian artist

Titian Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. Ti ...

completed between 1518 and 1519, housed at the

Museo del Prado The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of Art of Europe, European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th ce ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, Spain. It describes a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

rite Rite may refer to: Religion * Ritual, an established ceremonious act * Rite (Christianity), sacred rituals in the Christian religion * Ritual family, Christian liturgical traditions; often also called ''liturgical rites'' * Catholic particular ch ...

of worship conducted in honour of the goddess

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

each 1 April. On this occasion, women would make offerings to representations of the goddess so as to cleanse "every blemish on their bodies".Hope & Fletcher & Dunkerton, 110

Description

In Titian's work, two

nymph A nymph (; ; sometimes spelled nymphe) is a minor female nature deity in ancient Greek folklore. Distinct from other Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature; they are typically tied to a specific place, land ...

s, one young and one matronly, are situated to the right of the ceremony, attending to a

shrine A shrine ( "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred space">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...: ''escri ...

holding a statue of Venus according to the iconography of the Venus Pudica. The shrine is surrounded by

votive A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally ...

tablets. The older woman checks on the decorations with the use of a mirror which she holds high in her extended right hand. The foreground of the canvas is thronged with a swarm of male infants, or ''

putti A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and very often winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University ...

'', who distract themselves in activities such as climbing trees, leaping, flying, gathering apples, lying around, fighting, fondling, shooting arrows and pulling each other's hair. A dam is shown in the middle background, near a sunlit meadow. The far distance is decorated with a mountain and blue sky.

Source material

Titian based the image on the writings of the Greek

sophist A sophist () was a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics and mathematics. They taught ''arete'', "virtue" or "excellen ...

Philostratus Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus (; ; 170s – 240s AD), called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He flourished during the reign of Septimius Severus ...

.Claude, 73 In his "Imagines I, VI", Philostratus wrote, "See cupids are gathering apples: and if there are many of them, do not be surprised...The cupids' quiver are studded with gold, and golden also are the darts in them...they have hung their quivers on the apple trees; and in the grass lie their broidered mantles...Ah, the baskets into which they gather their apples!"

References

Sources

* Hope, Charles & Fletcher, Jennifer & Dunkerton, Jill. ''Titian''. National Gallery London, 2003. * Kaminski, Marion. ''Titian''. Ullmann, 2007. *Phillips, Claude. ''The Earlier Work of Titian''. Bastian Books, 2008. * Francesco Valcanover, ''L'opera completa di Tiziano'', Rizzoli, Milano 1969. * Stefano Zuffi, ''Tiziano'', Mondadori Arte, Milano 2008.

External links

Philostratus's ''Imagines'' 1.6 (Cupids)
Fairbanks translation at the Theoi Classical Texts Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Worship of Venus, The 1519 paintings Paintings by Titian in the Museo del Prado Paintings commissioned for the camerini d'alabastro Paintings of nymphs Paintings of Venus Nude paintings of children Paintings of Cupid Mythological paintings by Titian Paintings of putti

Description

Source material

See also

References

Sources

External links