SSTEIN -Titian's Venus of Urbino

Rona Goffen, "Intorduction, " Titian's Venus of Urbino intro pg. 1-22

Titian had a professional investment in painting the female figure. He was one of the first artists to become famous throughout Europe and have an international career. In 1488-90 titian moved to Venice to study under the famous painter Giovanni   Bellini. Titian was later invited to paint frescos for the Confraternity. This took him from 1510 to 1511. After, he returned to Venice where he stayed until he died in 1576.

One of Titians commissions The Assunta for the altar of S. Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, became the largest panel painting in the world. It took him a total of two years to complete. After titian completed the painting he was pursued by the Emperor Charles V and his son, Philip II. Titian commissioned many religious painting for the two. Charles gave titian the tittle “Knight of the Golden Spur, Count of the Lateran Palace and of the Imperial Consistory.” Titian had been praised and compared to the most famous predecessor Apelles. Many painters had been compared to Apelles in this time, but not by the Roman Emperor himself.

By 1538, Duke Guidobaldo della Rovere had received Titians painting, Venus of Urbino. At this time titian had been world famous. The Venus of Urbino seems to have been created without any literary source. It has no explanation in text. The women in most all of his work appear to be idealized. Titian idealized the beauty in the women he painted and portrayed what he thought was beauty in women. Venus of Urbino contains elements of asymmetry, juxtaposition of closed and opened space, and contrast of large foreground forms. The painting can be related to many contemporary works in style and form that Titian had created. Titian used his brush strokes to create beautiful shapes that are formed by the light and darkness.

Titians goddess (or courtesan) in his Venus painting beholds us directly. Opening up her body and gazing out at you from the painting unlike many other Venus paintings. Definitely meant for the male gaze and idealizes the beauty of women. Titians use of color and light and painterly strokes seduces the eye as you gaze at the painting. Was this painting made to show an ancient goddess of a modern courtesan that is the perfect woman?

It is thought that prostitutes may have posed for some of Titians works. It is also said that Titian enjoyed the company of the courtesans he painted. His models may have been prostitutes for the reason that the women may have subsidized their incomes in this way. The question of if Titians models are goddesses or courtesans is not important. What is important is how he represents the women and how the representation defines the role of the beholder. Titian painted women in many interpretations from contemporary philosophical and theological views, to the medical views on women.

Most men of this century had misogynistic views on women. Titian may have been as misogynistic as all the other men in society, but his painting still creates a sympathetic feeling. Making you look at the woman and sympathize for her. His coloristic style may have explained his approach to create the visualization of sympathy. Whatever the meaning of the paintings he creates, Titians subject is himself.

SSTEIN Research Proj- Raphael’s Cartoons for the Sistine Chapel

V & A (n.d) The Raphael Cartoons: Animal Imagery in 'The Miraculous Draught of Fishes'. Retrieved from

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/raphael-cartoons-animal-imagery/

 

     Raphael has a lot of animal imagery in his Cartoon labeled “The Miraculous Draught of Fishes”. In the Cartoon he shows various types of birds. He also shows a bunch of Fish and crabs. To the bottom right of the cartoon are three cranes. According to the Roman author Pliny, the birds represent vigilance. Cranes would take turns keeping watch while the others would rest. The crane would hold a stone in its claw and if it were to drift off the stone would drop and wake the other cranes. The crane is an emblem of papal authority because of its vigilance. The cranes in the cartoon represent the fisherman looking over water. The birds are mimicking the acts of the fisherman. The cranes emphasize Peter’s role as the fisher of men because of the symbol of papal authority. This shows the link between peter and the commissioner Pope Leo X.

     The Ravens that glide gracefully over the fisherman were thought to be and unpleasant bird that scavenged on the dead. The raves have a bad representation because of their ties to the story of Noah’s arc. When they were sent form the arch they never returned like the doves. The ravens are a symbol of sin. During the time of this cartoon ravens were also thought to represent a corrupt priest. In the carton the ravens are next to swans to show the issues with converting sinners.

     The Fishes were thought to represent compassion because so species of fishes were known to shelter and protect young in their mouths. In the cartoon they are representing the souls that St Peter is saving as he swoops them up in his net. The shellfish represent the opposite of this as they are tossed aside for the cranes. Christ gestures to the fisherman to let their nets down and into the water to collect the souls.

     The crabs were symbols of greed and covetousness which is one of the 7 deadly sins. The crabs represent the complete opposite of the fishes. The crustaceans are symbols of wickedness and they are left over for the other fisherman represented by the cranes.

 

 'The Miraculous Draught of Fishes'

 

 

 

 

SSTEIN Research Proj- Raphael’s Cartoons for the Sistine Chapel

V & A (n.d) Biography of Raphael. Retrieved from

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/b/biography-raphael-pope-leo-x/

 

Short Biography on Raphael

Raphael was born in Urbino. He was the son of a painter. He showed skill in the arts and painting at a very young age. Around the time of 1500 he began to study under Perugino. He began to create altar pieces for churches in Perugia. His paintings began to take a resemblance to Perugino’s. This style showed delicately posed figures with a lack of strong contraposition.

In 1505 he left moved to Florence were he began painting many popular scenes of the virgin and child. Now away from Perugino his style began to change and he started to develop his own skillset.

In 1508 Pope Julius beckoned Raphael to Rome. Raphael remained here the rest of his life devoting his work and time to painting and creating art for the Vatican palace. He created elaborate frescoes for Pope Julius. These frescos showed biblical subjects. An example of his work for Julius is the School of Athens. His commissions form Pope Leo led to him creating the Famous Sistine tapestries in the Sistine Chapel. Under the commission of Pope Leo, Raphael also broaden his knowledge in archeology and architecture. All of this work he created in Rome and mostly the cartoon tapestries brought him fame and admiration. To this day his regarded as one of the greatest artists/painters of his time.

SSTEIN Research Proj- Raphael’s Cartoons for the Sistine Chapel

V & A (2013) A history of the cartoons. Retrieved from

            http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6342001112216024445#editor/target=post;        postID=8815990837192037755

  

Pope Leo commissioned Raphael’s cartoons around 1515. These works of art are among the greatest of the High Renaissance. They were made by Raphael and his assistance in order to cover the lower walls of the Sistine chapel. The tapestries show the founding of the early Christian church. They depict the scenes of St. Peter and St. Paul. After Raphael had created the drawing s for the tapestries they were woven together and sent to the workshop of Pieter van Aelst to be woven. 

All ten of the tapestries emphasize the pre-eminence of the Roman Church and the legitimacy of the papal succession. When Pope Leo commissioned the tapestries from an Italian renaissance artist he was making a bold move.  He did so by combining the Italian Renaissance painting aesthetics and an old Flemish weaving style. 

In 1632 the cartoons seven of the ten cartoons created were bought by Charles 1 of Britain. Charles commissioned a separate set of tapestries based of Raphael’s. For some reason Charles had the tapestries in strips and enclosed in wooden boxes.  They were long kept like this after his death. 

The cartoons went through so much copying and moving that they slowly became damaged. In the nineteenth century they were used at the British Institution in London for students to copy and study which only damaged the cartoons even more. 

Finally in 1875, the Cartoons were moved to a place they could remain protected from further damages. Queen Victoria had the cartoons sent to the South Kensington Museum. Today this museum is known as the Victoria and Albert museum, or (V&A). The cartoons at the V&A are there to stay and remain highly protected as they should have been earlier to prevent damages.

SSTEIN Research Proj- Raphael’s Cartoons for the Sistine Chapel #2

V & A (n.d) The Raphael Cartoons: What is a Cartoon? Retrieved from

            http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/raphael-cartoons-what-is-a-cartoon/

   

            I want to step back in my research and just go over a little bit about what the cartoons were and how Raphael created them. In Renaissance art, a cartoon is basically a mock up or pre-design for a concept for a finished piece of artwork. Examples include the drawing of Leonardo’s Burlington cartoon that we learned about in the first quarter of our studies on Renaissance art. In Leonardo’s case the Burlington cartoon would have been used as a preliminary design for a painting. In Raphael’s case, he used these cartoons to create tapestries. The word cartoon is from the Latin word cartone. A cartone in Latin is a large piece of paper. If we step back a little farther in the process Raphael and his assistants would create small sketches called modelli, which were the basis of what was to later be drawn to create the cartoon. Each of the cartoon was pieced together with small pieces of paper. These small sheets were stuck together with a mixture of water and flower to act as an adhesive to hold them in place. The designs were painted with mixtures of animal glue, water, and different pigments. This mixture is laid on and worked to Raphael’s satisfaction. Once dried they were sent to be made into tapestries by weavers. The weavers would cut the material and begin weaving and sewing them together.

The cartoons were reconstructed during the 1690s. They were glued to canvas to strengthen them because with age they were becoming very fragile. The overlaps and connections within the tapestries were not put together evenly at times, this is shown in the picture below in an x-ray of Raphael’s tapestry, The Healing of the Lame Man.

Raphael’s cartoon tapestries were so beautiful with eh amount of detail and with his subtle use of colour pallet. For this reason it is thought that Raphael wasn’t creating these cartoons as a pre-design or concept for a final piece. Raphael may have intended the tapestries to be a finished work of art and not just a cartoon or preparatory design.