Venus Anadyomene Venus Anadyomene (from Greek, "Venus Rising From the Sea") is one of the iconic representations of the goddess Venus (Aphrodite), made famous in a much-admired painting by Apelles, now lost, but described in Pliny's ''Natural History'', with t ...

'' (Greek -Venus rising from the sea), is a c. 1520 oil painting by

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...

, depicting

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

rising from the sea and wringing her hair, after her birth fully-grown. Venus, said to have been born from a shell, is identified by the shell at bottom left. It is smaller than usual in the birth of Venus scenes, such as Botticelli's, and is just intended to identify the subject rather than be a boat-like vessel for Venus, as in

Sandro Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian Renaissance painting, Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th cent ...

's ''

The Birth of Venus ''The Birth of Venus'' ( it, Nascita di Venere ) is a painting by the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli, probably executed in the mid 1480s. It depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth, when she had emerged from the sea ...

'' and other depictions. The voluptuousness of the Venus presented, and her sideways glance, also owes much to the

Crouching Venus :''This article discusses the type itself: see links within it for specific instances of the type.'' The ''Crouching Venus'' is a Hellenistic model of Venus surprised at her bath. Venus crouches with her right knee close to the ground, turns he ...

and Cnidian Venus types of antique sculpture. The wringing of her hair is a direct imitation of Apelles's lost masterwork of the same title. Titian deliberately included this detail to prove that he could rival the art of antiquity in which the goddess was also washing her hair — a fact mentioned in Pliny's '' Natural History''. The painting is in exceptionally fine condition. It was once owned by

Christina of Sweden Christina ( sv, Kristina, 18 December ( New Style) 1626 – 19 April 1689), a member of the House of Vasa, was Queen of Sweden in her own right from 1632 until her abdication in 1654. She succeeded her father Gustavus Adolphus upon his death ...

, and passed via the

Orleans Collection The Orleans Collection was a very important collection of over 500 paintings formed by Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans, mostly acquired between about 1700 and his death in 1723. Apart from the great royal-become-national collections of Euro ...

to 6th Duke of Sutherland, who lent it and 26 other paintings to the

National Gallery of Scotland The Scottish National Gallery (formerly the National Gallery of Scotland) is the national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh, close to Princes Street. The building was designed in a neoclassical style by W ...

in 1945. On the death of the childless Duke in 2000, the work was acquired from his cousin,

Francis Egerton, 7th Duke of Sutherland Francis Ronald Egerton, 7th Duke of Sutherland (born 18 February 1940), known as Francis Ronald Egerton until 2000, is a British peer from the Egerton family. Family Sutherland is the son of Cyril Reginald Egerton, the grandson of Francis Egerto ...

for more than £11m in 2003, with the aid of the

National Art Collections Fund Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for many gifts and bequests, as ...

. Also contributing to the purchase were the

Wolfson Foundation The Wolfson Foundation is a charity that awards grants to support excellence in the fields of science and medicine, health, education and the arts and humanities. Overview The endowment of the Wolfson Foundation is currently some £800 million, ...

, the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

(£7.6m), and the Scottish Executive (£2.5m). To facilitate the sale, £2.4m of the picture's value was offset against inheritance tax. The market value has been estimated at £20m. After the sale, the 7th Duke said, "To all intents and purposes nothing has changed, except the painting will now belong to the nation." It soon afterwards formed the centrepiece of an exhibition in 2004 and the anniversary exhibition "Saved!" for the National Art Collections Fund.

References

External links

National Galleries object page
{{Titian 1520 paintings Mythological paintings by Titian Paintings of Venus Venus Anadyomenes Nude art Paintings in the National Galleries of Scotland Seashells in art Paintings formerly in the Orleans Collection