''Venus with a Mirror'' (c. 1555) is a painting by

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...

, now in the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...

in Washington, DC, and it is considered to be one of the collection's highlights. The pose of the Venus resembles the classical statues of the Venus de' Medici in Florence or the

Capitoline Venus The Capitoline Venus is a type of statue of Venus, specifically one of several ''Venus Pudica'' (modest Venus) types (others include the Venus de' Medici type), of which several examples exist. The type ultimately derives from the Aphrodite of C ...

in Rome, which Titian may have seen when he wrote that was "learning from the marvelous ancient stones." The painting is said to celebrate the ideal beauty of the female form, or to be a critique of vanity, or perhaps both. It was copied by several later artists, including

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradit ...

and

Anthony van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh ...

.Peter Humfrey (2007), p. 322. Titian made a number of paintings of the same subject, but this is believed to be the earliest and the only version to be entirely by the hand of Titian, without additions by his assistants. It remained in his house until his death in 1576.

Painting, and versions

X-rays of the painting have revealed that Titian painted it over a double portrait which he had abandoned. Titian kept the red cloak of one of the figures in the abandoned painting and placed it under Venus's arm. The use of the cloak from the earlier painting probably played a large part in the composition of the new painting. Titian is believed to have made another version of this Venus for the Venetian lawyer Niccolo Crasso, who also commissioned Titian to paint the ''Retable of Saint Nicholas de Bari'' at about the same time. A drawing of the other version was included by Anthony van Dyck in the sketchbook made during his trip to Italy. This other version is now lost, but a studio copy exists in the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the larges ...

. Titian is thought to have made a second copy, which was sent to his regular patron King

Philip II of Spain Philip II) in Spain, while in Portugal and his Italian kingdoms he ruled as Philip I ( pt, Filipe I). (21 May 152713 September 1598), also known as Philip the Prudent ( es, Felipe el Prudente), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from ...

, in 1567. This version was also lost, but a copy of it by Peter Paul Rubens exists, which is in the

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (in Spanish, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (), named after its founder), or simply the Thyssen, is an art museum in Madrid, Spain, located near the Prado Museum on one of the city's main boulevards. I ...

in Madrid.

Other versions

File:Titian copy.jpg, Studio version still in the Hermitage, originally from the collection of Empress Josephine, Malmaison File:Seated Venus and her mirror held by Cupid - Wallraf-Richartz-Museum.jpg, Version in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne File:Workshop of Titian - Venus, sich spiegelnd.jpg, Version in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden File:Venus and Cupid with a Mirror - RCIN 402677.jpg, Version in the UK Royal collection since the 1720s File:Arolsen Klebeband 13 113.jpg, Engraving by Lucas Vorsterman II after Titian for the

Theatrum Pictorium ''Theatrum Pictorium'', or ''Theatre of Painting'', is a short-hand name of a book published in the 1660s by David Teniers the Younger for his employer, the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria. It was a catalog of 243 Italian paintings in the Arc ...

File:Peter Paul Rubens - Venus at her Toilet - WGA20278.jpg, ''Venus at her Toilet'' by

, about 1608. This is believed to be a copy Rubens made of the Titian commissioned by

File:Titian - Venus with a Mirror - WGA22905.jpg, Version without Cupid or the Mirror, Galleria Franchetti, Venice

Provenance

In 1581, five years after Titian's death, the contents of his house in Venice, including the ''Venus with a Mirror'', were sold by his son and heir Pomponio Vechellio to Christoforo Barbarigo. In 1850 the Russian Consul-General in Venice, A. Kvostov, purchased the painting, along with a large number of other masterpieces, from the Barbarigo family, for

Czar Nicholas I , house = Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp , father = Paul I of Russia , mother = Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg) , birth_date = , birth_place = Gatchina Palace, Gatchina, Russian Empire , death_date = ...

for the sum of 525,000 francs, and it entered the collection of the

in Saint Petersburg.Nicholas Ilyin, Natalia Semenova, (2000), ''Prodanniy Sokrovischye Rossiyi'', p. 174 In 1931, in order to earn foreign currency for the first of the

five-year plans for the national economy of the Soviet Union The five-year plans for the development of the national economy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) ( rus, Пятилетние планы развития народного хозяйства СССР, ''Pyatiletniye plany razvit ...

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...

and the Soviet government secretly sold the painting, along with a number of other masterpieces, to a syndicate of art dealers, who sold it to the American collector

Andrew Mellon Andrew William Mellon (; March 24, 1855 – August 26, 1937), sometimes A. W. Mellon, was an American banker, businessman, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector, and politician. From the wealthy Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylv ...

, who wished to create a national art museum for the United States. Mellon donated it to the United States Government in 1937.See

Soviet sale of Hermitage paintings The Soviet sale of Hermitage paintings in 1930 and 1931 resulted in the departure of some of the most valuable paintings from the collection of the State Hermitage Museum in Leningrad to Western museums. Several of the paintings had been in the He ...

. It was one of the first masterpieces to be displayed in the

in Washington when it opened in 1941.

Works that may have influenced Titian

Giovanni Bellini - Giovane donna nuda allo specchio

The pose of the painting may have been influenced by Ancient Greek and Roman statues of Venus Titian could have seen in Rome and Florence. He was also influenced by his teacher

Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 26 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his fath ...

, who was the leader of the Venetian school of painters, known for their masterful use of color.

Influence of the painting

The theme of the painting was adapted by a number of later artists, including

and

Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptized June 6, 1599August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of th ...

. The painting itself was the inspiration for the protagonist Severin's imagination in the 1870 novel '' Venus in Furs'' by

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch (; 27 January 1836 – 9 March 1895) was an Austrian nobleman, writer and journalist, who gained renown for his romantic stories of Galician life. The term ''masochism'' is derived from his name, invented by h ...

Gallery, influences

File:Venus de Medici.png, A work that may have influenced Titian is '' Venus de' Medici'' in the

Uffizi The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...

gallery in Florence File:Capitoline Venus - Palazzo Nuovo - Musei Capitolini - Rome 2016.jpg, Another work that may have influenced Titian is ''

'' at the

Capitoline Museums The Capitoline Museums ( Italian: ''Musei Capitolini'') are a group of art and archaeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The historic seats of the museums are Palazzo dei Conservatori and Pal ...

in Rome File:Rubens Venus at a Mirror c1615.jpg, ''Venus at a Mirror'' by Peter Paul Rubens (1615). Rubens adapted the theme to his own style. File:RokebyVenus.jpg, The '' Rokeby Venus'' by Diego Velázquez. (1599–1660). Completed between 1647 and 1651. Velazquez would have seen a copy of Titian's ''Venus with a Mirror'' which was commissioned by King Philip II of Spain. File:Simon Vouet - Toilet of Venus - WGA25371.jpg,

Simon Vouet Simon Vouet (; 9 January 1590 – 30 June 1649) was a French painter who studied and rose to prominence in Italy before being summoned by Louis XIII to serve as Premier peintre du Roi in France. He and his studio of artists created religious and ...

, ''The Toilet of Venus'', about 1628. Simon Vouet lived in Italy from 1613 to 1627, and was certainly familiar with the work of Titian. He imported the Italian style into France.

Notes

References

* Humfrey, Peter (2007), ''Titien, Tout l'oeuvre peint'', Ludion, 2007, * Nicholas Ilyin and Natalia Semonova, (2000), ''Prodanniy Sokrovischye Rossiyi'', Trilisnik Publishers, Moscow, {{Titian 1555 paintings Collections of the National Gallery of Art Mythological paintings by Titian Paintings of Venus Nude art Paintings of Cupid Mirrors in art