UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

Date:__April 26, 2007___

I, ___Catherine L. Yellig______, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: Masters in: Art History It is entitled: Rethinking the Renaissance Courtesan: Contemporary Interpretation of Three Paintings by Titian (Tiziano Vecellio 1485 – 1576)

This work and its defense approved by:

Chair: ____Dr. Kristi Nelson______Dr. Diane Mankin______Dr. Kim Paice______

Rethinking the Renaissance Courtesan: Contemporary Interpretation of Three Paintings by Titian (Tiziano Vecellio, c. 1485-1576)

A thesis submitted to The Art History Faculty of the School of Art / College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning University of Cincinnati In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Art History

Catherine Lynne Yellig 2007

Thesis Committee

Chair: Kristi Nelson, Ph. D. Reader: Diane Mainkin, Ph. D. Reader: Kim Paice, Ph. D.

2 Abstract

This study examines three representations of female nudes by Tiziano Vecellio (Titian,

1485-1576). They include: the Venus of Urbino (1538, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy), Venus with a Mirror (1553, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC), and Danae (1554, Museo del

Prado, Madrid, Spain). I argue that by reading these three paintings and relating them to courtesans as we come to know them through words and images of the sixteenth-century, one can begin to see the establishment of the cortigiana onesta (honest courtesan) in relation to

Titian’s painting. During the Renaissance a female’s identity was not defined by her own individuality, rather a woman was defined by the ideological power structures that governed sixteenth-century Venice. Prostitution was a means to an end, and women who practiced carnal commerce found themselves in a better position if they catered to the desires of the Urban Italian elite. In this study I will try to show how Titian translated the literary and poetic ideals of his contemporaries into painterly representations of the onesta model.

3 4 Acknowledgements

The last few years have passed so quickly that it is hard to believe that it has been nearly three years since my journey at the University of Cincinnati began. Throughout my time at UC there have been a number of people who have made an impression on my education and I would like to thank them here. I would like to extend a most sincere thanks to Dr. Kristi Nelson for advising me on this topic and working with me throughout the process of writing. I am also most greatful to Dr. Diane Mankin, whom I graciously thank for mentoring me throughout the duration of my time as a student. Certainly outside the realm of school, there are a number of people to whom I am indebted as well. I would like to thank Jeni Eckman, Megan Emery, and

Bree Lehmann for reading and correcting my papers. I would also like to thank my mother,

Cheryl Ashworth, for taking my daily phone calls and listening to me read my papers. And lastly, but certainly not least, I would like to thank the man who has stood by my side since we were in the eighth grade together, Brad Minton. Thank you for all your generous help and comforting support for the last few years.

5 Contents

List of Illustrations………………………………………………………………………….3

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………5

Chapter One -- The Courtesan and Titian: An “Honest” Affair…………………..………12

Chapter Two -- Una donna ignuda: An Interpretation of Titian’s Venus of Urbino...... 22

Chapter Three – Reflecting Ambiguity: A Brief Conversation on Titian’s Venus with a Mirror……………………………………………………..28

Chapter Four – The Onesta and Danaë: A Rendezvous of Ideological Currents…………34

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………...43

Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………45

Illustrations…………………………………………………………………………...... 50

6 List of Illustrations

Figure

1. Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538

2. Titian, Venus with a Mirror, 1553

3. Titian, Danaë, 1546

4. Marcantonio Raimondi, Position #7, 1524

5. Titian, Self-Portrait, c.1550-1562

6. Raphael, Pope Leo X, 1518

7. Titian, Portrait of Charles V, 1533

8. Titian, Phillip II,

9. Tintoretto, Jacopo Sansovino, 1560/70

10. Titian, Pietro Aretino, 1545

11. Tintoretto, Veronica Franco, 16th century

12. Giorgione, Sleeping Venus, 1501

13. Titian, Flora, 1515/20

14. Jacopo Palma the Elder, Flora

15. Titian, Venus with a Mirror, 1555 (detail 1)

16. Titian, Venus with a Mirror, 1555 (detail 2)

17. Titian, Venus with a Mirror, 1555 (detail 3)

18. Titian, Venus with a Mirror, 1555 (detail 4)

19. Titian, Venus with a Mirror, 1555 (detail 5)

20. Titian, Woman with a Mirror, 1512/15

21. Follower of Titian, Allegory of Vanity (Possibly Alfonso D’Este and Laura Dianti), date unknown

7

22. Titian, Danaë, 1554

23. Titian, Danaë, 1555

24. Jan Gossaert, Danaë, 1527

25. Tintoretto, Danaë, 1570

26. Hendrick Goltzius, Danaë, 1603

8 Introduction

I stumbled across the topic of female courtesans while in the portrait seminar at the

University of Cincinnati (spring 2006). After reviewing an article about a portrait of a supposed

courtesan, I became fascinated by the lives of these women and representations of them in

sixteenth-century art. Finding an individual representation of a courtesan who was definitively

painted by a known artist proved incredibly difficult. Therefore, this study looks to the moment

in history when courtesanry was at its zenith in Venice (1527-1600) and examines visual

representations of three female nudes by Tiziano Vecellio (Titian, 1485-1576). They include:

Venus of Urbino (1538, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy [Fig. 1]), Venus with a Mirror (1553,

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC [Fig. 2]), and Danaë (1554, Museo del Prado, Madrid,

Spain [Fig. 3]). I argue that by viewing these three paintings and relating them to courtesans as

we come to know them through words and images of the sixteenth century, one can begin to see

the establishment of the courtesan subject in relation to Titian’s painting.

Language, letters, and images are the way we define everything, and as such are the

fundamental things that connect the individual to the community. Studying these, one finds that

the female subject’s role is not defined by her own individuality, but rather by the ideological power structures that governed sixteenth-century Venice. These structures dictated by the urban

Italian elite through language expounded an ideal type called the cortigiana onesta. The onesta model became the type that “high class” prostitutes were expected to exemplify. In this study, I

will try to show how Titian translated literary and poetic ideals of his contemporaries into

painterly representations of the onesta model.

Jacques Lacan, a follower of Sigmund Freud and a psychoanalyst who based his theory

of the establishment of the subject on his profound understanding of linguistics once wrote,

9 “How could a psychoanalyst of today not realize that his realm of truth is in fact the word, when his whole experience must find in the word alone its instrument, its framework, its material, and even the static of its uncertainties?”1 Lacan suggested that language (the word) structures the

consciousness and unconsciousness of the subject and theorized that subjects are defined by their

entrance into language. The psychoanalytic experience he suggested is actually determined by

the subject’s ability to interpret the signs and signifiers of language.

In Lacan’s theory on the formation of identity, there are three developmental stages that

define the subject’s entrance into the social order. They are the pre-linguistic, the mirror-stage,

and the linguistic (symbolic) phase. This study suggests that each step corresponds to a visual

representation of a female nude in three of Titian’s paintings. Each stage also becomes a basis

for a chapter of my thesis. Imposing this model, I explore the possibility of whether this argument can be born out; to suggest to what extent these paintings can be seen within the work of Titian and within the broader history of onesta paintings. I relate Lacan’s theorizing of the modern subject to the historical moment in which our notion of the modern subject came to be.

I chose Titian’s work for many reasons. The beauty and sensuality of his paintings made

him highly sought after as an artist, both within Venice and throughout Europe. His style

focused on the subjective beauty of colorito (color) as opposed to the rigidity of disegno (design)

found in works by his contemporaries such as Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564). Titian’s connection to the Scourge of Princes, Pietro Aretino, is also a reason. Aretino wrote on the

courtesan extensively and was a notorious peddler of smut who maintained an influential

position in Titian’s life throughout the whole of his career. Aretino wrote La Cortigiana and

other comedies such as, Il Raggionamento dello Zoppino which satirize the profession of the

1 Jacques Lacan, “The Insistence of the Letter in the Unconscious,” in Yale University Studies, No. 36/37 (1996), 114. Lacan was a psychoanalyst and lifelong follower of Sigmund Freud, and based his theory of the development of the subject on a profound understanding of the subject’s relationship to language.

10 courtesan and give a rage glimpse into the lives of these women by claiming their own

historicity.2 Some of the stories that he places in the narrative include situations that were typical of the trappings of the courtesan profession, including mothers who procured their daughters to ensure their economic futures, and women scorned as their bodies succumb to the dreaded syphilis. One of Aretino’s most infamous works was a collection of sonnets (Sonetti

Lussuriosi) that accompanied the scandalous woodcuts of Marcantonio Raimondi (1480-1527), called i modi (the positions). The women depicted in the sixteen notorious prints were famous

courtesans from Rome [Fig. 4].3 The woodcuts were based on a number of paintings by the artist Giulio Romano (1499-1546) who painted the frescoes for Cardinal Bibbiena of the

Vatican.4 Around 1525, when the collection of woodcuts and sonnets made their way to the

public it sent a shockwave through the city of Rome. Raimondi was thrown into prison,

Romano’s career was destroyed, and Aretino fled to Venice.5 The sack of Rome in 1527 by the

Protestants and Spanish, led to the death of the Golden Age of courtesanry, as the effects of the

Reformation and Counter-Reformation drove many parties (especially those involved in carnal

commerce) to relocate to a more favorable environment, the Republic of Venice.

Overview of Chapters

Chapter one discusses the onesta model in relation to Titian and the cultural milieu of

sixteenth-century Venice. The goal is to provide a social history of the subject by defining the

cortigiana onesta and examining the ideological structures governing the socio-political

landscape.

2 Samuel Putnam, The Works of Aretino, 22. 3 Lawner, Lives of the Courtesans, 40. 4 Ibid., 88. 5 Putnam, The Works of Aretino, 23.

11 Chapter two examines Titian’s Venus of Urbino (1538, [Fig. 1]) and suggests that this painting represents the first stage in the psycho-sexual development of the onesta model as a

subject. Similar to Lacan’s pre-linguistic phase, this painting represents the pre-iconographic

phase, before there was an artistic language in place in painting to describe the cortigiana onesta.

. Chapter three analyzes Venus with a Mirror (1555, [Fig. 2]) uses Jacques Lacan's Mirror

Stage (1936) as a model for reading and understanding the establishment of subjects and

suggests that this painting represents the second stage of psycho-sexual development. Lacan’s

theory proposes that the moment in which an infant recognizes his/her image in a mirror is the

point in which he or she begins to develop an identity and selfhood. In this interpretation, the

mirror will become symbolic of the ambivalent nature of the courtesan subject who reflects and

mimics the ideals of the urban Italian elite. Psychoanalysis will be the “mirror” through which I interpret cultural and societal phenomena by studying the microstructures of power to help understand the formation of the sixteenth-century “individual.”

Chapter four scrutinizes Titian’s Danaë (1554, [Fig. 3]) and argues that this depiction can

be interpreted as the third stage of development, the point when the subject is fully accepted into language and thus enters the Symbolic order. The mythic story, rooted in linguistic tradition, exposes the ideologically driven structures involving money, sex, and prostitution during the

Early Modern period.

My conclusion focuses on the ideological implication of the onesta model to gain a better

understanding of Titian’s paintings. Studying paintings and relating them to words and letters of

the sixteenth century will help clarify how the onesta became a model represented in Titian’s art.

I conclude that Titian’s art can be read as the visual representation (or perhaps an unconscious

manifestation) of society’s attempt to subdue the female subject. These representations of the

12 onesta type create compliant and structured individuals who were easily marketed to foreign

dignitaries, noblemen, royalty, and clergy.

Survey of Literature

Many historians have provided a history of the Renaissance courtesan. Lynne Lawner’s

The Lives of the Courtesans (1987) and Georgina Masson’s Courtesans of the Italian

Renaissance (1975) provide the social history of the courtesan in Italy, France, Germany, and the

Netherlands. To recognize the various iconographic details and pictorial motifs associated with

courtesan imagery, this study draws from Lawner’s suggestion that their common attributes include: elegant hair typically dyed blonde, jewelry including armilla, rings, and necklaces; a boudoir setting; a schiratto or fur wrap, and the exposed décolleté. Not all of these details are found in the paintings I will discuss, however, various combinations are found in each image.

Feminist critique of Renaissance history began with Joan Kelley-Gadol’s “Did Women

Have a Renaissance?” (1977) her work is similar to Linda Nochlin’s in that it stems from asking

the same type of institutional social question.6 Kelley-Gadol addresses how the rise of the

state’s power diminished feudal relations and deprived women of the independent position that

they had gained during the Middle Ages. The encouragement of chastity and the institution of

marriage exerted even more pressure on women whereby one entered, “a relation of almost universal dependence upon her family and her husband.”7 After discussing how women were

increasingly confined to the home and domestic affairs, the author ultimately concludes that

women did not enjoy a Renaissance.

6 Linda Nochlin was the first to question “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” Her article was the first to address the absence of women from traditional Western history. The essay can be found in Women, Art and Power and Other Essays (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1988) 147-158. 7 Joan Kelley-Gadol, Did Women Have a Renaissance? In The Book of the Courtier: A Norton Critical Edition, ed. Daniel Javitch (London: WW Norton and Company, 2002), 350.

13 I agree with Kelly-Gadol’s contentions; however, the beginning of her article explicitly

states that her study addresses the women of the urban Italian elite. But what about the

marginalized women who were not of noble birth or were not properly wed? It seems to me that

to group all women together and to evaluate them by the standards of the urban Italian elite

overshadows and downplays the position of an entire class of people, specifically those of lesser

or common birth. In many instances, this is the class from which courtesans emerged. The

economic and social conditions of the sixteenth century were such that prostitution offered a way

to navigate the boundaries of society, albeit through the commodification of the body.

Some of the major monographs on Titian include: The Art of Renaissance Venice:

Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting, 1460-1590 by Norbert Huse and Wolfgang Wolters

(1990), Titian’s Women by Rona Goffen (1997), and Titian and His Drawings: with Reference to

Giorgione and Some Close Contemporaries (1987) and The Paintings of Titian, Complete

Edition (1969) both by Harold E. Wethey. All of the aforementioned texts provide information

about Titian, his oeuvre, and the economic and social conditions of sixteenth-century Venice.

Another compilation, Titian’s Venus of Urbino (1997) by Rona Goffen includes a number

of essays about the subject of this painting, each revealing a different interpretation of the

ambiguous subject matter. This painting reflects scopophilic tendencies that developed in direct

concert with the discourse of perspective as it came to fruition during the Early Modern period.

This is supported by the writings of Erwin Panofsky, Perspective as Symbolic Form (1927),

Lynne Hunt The Invention of Pornography: Obscenity and the Origins of Modernity 1500 – 1800

(1990), and Hubert Damisch’s The Origin of Perspective (1994).

Two essential articles for chapter four are: Eric Jan Sluijter’s “Emulating sensual beauty:

representations of Danaë from Gossaert to Rembrandt” (1999) and Cathy Santore’s “Danaë: The

14 Renaissance Courtesan’s Alter Ego” (1991). The first article gives a thorough survey on existing

iconographic/iconological interpretations of depictions of Danaë from both Renaissance and

Baroque painters. The second article discusses artistic and literary depictions of Danaë and

explores how the myth was interpreted by sixteenth-century viewers. Each essay provides an

excellent background and point of departure for my interpretation.

Theoretical concepts from the twentieth century used in this study are based on the

writings of Jacques Lacan. “The Orders” (1953) and “The Insistence of the Letter in the

Unconscious” (1966) are two essays that explain Lacan’s contention that the subject is defined

by an ability to interpret the signs and signifiers of language and our identity is determined by

our entrance into language.

Method

Interpretation is based upon an application of methods of formal analysis, iconography,

social history, and psychoanalysis. Implementing models from psychoanalysis to create a

discourse about images of women, I argue that these paintings represent the visual manifestation

of the development of the subject. If viewing these paintings as inter-related parts of a whole,

then one can begin to see (and perhaps understand) the establishment of the female subject in

relation to Titian’s painting.

It is vital to study visual representations of le cortegiane given the numerous depictions

of them in art from Venice during the sixteenth century. In doing so, I hope to reveal how these

types of images functioned in the art market of the Early Modern period. Although much has

been written about courtesans in art, I will contribute to contemporary scholarship by conducting

a discursive analysis of depictions of la cortegiana onesta, specifically in Titian’s art, and relating them to broader psycho-sexual ideology.

15 Chapter One Titian and the Courtesan: An “Honest” Affair

This chapter addresses a number of trends relative to artistic, philosophical, and socio-

political movements that occurred in Italy during the sixteenth century. Understanding the social

history of sixteenth-century Venice is important because it establishes the connection between

the cortigiana onesta and Titian and his milieu, all of which provides insight to an understanding

of these paintings.

Renaissance Venice was a center of wealth and a bastion for the ideals of stability and

justice. Writers like Bernardo Giustiniani (1408-1489) and Gasparo Contarini (1483-1583) wrote about the republican institutions of Venice and suggested they were stable points in a world subject to constant political change.8 Liberal economic policy allowed the industries of

glass manufacturing, silk making, printing, and prostitution to generate enormous wealth through

trade with the Levant and Eastern Europe. Existing sumptuary laws show that regulated

prostitution was a means to micromanage the material existence of courtesans, therefore

generating revenue for the state.9 The marketing and merchandising of the female body was a

lucrative endeavor that attracted foreign businessmen, dignitaries, clergymen, and members of

the nobility.

Titian was born in 1486 in the outer regions of the Republic in Pieve di Cadore and

became one of the most famous painters of Venice during the sixteenth-century [Fig. 5]. The

paintings in his oeuvre suggest his mastery of color and the human form and include landscapes,

religious and mythological scenes, history paintings, and portraits. Early in his life he was

apprenticed to Giovanni Bellini (1430-1516), but as Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) states, “He

8 James Bruce Ross, “The Emergence of Gasparo Contarini: A Bibliographical Essay” in Church History, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Mar., 1972), 24-26. 9 Lynne Lawner, Lives of the Courtesans: Portraits of the Renaissance (New York, NY: Rizzoli International Publications, 1987), 18.

16 abandoned the manner of Bellini and attached himself to that of Giorgio Barbarelli (Giorgione,

1477-1510) whose style he emulated well into the 1530s.”10

Titian’s fame and artistic recognition can be understood by looking at the list of his

wealthy and prominent patrons. At the age of twenty, Titian was invited to Rome by Cardinal

Bembo, Secretary to Pope Leo X [Fig. 6]. Titian delayed the visit so long that both the Pope and

Raphael died before he had the chance to go.11 Upon the death of Bellini, Titian assumed the

position of court painter at Ferrara in 1516. From that point forward the artist conquered the

courts of northern Italy and then Europe as a whole. He began painting for the court of Mantua

in 1523. In 1530, Titian was introduced to Charles V [Fig. 7] who, in 1533, appointed the artist to court painter and honored him with the rank of Count Palatine and Knight of the Golden Spur.

Although he was not formally educated, he was familiar enough with elevated society and achieved unprecedented honor for a painter.12 During the year 1532, Titian began painting for

the dukes of Urbino. Between 1545 and 1546, Michelangelo and Titian resided in Rome under

the auspices of the Farnese. During this sojourn, Titian worked on one of his many versions of

Danaë when Michelangelo paid a visit. Vasari remembers two things about the encounter: the

painting and what Michelangelo said about it. According to Vasari, Michelangelo gave the

painting high marks for its use of colorito but criticized it for its lack of disegno and quipped, “It

is a shame that good design was not taught in Venice from the beginning.”13 Between 1548 and

1550, Titian was summoned to Augsburg by Charles V. It was at the Imperial Diet where Titian

10 Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, trans. by Gaston du C. de Vere with an introduction by David Ekserdjian (New York, NY: David Campbell Publishers Ltd, 1996), vol. 2, 780-803. 11 Ibid., 786. 12 Ian Chilvers, "Titian," in The Oxford Dictionary of Art Online, [http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t2.e3479], 2004. 13 Frederika H. Jacobs, “Aretino and Michelangelo, Dolce and Titian: Femmina, Masculo, Grazia” in The Art Bulletin, vol. 82, no. 1 (Mar., 2000), 55.

17 encountered one of the most important patron’s of the latter portion of his career, Phillip II of

Spain [Fig 8].14

In Venice, there were two influential characters with whom Titian associated: Jacopo

Sansovino (1486-1570, [Fig. 9]) the chief public architect of Venice and Pietro Aretino (1492-

1556, [Fig. 10]). Giorgio Vasari detailed the relationship of the “triumvirate” and implied that the friendship with the great poet Aretino, “brought great honor and advantage to Titian, for the reason that the poet made him known wherever his pen reached, especially to Princes of importance.”15 The relationship between Titian and Aretino is well documented and it is

believed that at some point Aretino acted as a business partner/liaison for the artist. Aretino

served as an agent who secured important commissions for Titian and introduced him to many

affluent individuals. Samuel Putnam argued that, “Aretino even took a percentage of the

commissions.”16 But Titian, Sansovino, and Aretino were no strangers to the luxuries of the

golden Republic; their circle intermingled with the Italian elite and le cortigiane oneste.

In Italian, the term la cortegiana is the feminine equivalent of the masculine term il

cortegiano and stems from the Latin word curialis. The “companion,” the figure immortalized

by Baldasare Castiglione (1478-1529) in The Book of the Courtier (1528), became the model of

behavior for anyone who aspired to work for the nobility. Castiglione’s book provides specific

attributes and social characteristics of the Venetian courtier. Grace and nonchalance combined

with a proper education and familiarity with Latin were only a few qualities that the courtier

perfected. Although these were attributes commonly associated with men, it became a model

that was imposed on women who practiced the profession of prostitution.

14 Norbert Huse, The Art of Renaissance Venice: Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting 1460-1590 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), 221. 15 Ibid, 62. 16 Samuel Putnam, The Works of Aretino: Dialogues (New York, New York: Covici Friede Publishers, 1933), 25.

18 The term onesta first appeared during the second half of the fifteenth century. It was a

term that marked the distinction between an elite group of prostitutes and the common puttane

(whores). Reviving the model of the heterae (prostitute from Antiquity) the cortigiana onesta provided more than sexual services to male circles of the papal court; they became the embodiment of a social ideal.17 Onesta refers not only to an ethical virtue, but to social

respectability, standing, and wealth. By emulating the Italian elite, Fiora Bassanese contends

that these women, “…resembled no one as much as the ladies of the court; in dress, mannerisms,

and social function, entertaining with her conversation, song, poetry, and musical

accomplishments.”18

Literary references both non-fictional and fictional from the sixteenth-century,

demonstrate the significance of prostitution. What these sources reveal is that la cortigiana

onesta was an invention of society. Art and literature were a means to advertise a woman’s

position; however, it was done so at the behest of her male counterparts. In this manner, the

onesta was dependent upon artists and writers to propagate her image, to create her and make

that creation known.19 By the third and fourth decades of the sixteenth-century, painters like

Titian promoted a new imagined ideal. Lawner contends that, “the sources for this vision can be found in a convergence of ‘high culture’ based on Petrarch, Bernardo Bembo, and Baldassare

Castiglione, with Platonic overtones, and Venetian courtesans.”20

17Fiora A. Bassanese, “Private Lives and Public Lies: Texts by Courtesans of the Italian Renaissance” in Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 30:3 (Fall 1988), 296. 18Ibid. 19Lawner also wrote “Gaspara Stampa and the Rhetoric of Submission” in Renaissance Studies in Honor of Craig Hugh Smyth. Florence: Giunti Barbera, 1985. Vol. 1, p 345-62, and “I modi” in the works of Giulio Romano, Marcantonio Raimondi, and Jean-Frederic Maximilien de Waldeck. 20 Lawner, Lives of the Courtesans, 135.

19 There are various accounts of the number of prostitutes within Venice. Mario Sanudo’s

diary suggests that of Venice’s 300,000 inhabitants, there were 11,654 women of the night.21

While this number may be overstated, it implies that there were literally thousands of puttane who practiced their profession in Venice. In order to distinguish oneself from the masses, an onesta had to, “dedicate oneself to the creation of an external image of grace and beauty, of

cleverness, poise, and elegance, which had to be bolstered by specific abilities in music and in

witty conversation.”22 Another way to ensure business relations was to have one’s name placed

into the little black book of Venetian courtesans, the Catalogue of All the Principal and Most

Honored Courtesans.23 This book included a complete list of prostitutes’ names, their

procuresses, the place in which they lived, the quarter of the city where each courtesan’s casa

(house) was located, and the monetary amount a gentleman was expected to pay for the lady’s favor.24

The 210 names listed in the book were the crème de la crème of Venetian prostitutes.

Listed among them was Veronica Franco, age 20, a unique subject since such a large body of her poems and letters exists today [Fig. 11].25 In 1575, Franco published her Terze Rime which

contained eighteen verse epistles written by her own hand. In 1580 she published her Lettere

familiari a diversi, which included approximately 50 letters and two sonnets dedicated to King

Henri II of France.26 As an onesta, Franco lived well and by the 1570s she was included in one

of the most prestigious literary circles of Venice, that of Domenico Venier. In the salon, she

21 Bassanese, “Private Lives and Public Lives,” 296. 22 Adriana Chemello, “Donna di palazzo, moglie, cortigiana: Ruoli e funzioni sociali della donna in alcuni trattati del Cinquecento,” in La corte e il “Cortegiano,” vol. 2 (Roma: Bulzoni, 1980) 159. 23 Included in Antonio Barzaghi, Donne o cortigiane? La prostituzione a Venezia: Documenti de costume dal XVI al XVIII secolo (Verona: Bertani, 1980), 155-67. 24 Georgina Masson, Courtesans of the Italian Renaissance (New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1975), 153. 25 Margaret Rosenthal, The Honest Courtesan: Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth-Century Venice (Chigaco, Il: The University of Chicago Press, 1992). Rosenthal has written the seminal works on Franco’s life and creates a compelling portrait of the social, economic and cultural conditions of sixteenth-century Venice. 26Ibid., 123.

20 participated in discussion of poetry and even edited anthologies for publication.27 Franco moved

beyond the bounds of female social decorum by moving into intellectual and literary circles. In

the same manner as Pietro Aretino, Franco employed the familiar letter of self-promotion. She

built a successful literary reputation dependent on the acknowledgement, approval, and support

of influential male readers.28 The relationship between prostitutes and artists was based on a

form of flattery as suggested in a quote by Veronica Franco. “I have heard gentlemen deeply

versed in antiquity and most expert in these arts say that in our era and even today, there have

been painters and sculptors who must be acknowledged not only to equal but to surpass the

ancients, like Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian…”29

The Golden Age of courtesanry occurred during the first quarter of the sixteenth century

in Rome. The holy city served as the single great community where courtesan culture flourished.

Stefano Infessura’s diary from 1490 records approximately 6,800 Roman prostitutes living

during the reign of Pope Innocent VIII.30 Some of the most famous courtesans during the

Golden Age include: Fiammetta, the lover of Cesare Borgia; and Corsetta, Imperia (1481-1512), and Masina the loves of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere (Pope Julius II).31 The Borgia family

reign in Rome coincided with a period when the courtesan thrived. In Alexander Gordon’s Life

of Alexander VI and Caesar Borgia one finds that, “a great deal of pageantry and lewdness was

committed within the very apartments of the Pope at that time. There is a passage in

27 Ibid. 28 Margaret F. Rosenthal, “Venetian Women Writers and Their Discontents,” in Sexuality and Gender in Early Modern Europe: Institutions, Texts, Images (London: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 110. 29 Ann R. Jones, The Currency of Eros: Women's Love Lyric in Europe, 1540-1620 (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1990), 183. 30 Bassanese, “Private Lives and Public Lies,” 296. 31 Masson, Courtesans of the Italian Renaissance, 26.

21 Burchardus’ Diarium about the feast Alexander had made for 50 Harlots within the Apostolick

Palace.”32

Imperia was the most famous courtesan during the Golden Age. Hayward states, “She

was the woman to whom the term onesta was first applied.”33 The lover of the famous banker

Agostino Chigi, Imperia supposedly had him commission Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio, 1483-

1520) to paint a fresco for the façade of her home containing her likeness in the form of Venus.

She lived for the short span of 32 years, but her artistic and literary achievements were

unparalled.34 Upon her death in 1512, she was buried in the Church of St. Gregory on Monte

Celio. The inscription on her tomb read, “Imperia, Roman courtesan, who was worthy to be so

called.”35

Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme (1540-1614, hereafter referred to as

Brantôme) recalls a famous courtesan he encountered while in Rome. La Greca was an onesta

who kept the company of a great French lord. She wanted to visit France to ascertain whether

the lord’s wife was faithful to him. Brantôme details La Greca’s reasoning for the inquiry:

I trained her husband so well and taught him so much, that he having in turn improved his wife, it is impossible she should not have wished to show others what she knew. For our trade is so ardent, when you know it well, that there is a hundred times more pleasure in instructing and practicing several persons than there is to be got from exercising it with one alone.36

Brantôme’s story is intriguing for it proposes that La Greca took pleasure in her occupation.

Indeed, there are many extant works which claim that the female subject enjoyed fornicating for

32 Burchardus was Alexander’s Master of Ceremonies, an excerpt from his diary can be found in C. Hayward, The Courtesan: The Part She Has Played in Classical and Modern Literature and in Life part of Prostitution: A Collection of Major Studies Reproduced in Facsimile in Sixteen Volumes (Garland Publishing, New York, NY, 1979) 78. 33Hayward, “The Courtesan in Literature and Life,” 196. 34 For more on the subject of Imperia’s accomplishments see Fiora Bassanese, “Mythological Representations of the Renaissance Cortegiana," University of Massachusetts at Boston [http://tell.fll.purdue.edu/RLA- Archive/1989/ItalianTamburri-html/Bassanese-FF.html], 1. 35 Hayward, “The Coutesan in Literature and Life,” 196. 36 Ibid., 175-176.

22 a living; however, it should be clear that most of these written accounts came from the words of

men.

Two trends governed the philosophical climate of sixteenth-century Italy and allowed a courtesan culture to flourish in the Republic. The effects of Humanism and Neoplatonism led to a shift in attitude toward prostitution as a profession. In art these two trends can be understood by studying the development of mythological paintings within Titian’s oeuvre. Representations of Venus or Danaë were rare in Venice during the fifteenth century, but by the sixteenth century they became prominent examples of the shift in attitude toward courtesans. Mythological stories provided subject matter that could easily be translated into sexualized art and acted as a front for depicting subject matter that was traditionally taboo.

Neoplatonism was a philosophy of monism, and included a common belief that one could

attain human perfection through study and reflection.37 Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) and

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) were scholars at the ‘Platonic Academy’ of Florence

during the last quarter of the fifteenth century. Ficino’s De amore and Mirandola’s Orazio dealt

extensively with the ‘idea of love’ and were modeled after Plato’s Symposium.38 In Venice,

Mario Equicola wrote Libro di natura d’amore (1525), which emulated the writings of Ficino

and Mirandola. Presenting a discourse on the philosophy of love, this treatise critiques the

concepts of beauty and the relationship of the body to the soul. It was within this burgeoning philosophy that beauty (la bellezza) was held to represent a deep inner virtue and value which

was considered an essential element in the path towards God. Panofsky writes that, “The

terrestrial Venus (Venus Vulgaris) was associated with the realm of the Cosmic Soul…one

37Erwin Panofsky, “The Neoplatonic Movement in Florence and North Italy” in Studies in Iconology: Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance (New York, New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1939) 140. 38Panofsky, Studies in Iconology, 141.

23 whose beauty was symbolized by a particularized image of primary beauty realized in the

corporeal world…”39

The rebirth of classical ideals facilitated using famous classical prostitutes, as inspirations

for the social recognition and the visual representation of courtesans. Imitating courtly society,

courtesans allied themselves with the upper class to achieve social esteem and identification with

characters from classical sources helped the courtesan succeed in this process. There were

instances when oneste took names of courtesans from classical texts. For example, Veronica

Franco [Fig. 10] referred to herself as Danaë or Diotima of Mantinea, a priestess, whose

teachings on the subjects of beauty and love were reported by Socrates in his Symposium.40

Other classical heterae who were invoked in poetry and letters include Thais and Phryne. The first was an Athenian courtesan who is said to have caused Alexander the Great to set fire to

Persepolis.41 The second was a famous Greek courtesan (4th century BC) noted for her beauty and said to have been the model for Apelles's painting of Aphrodite Anadyomene and Praxiteles' statue of Aphrodite.42

Renaissance humanism was a broad movement that affected the social, cultural, literary and political landscapes throughout the whole of Europe. During the last half of the fifteenth century, humanists studied the work of the ancients and focused on the Latin and Greek languages. Renaissance interpretations of Roman and Greek texts emphasized self, human worth, and individual dignity. Georgina Masson states, “During the Middle Ages, prostitutes were regarded as deviants and outcasts; however, Renaissance art reveals that prostitutes were

39 Ibid., 142. 40 Simon Blackburn, "Diotima of Mantinea" in The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. [http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t98.e700], 20 November 2006. 41 Elizabeth Knowles, "Thais" in Oxford Reference Online, Oxford University Press [http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t214.e7048], 9 November 2006. 42 Elizabeth Knowles, "Phryne" in Oxford Reference Online [http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t214.e5423].

24 apostrophized as goddesses…”43 Assuming the role of Venus or any mythological character

allowed the cortigiana onesta to prove her self worth by becoming the corporeal realization of an

aesthetic ideal.

It was with paintings like Titian’s Venus of Urbino, Venus with a Mirror and Danaë that beauty was indeed realized in the corporeal world. In artistic iconography, mythology became

closely associated with allegory. Goddesses and mythological women revered for their beaut

offered a broader field of association and yielded sexually explicit figures. Painting a Venus or

Danaë allowed Titian to explore the poesie (poetic inventions) of distant times. The

reunification of classical themes with classical forms was a precondition for the double

significance of the ancient/classical gods to the men of the Renaissance.44 Mythological

paintings were open to many interpretations and accommodated themes not found in other

sixteenth-century paintings. One theme that can be found in all three of the paintings discussed

in this study is the depiction of a natural, sexually explicit existence outside the traditional modes

of representation in the art of sixteenth-century Venice.

43 Masson, Courtesans of the Italian Renaissance, 15. 44 Huse, The Art of Renaissance Venice, 256.

25 Chapter Two Una donna ignuda: Interpretation of Titian’s Venus of Urbino

Titian’s Venus of Urbino [Fig. 1] is one of the most enigmatic paintings of a reclining

nude found in Renaissance painting. It is without a doubt one of the most innovative and

evocative paintings that captivates art historians even today. This chapter analyzes the

iconographic pictorial motifs of Venus of Urbino and proposes that this painting can be

understood as the visual equivalent of a first step towards the establishment of the cortigiana onesta as a subject, one who is defined by her male contemporaries rather than her individual personality.

In the foreground of the painting, the delicate brushwork of the Venetian master reveals

to the beholder a nude female reclining on a bed. The subject coyly turns her head to the right,

while audaciously confronting the gaze of the viewer. Crowning her head is a braid. Long

sumptuous locks flow down the back of her neck and drape over her shoulders. Her right arm

supports the weight of her body against large cushions while her hand loosely clutches a small

bunch of roses. The left arm is positioned to complement her curvaceous body and her right

hand rests squarely on her genitalia. Indeed one is struck by the manner in which the woman

touches herself: it would seem that she is rendered in the midst of a masturbatory, sensual self-

affirming gesture. Her skin glows with sheer radiance and looks flushed in her cheeks, chest,

knees and feet. Accompanying her is a small brown and white spaniel that rests quietly at the foot of the bed.

Commissioned by Guidobaldo della Rovere, the first reference to this painting can be

found in his diary of 1538. In this account, the female sitter is simply referred to as una donna ignuda (a nude woman). The reference is vague and yet it is poignant reminder that this woman

26 was not meant to have an individual identity, rather she was simply a nude female, one who was revealed solely through her flesh and the carnality of her pose.

Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus (1501) was the first painting to render a reclining nude in the guise of Venus and was the only painted representation of an onesta prior to Titian’s conceptualization of the Venus of Urbino. Residing in the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden, Germany; this painting was begun by Giorgione and completed by Titian after the death of his mentor. In the foreground of the Sleeping Venus, the sitter quietly rests with her eyes closed upon rumpled fabric of crimson and ochre. Her right arm is raised above her head for support while she rests.

Her left hand lies in a position to conceal her genitalia. She is placed in an outdoor setting with a sprawling expanse of countryside in the background and a small village perched on the horizon.

The similarities between the two paintings are striking, but upon closer inspection one notices the considerable changes Titian made in the Uffizi painting. In Giorgione’s painting the background recedes into the vast distance of the landscape behind his reclining female. Titian replaces the expanse of the landscape with the structure of a room. The only remnants of a landscape can be seen through the small window that looks out into the horizon. Rendered in hues of orange and blue, the broad expanse of the sky is juxtaposed against the sprawling branches of a tree in the distance. Positioned on the windowsill are two motifs, a marble column that rises towards the top of the painting and a round potted plant that fills an otherwise negative space.

By placing the reclining nude in a domestic setting, Titian also created a more structured composition, one that seemingly directs the eyes to certain parts of the painting. One’s gaze does not get lost exploring the details of a landscape like in the Dresden Venus; rather they follow the horizontal and vertical axes of the painting. The vertical axis is created by the wall on the left

27 side of the painting and dressing chamber on the right hand side of the painting. On the left, a

green damask pulled back in a dramatic knot beautifully displays Titian’s ability to paint fine

fabric. Recent restoration revealed that beneath layers of discolored varnish, the wall behind the

fabric is painted with an intricate pattern, similar to the pattern of the tapestries hanging in the

adjacent room.45 Behind the sitter’s legs, the space of the room is determined by the presence of a tiled floor and the illusion of walls and a window. The space is further defined by the two cassoni (chests) that sit against the back wall beneath the window and the tapestries which hang to the right side.

Another difference between the two paintings is that Titian did not paint the female sitter

alone. Instead she is accompanied by two figures which dominate the right hand side of the painting and stand in the dressing chamber in the background. The attendants are engaged in different acts; one kneels on the tiled floor and leans forward into one of two cassoni, the other

stands on the right of the kneeling woman and holds a green and gold gown over her shoulder.

She pulls on the right sleeve of her dress as if, in removing the sitter’s dress from the chest, her

own sleeve became rumpled. The crimson and gold of the standing female’s dress skillfully

compliment the red cushion upon which the reclining female sits, balancing the use of red

throughout the composition.

The scene that unfolds is ambiguous to the twenty-first century viewer. Among the

different interpretations by scholars today, there seems to be no consensus on what the subject

matter of the background is. One of the prevailing interpretations comes from Rona Goffen, who

argues that this figure represents the Venus of marriage. She supports her theory with the

presence of cassoni which typically contained the garments of a bride. Although Goffen

provides sufficient evidence that the chests in the background could be marriage chests, it does

45 Goffen, Titian’s Venus of Urbino (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), xi.

28 not seem likely that Titian would have painted the composition to rest solely on the significance of the chests. Instead, not so subtle details are placed throughout his work which point to carnal commerce and the role of the courtesan. This study points to some of the different pictorial

details that are readily apparent and yet ambiguous in meaning to suggest that the female visually

represented in this painting is a cortigiana onesta.

The significance of the roses should not be lost upon the viewer. Roses can be seen in

each of Titian’s paintings discussed within this study. As in the examples of Titian’s Flora

(Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi [Fig. 13]) or Jacopo Palma the Elder’s Flora (London, National

Gallery [Fig. 14]) roses are typically found as a motif accompanying women who are represented

in a revealing manner. The rose, the flower of Venus, is often coupled with bare breasted

women who entice the viewer with their frontal nudity. Renaissance documents suggest that the

rose was used as a euphemism for the female pudenda and was especially common when

referring to defloration. The floral metaphor was used even in official documents in Venice.46

Cathy Santore writes, “Venetian documents suggest that people who were of a certain class should refrain from being portrayed in paintings with flowers in hand or small animals, so as not to be associated with women of the night.”47

Looking for a moment at the setting of the painting, one notices immediately the

furnishing upon which the lady sits. She is placed on a crimson pillow and a dark curtain drapes

behind her from the canopy of un letto (a bed). This subtle detail is quite revealing as it suggests

the relationship between the female figure and the profession of the courtesan. The bed was the

46 Cathy Santore, “Danaë: The Renaissance Courtesan's Alter Ego,” in Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 54 Bd., H. 3 (1991), 421. 47Ibid., 425

29 place where the courtesan practiced the art of her profession. Indeed, it was the ultimate private

setting where erotic fantasies came true.48

Similar to Lacan’s model of psychosexual development where the first stage of development is the pre-linguistic phase, this study proposes that the Venus of Urbino represents the pre-iconographic phase of representing the onesta model. In the initial phase, Lacan contends that the subject is dominated by a disordered mix of views, emotions, and desires. One experiences everything as pleasurable without any sense of boundaries. When looking at

Titian’s painting, there is an inherent dream-like dissimulation between the three main components of the composition. Most importantly, raw desire and sexuality are displayed in the body of the female nude. The sitter’s prominent position reveals that this painting was meant to entice the viewer by having an erotic interaction with the beholder. The dark void on the left in the background of the painting reminds the viewer of need or desire. Placing the upper torso of the naked female directly below the solid wall reinforces the void created behind the sitter and reminds the viewer of an ever-present sense of lack. The right side of the painting could be read as fulfillment if one views it as a genre scene related to the rest of the composition. The two female assistants are readying the garments of the sitter. Their function could be read as equivalent to the role of a mother who satisfies the needs and demands of the courtesan subject.

This is also the stage that marks the initial fragmentation of the body into specific zones,

such as genitals. This could be read as the first imposition of boundaries on the subject, perhaps

even the early stage of socialization.49 Titian painted the model touching herself in the most

unusual manner. Indeed, upon close inspection it would seem that the female subject is in the act

of masturbation. Psychoanalytic theory of sexuality suggests that visual impression remains the

48 Ibid. 49 Dino Felluga, “Modules of Lacan: On the Structure of the Psyche,” in Introductory Guide to Critical Theory [http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory/psychoanalysis/lacanstructure.html] 2.

30 most frequent pathway along which libidinal excitation occurs.50 By encouraging the development of beauty in the sexual object, curiosity seeks to complete the object by revealing its hidden parts. In art, beauty can be sublimated if its interest can be shifted away from the genitals towards the shape of the body as a whole.51 It becomes clear what Freud meant by

diverting sexual attention from the genitals to the body as a whole when one studies the painting

of the Venus of Urbino. Titian actually hides the female genitalia behind the hand of the sitter.

By concealing the female pudenda, the body itself signifies her sexuality.

Titian’s painting represents the first phase of development because it establishes an

iconographic language that describes the onesta in the traditional settings of her profession. The

roses, the bed, and the overt sexualized nature of the sitter’s body are the most poignant reminders of this painting’s intended function. That is to say, it was meant to arouse or stimulate the male beholder. A painting like the Venus of Urbino was not meant for public consumption.

Rather it was created to hang in the private quarters of the Ducal Palace in Urbino. One of the most innovative aspects of Titian’s painting was that the sitter interacted with the beholder.

During the sixteenth century, typically the male beholder would have been in control of scopophilic power, but this is undermined for the first time when the female sitter returns the gaze. Titian renders the female in a manner that recognized the desires of the male beholder.

Having the female directly confront the gaze of the beholder creates an internal dialogue meant to elicit erotic emotions.

50 Sigmund Freud, “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality” (1905) in Standard Edition vol. 7 (London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1953), 156-157. 51 Ibid.

31 Chapter Three Reflecting Ambiguity: A Brief Conversation on Titian’s Venus with a Mirror

This chapter focuses on Titian’s mythological painting Venus with a Mirror (1555,

National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, [Fig. 2]) and argues that it can be read as representative of the second stage of development of the courtesan subject. As in the previous chapter, I borrow a notion of identity from Jacques Lacan’s discussion of the Mirror Stage and

use it as a model for the way the subject is being defined in this work. It is important to

distinguish between the subject as a human subject and a the subject as a produced cultural

construct. What I am suggesting is that this model provides an understanding of the

establishment of the cortigiana onesta as subject in relation to Titian’s painting.52

The formal elements of Titian’s painting provide a provocative array of details which

provoke a bold reading from the viewer. The painting consists of an eroticized female nude

situated in a private boudoir, looking into a mirror held by a smaller winged figure. A second

small figure reaches out from behind the mirror to place a myrtle wreath on top of the woman’s

head. Only the head and arms of this figure are visible [Fig. 15]. A luxurious deep red robe,

lined with the finest fur and intricately stitched with silver and gold, drapes over her supple flesh

and covers her most private parts [Fig. 16]. The female gazes directly into the mirror and

acknowledges her reflection by placing her left hand on the middle of her chest. Her reflection

in the mirror returns the gaze in a manner of reciprocal acknowledgement. The sitter’s arm

completely covers her left breast while wholly exposing the right [Fig. 17]. Sun-kissed waves of

golden hair are pulled back in a headdress of silver pearls. Sensuously flowing down the back of

her neck is a lock of hair that highlights the left side of the woman’s face. A single golden

52 Jacques Lacan, “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic experience,” was delivered at the 16th International Congress of Psychoanalysis, Zürich, July 17, 1949. Lacan’s theory proposes that the moment in which an infant recognizes their own image in a mirror, is the point in which he or she begins to develop their own identity and selfhood.

32 baroque pearl dangles from her right ear, its shape reminiscent of the sinuous curves of her

exposed body [Fig. 18]. Around each wrist, she wears golden bracelets, similar to the arm bands

found in classical depictions of hetaerae (prostitute). The bracelet encircling the left arm is a

long golden chain doubled over numerous times, while the one adorning the right arm is a bangle

encrusted with white pearls and green gemstones. She also wears two rings: one on the pinky finger of her left hand and one on the ring finger of the right [Fig. 19].

The earliest description of the painting comes from Carlo Ridolfi, who states, “A Venus

shown to the knees, who admires herself in the mirror, with two Amors…kept in Tititan’s house

until his death.”53 This painting has a unique history in that it remained in Titian’s possession

for the duration of his life. What about this painting made it so special that he did not turn it over

to a patron for profit? Could the artist have held on to the painting out of an infatuation with the

glorious sensuality of the subject depicted? Titian’s true feelings about this painting are

unknown, as there is no written record concerning this matter. But the very fact that he kept the

painting in his possession suggests that this painting was important to him.

If the female subject is Venus, then why did Titian choose to depict a sensual Venus

(Venere terrestre) in a private boudoir looking into a mirror? More broadly, why during the

sixteenth century do mirrors become prevalent in paintings associated with prostitutes? An

obvious connection might be the historical significance of the mirror in Venetian history.

Murano, an island of the Venetian Republic most famous for its glass, was the chief exporter of

mirrors to the world during the sixteenth-century. The secret of creating flawless mirror glass

was highly guarded as these prized commodities generated enormous profits for Venice.54

53 Quoted from Goffen’s, Titian’s Women, (London: Yale University Press, 1997), 132. 54 Heinrich Schwarz, “The Mirror in Art, ” in Art Quarterly, XV, no. 2 (Summer 1952), 98

33 Iconographically speaking, the mirror has a variety of functions and suggests numerous

symbolic associations. In its capacity to reflect the visible world, the mirror can be read as a symbol of imagination and consciousness and is seen as an instrument of self-contemplation and reflection of the universe.55 J.C. Cooper argues that, “The mirror is also symbolic of truth, self-

realization…and one’s knowledge of him or herself.”56 In keeping with the Humanistic trends of

the sixteenth century, the mirror exemplified the triumph of man over nature. Its ability to create an image of the visible world helped the mirror to become a symbol of Truth or Veritas.57

Associated with the purity of the Virgin Mary during the late Medieval period, the mirror

became a symbol of purest reception and rendering and was associated with the Virgin based on the seventh chapter of the Book of Wisdom.58 The Virgin, “…was an unspotted mirror of the

working God, and an image of His goodness.”59 At the dawn of the Renaissance, however, the

later symbolism of the mirror assumes an opposite role. It often symbolized the conflicting

realities of good versus evil, of sacred and profane, and of the spiritual versus the worldly. Most

importantly, it represented the dichotomy between the Virgin’s purity and the repentant sinner

Mary Magdalene.60

The humanistic rebirth of all things classical was all the rage when dealing with the

Italian elite. In keeping with elevated society, Titian would have found it necessary to

familiarize himself with the artistic trends governing Italy. The representation of a courtesan as

the icon of love has roots in the Greek interpretation of Aphrodite (Venus), the deity responsible

for all sexual desire. The hetaerai of antiquity regularly posed for sculptors and painters, in a

55 J.E. Cirlot, A Dictionary of Symbols, 2nd ed., Trans. By Jack Sage (London: Rutledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd, 1971), 211. 56 J.C. Cooper, An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols (London: Thames and Hudson, Ltd, 1978), 106. 57 Schwarz, “The Mirror in Art,” 99. 58 Ibid, 98. 59 Ibid. 60 Ibid, 105.

34 natural coupling of Aphrodite and prostitutes.61 A prostitute posing for an artist was nothing

new during the Renaissance, so it is not a stretch to assume that perhaps in this instance a

prostitute posed for Titian.

The imaginary relationship between the self and the image in the mirror is primarily

narcissistic and sets the stage for fantasies of desire. Desire is a term that by definition is

unsatisfiable. Lacan argues that our desires are driven by our lack, and this lacking defines the

human subject. Creating an idealized version of the self gives impetus to the creation of

narcissistic fantasies in the fully developed subject.62 Within Lacan’s model of psycho-sexual

development, the mirror suggests illusion and seduction, relating specifically to the duplicitous

relationship between ego and specular image.63 In fact, Lacan argues the ego is formed by

identifying with the counterpart of the specular image. The imaginary exerts power over the

subject through the effect of the specular image and is rooted in the subject’s relationship to

his/her own body or rather to the image of the body.64

The mirror stage corresponds to the central moment in the subject’s movement from

primordial “need” to “demand.” When the subject recognizes that its body is separate from the world it feels anxiety, which is caused by a sense of loss. The mirror stage corresponds to this demand in so far as the child misrecognizes in its mirror image a stable, coherent, whole self, which does not correspond to the real child. The image itself is a fantasy, it is the “ideal-I” or the

“ideal ego.” This image of oneself can be filled in by another whom we may want to emulate in our adult lives. For Lacan this stage marked the primordial recognition of the subject as I

“…before it is objectified in the dialectic of identification with the other, and before language

61 Fiora Bassanese, “Mythological Representations of the Renaissance Cortigiana,” 1. 62 Ibid. 63 Lacan, “The Insistence of the Letter in the Unconscious,” 4 64 Ibid.

35 restores to it, in the universal, its function as subject.”65 The recognition of the self’s image,

precludes the entrance into language, after which the subject can understand the place of that

image of the self within a larger social order.66

Mythological paintings were important because they provided subject matter that could

elucidate a variable number of interpretations. The Italian Renaissance saw a resurgence of the mirror as a motif in art that depicted this type of subject matter. The connection between images of Venus (the goddess of love and beauty) and the mirror are obvious because vanity and narcissism go hand in hand. This captivating power of the mirror image is seductive, and manifests above all on the sexual plane, in such forms as sexual display and courtship rituals, like in Titian’s Woman with a Mirror (1513-1515 Musee du Louvre [Fig. 20]) or the Allegory of

Vanity (Possibly Alfonso D’Este and Laura Dianti) (date unknown, National Gallery of Art [Fig.

21]) by a follower of Titian.67 In each painting, a male counterpart holds a mirror into which the

female subject of the painting looks. Her gaze is not distracted by the male suitors; rather each

female is captivated by her reflection in the mirror.

In Titian’s Venus with a Mirror, in order for the prostitute to attract suitors, she had to be

fashioned to reflect the characteristics of the dominant group she served.68 The mirror reflects

the ambivalent nature of the courtesan’s life. The onesta identity was defined by Titian’s ability

to paint a female in a manner that conformed to the prevalent poetic and literary models of the

sixteenth-century. Ambiguous by design, the onesta model required that a courtesan’s visual

representation had to make her appear as if she was something other than what she really was: a

65 Lacan, “The Insistence of the Letter in the Unconscious,” 2. 66 Dino Felluga, “Modules of Lacan: On the Structure of the Psyche,” 3. 67 Dylan Evans, “Brief Discussion of the Three ‘Orders.’” in Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis.” The New School Visual and Cultural Studies, [http://www.arts.cornell.edu/visualstudies/docs/Lacan_ImaginarySymbolicReal.pdf], 2006. 68 Bassanese, “Private Lives and Public Lies,” 295.

36 woman who sold her body to make a living. Since oneste always had to appear to be something

other than they were, the contradiction between appearance and reality was one of the prime

characteristics of their profession, and, consequently, this affected depictions of courtesans in the

visual arts. A courtesan’s success depended on her ability to produce a continual optical and psychological illusion.69

This painting was meant to function explicitly on a sexual plane, meaning that the

painting (like the one in the previous chapter) was meant to sexually arouse the traditional male

beholder of the sixteenth-century. In this particular case, the viewer would have been Titian

since he kept this painting in his possession until his death. The artist’s apt rendering of the

female body as cloaked in the masculine fur-lined schiratto (wrap) suggests the relationship

between the courtesan and her patrons was based on subordination and gender. In Venus with a

Mirror, since the woman acknowledges her reflection in the mirror, it would seem that there is

indeed a relationship occurring between the ego and the specular image. In light of Titian’s

rendering of the image in this manner, it could be argued that this is the first time in history that

the artists recognized the ego of their female counterparts. Perhaps, the trend that developed

during the sixteenth century of representing oneste with mirrors completed the fantasy of

recognizing the ambiguous nature of the onesta model as a constituted whole.

69 Lawner, Lives of the Courtesans, 80.

37 Chapter 4 The Onesta and Danaë: A Rendezvous of Ideological Currents

“Zeus bought Danaë for gold, and I buy you for a gold coin. I can’t give more than Zeus did.”70

This chapter analyzes the iconography of Titian’s Danaës and relates them to other

paintings with the same subject matter. The goal is to explore the connection between

representations of Danaë by artists of the sixteenth-century and to understand how and why

images of this particular subject matter came to be represented in the manner they were. The

importance of the myth of Danaë in relation to the onesta model is shown by the number of

representations of the myth found in Renaissance painting. There are approximately twenty existing sixteenth-century and seventeenth-century paintings of Danaë.71 They were executed by

a wide range of artists from the north and south of Europe, such as: Jan Gossaert (1478-1542),

Giulio Bonassone (1510-1576), Frans Floris (1516-1570), Henrick Goltzius (1558-1617), Pieter

Isaacsz. (1569-1625), and Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669).

The myth of Danaë comes from Greek/Roman mythology and is found in Ovid’s

Metamorphoses. Danaë was the daughter of King Acrisius of Argos. Upon visiting an oracle,

the King was told that his daughter’s son would murder him later in life. As a result, Acrisius locked Danaë in a tower so as to keep her from any male suitor. Little did Acrisius know that

Danaë attracted the attention of the Zeus, King of the Gods. Angered by Danaë’s imprisonment,

Zeus visited the lady as a shower of gold and impregnated her. She gave birth to a son named

Perseus, who later accidentally killed his grandfather with a discus during games at Argos.72

70 Cathy Santore, “The Renaissance Courtesan’s Alter Ego,” 412. This quote comes from an amatory epigram translated by Santore. 71 This number was determined after reviewing a number of publications about Danaë, all of which are discussed in this chapter. 72 David Leeming, "Danaë" in Oxford Reference Online, [http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t208.e383], 2004.

38 Madlyn Millner Kahr argues that, between antiquity and the second quarter of the sixteenth-century, there are no existing representations of Danaë, with the exception of those found in manuscript illustrations.73 Medieval woodcut prints of Danaë typically showed a

woman in the window of a tower, looking into the sky with drops of rain falling from a cloud in

the sky. It was not until Giovanni Boccaccio’s (1313-1375) posthumous publication, Genealogy

of the Gods (1472) stimulated the resurgence of the myth during the Renaissance, that the idea of

the corrupt princess who would give her body for gold prevailed.74 Indeed, from 1527 to the

seventeenth century, artists produced numerous representations of Danaë as the main

iconographic subject matter in paintings. Interestingly, each painting focuses on the moment

when Danaë actually receives the golden shower.

Within Titian’s oeuvre, he completed three paintings of Danaë and the Shower of Gold,

the first executed in 1546 and the subsequent ones in 1554 and 1555. Each depicts a reclining

female nude who is quite literally offering herself up to a shower of golden coins falling from an

illuminated form in the sky. The central figure is surrounded by an attendant, but not necessarily

the same companion in each painting. Each woman reclines on a bed which has lush cushions

and curtains that seclude the female subject to a certain degree.

In the first version of Titian’s painting, Danaë with Nursemaid (1546 Naples, Galllerie

Nazionali di Capodimonte, [Fig. 3]) a nude female reclines in a receiving manner with her legs

spread at the knee. A swath of white sheet drapes across her legs and covers her sex. Propped

up against luxurious feather pillows, she turns towards the luminous cloud hovering in the sky at

the upper center of the painting. The only objects adorning her body are a pinky ring, a bracelet,

73 Madlyn Millner Karh, “Danaë: Virtuous, Voluptuous, Venal Woman,” The Art Bulletin, vol. 60, no.1, (March 1978), 45. 74 Ibid, 45. There were eight Latin editions of the book printed between 1472 and 1532, as well as copies printed in Italian, French, and Spanish.

39 and a teardrop-shaped pearl earring. Her serene face and suggestive gaze look in the direction of

the golden cloud. The sitter is accompanied by a winged cupid who stands on a crimson and

golden blanket on the bed. Holding a bow in his left hand, Cupid turns away from the luminous

cloud and golden coins falling from the sky. A small section of the drapery of the bed creates a

tromp l’oeil effect, as if the viewer has just pulled the curtain to the side to reveal the

mythological story occurring right in front of the beholder. The background reveals that the

sitter is in an architectural setting that opens up to a great expanse of sky in the distance,

suggesting that the story takes place in the chamber of a secluded tower.

The archbishop of Benevento and papal nuncio to Venice, Giovanni della Casa (1503-

1556), wrote a letter to the Cardinal Farnese on September 20, 1544. In it he refers to the

painting of Danaë that Titian painted for his Lordship. The letter states,

Titian is ready to paint the portraits of the most illustrious household of Your Most Reverened Lordship. Everybody and everyone...and if Don Giulio Clovio sends him a sketch of Signora Camilla’s cognata he will enlarge it to resemble her…Aside from this, he has almost completed, by commission of Your Lordship, a nude that will make the devil come upon Cardinal San Silvestro; and the female nude that your Lordship saw in Pesaro in the chambers of the Lord Duke of Urbino is a Theatine nun next to this one; and Titian’s willing to attach the head of the aforementioned cognata…75

Santore and Hope suggest that this letter sheds light on how the viewer was meant to perceive

Titian’s painting. The term cognata in this context should not be read literally, rather it should be understood as meaning “friend” or “colleague.”76 Hope reasons that Signora Camilla was

certainly to be identified with a brothel keeper in Rome, mentioned in various letters written to

75 Charles Hope, “A Neglected Document about Titian’s Danaë in Naples” in Arte Veneta, 31 (1977) 189. It is highly likely that the painting to which this document refers is the reclining nude painted by Titian and discussed in chapter two. 76 Santore, “Danaë,” 416.

40 della Casa. It is also possible that this is the same Camilla Pisana mentioned by Aretino in La

cortegiana (1534) and in the Ragionamento dello Zoppino (1539).77

Titian’s second and third versions of Danaë and the Shower of Gold (1554 Madrid,

Museo del Prado, [Fig. 22] and 1555 Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, [Fig. 23]) are similar

in concept but different in execution. In both paintings, the elements of the bed have taken over

as the central location where the female subject is located. The architectural elements of the tower recede into apparent nothingness. In the second version, the only reference to the tower is what seems to be the corner of a stone wall located on the right hand side of the painting. Within the field of vision in the third painting there is simply nothing that refers to a female sitter located in the chamber of a tower.

In the Prado Danaë, a haggard procuress accompanies the sitter. The two figures sharing

the wealth distributed from Zeus. The old procuress was a stock character in Renaissance

comedies, and, to ensure that we understand the role of the attendant as procuress. Titian painted

three keys secured to the waist of the old woman. Keys are the tell-tale sign of the procuress.78

As the clouds rumble in through the window they are at first dark grey and blue. When Zeus makes his presence known, the cloud becomes golden and small coins of gold spew forth from the rolling undulations of the sky. The procuress sits at the foot of the bed and holds her apron aloft to collect the coins as they rain drown from the cloud. Danaë’s right hand makes a peculiar gesture as she clutches the sheet, with only her middle finger extended. This same gesture is found in Titian’s Vienna Danaë with Nursemaid. Although, in this case, it is much more

77 Hope, “A Neglected Document,” 190. 78 Santore, “Danaë,” 418.

41 pronounced as there is no small pet obfuscating the view of the female’s hand. Santore suggests that this gesture most likely symbolized the male genitalia and by extension sexual intercourse.79

The Vienna Danaë is perhaps most explicit in its references to courtesans and the myth of

Danaë. In this version, the dog has been removed and replaced by a stem of rose buds, which are

strewn on the mattress. Recall the importance of the rose as suggestive of the female pudenda.

The procuress in this version kneels on the floor instead of sitting on the bed and holds a large

golden platter in the air in which to catch the coins. To make the association of money and sex

more clear, there are golden coins strewn about the sheets of the bed upon which Danaë sits. The

locus of their concentration is right next to her genitalia.

Santore also contends that Titian wished to stress the element of prostitution inherent in

the theme. Danaë receives coins and not rain drops. The money is “payment for services

rendered.”80 Upon comparing Titian’s versions of Danaë and the Shower of Gold, it seems that

the cloud of Zeus in each painting is at a different stage of entering the bed chamber. In the

initial painting, the cloud lingers over the sitter in the center of the painting as if readying to

embrace the body in the effervescence of the mist. It could be deduced that the payment was

being made before the services were rendered. The positioning of the cloud is similar in the

second painting. However, in this instance the cloud dominates the picture plane and is much

more zealous with its color scheme. With the procuress collecting dues, again it is clear that this

is at a moment prior to the sexual encounter of the two main protagonists. The third version is

quite different. The cloud shifts toward the right hand corner of the painting and moves in the

direction away from the sitter. Indeed, it appears that the cloud is actually on its way out of the

bed chamber and is leaving payment behind. Looking at the directionality of the falling coins in

79 Ibid., 419 80 Ibid, 423.

42 relation to the other paintings suggests that this is in fact the case. The placement of the cloud,

whether it be incoming or outgoing is suggestive of the state of the relationship between payer

and payee. It indicates whether the payment was initially made to consummate the relationship,

or if it was being left behind as a token for continuing sexual favors.

Throughout art of the sixteenth century, in both northern and southern Europe, depictions

of Danaë as mythological subject matter can be found in paintings by various artists like: Jan

Gossaert (Mabuse, 1478-1532), Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto, 1519-1594), and Henrick Goltzius

(1558-1617). By looking to other visual representations of the same subject matter, one can see

when and how this mythological story began being interpreted as an erotic story capable of

arousing the viewer.

It could be argued that Jan Gossaert painted the earliest erotic Danaë (1527, Munich, Alte

Pinakotek, [Fig. 24]).81 In Gossaert’s interpretation of the Danaë myth, his female figure is

alone, stranded in the confines of the chamber of a tower. Seated on an oversized red pillow, the

figure of Danaë looks up to the heavens with breasts exposed and receives Zeus’s golden form.

In this rendition, Zeus does not show himself in the form of a cloud who rains golden coins, rather he assumes the form of a fine mist which cascades down from the center of the ceiling into

the cradle of Danaë’s lap, warming her with its golden embrace. Danaë’s body is wrapped in

royal blue damask that, upon first glance, reminds the viewer of the clothes of the Virgin Mary.

Architectural elements found in the painting are southern European in their inspiration, with

Corinthian marble columns defining the structure of the tower. The scene through the windows

allows the viewer to see a glimpse of an Italianate inspired cityscape in the background. Erwin

Panofsky and a generation of scholars point to Gossaert’s representation of Danaë as being the

81 Sluijter, “Emulating Sensual Beauty: Representations of Danaë from Gossaert to Rembrandt,” in Simiolus. Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art 27 (1999), 10.

43 Medieval pudica type and the polar opposite of the erotic Danaës painted at a later date.

However, this study aligns itself with the arguments of Eric Jan Sluijter who contends that

Gossaert’s painting is actually the very first independent erotic painting with a depiction of the

imprisoned Danaë being impregnated by Zeus in the form of golden rain.82

Tintoretto’s Danaë (c. 1570, Lyon, Musèe des Beaux-Arts, [Fig. 25]) is similar to

Titian’s paintings and contains a reclining eroticized female nude. Other pictorial motifs, like

the cagnolino (small dog), the female sitter’s armilla, the bed chamber, and the addition of the

lute, all suggest that this is a representation of a courtesan as the mythical figure. The cloud of

Zeus, the visual manifestation of the sexual encounter, is oddly missing from this representation.

What remains are the two figures of Danaë and her maid and the steady stream of a shower of

gold. Between the fingers of her right hand the nude holds a single coin, while grasping so many

coins in the left hand that they spill out of the sides of her clinched fist. Across the sitter’s lap,

other golden coins rest like the remnants of a wild sexual encounter. Some sit near her pudenda

and draw the viewers focus to this area. The only clouds in the painting can be seen far off in the

distance through a double window in the upper right corner of the image. Goffen argues that

Tintoretto confirmed the accusation of Danaë as adulteress and harlot with this painting, by

“…depicting Danaë catching coins in her greedy hands as she exchanges a glance with her maid,

who catches others in her apron.”83

Carel van Mander (1548-1606) was the first Dutch artist/writer who detailed the lives of

great northern painters and modeled his writings after Vasari’s Lives of the Most Excellent

Painters…(1568). Van Mander’s Het Schilder-Boeck (1604) explains that the story of Danaë

was meant to suggest the power of insatiable greed, and, because of this, one could practice and

82 Ibid., 8. 83 Goffen, Titian’s Women, 223.

44 achieve anything through riches and gifts. Gold, loved and desired everywhere, conquers all.84

Henrick Goltzius in his version of Danaë [Fig. 26] carries this idea of the materialistic subject to the extreme and, in the words of Santore, “…explicitly casts Danaë as a prostitute by depicting her with a casket brimming with jewels and amoretti carrying purses.”85

Throughout the sixteenth-century, the condemnation of the scene of love between Zeus

and Danaë by Augustine would be cited as proof of the power of images over the senses,

particularly of the provocative effect of erotic paintings. It was precisely this quality that made

the subject of Danaë so appealing.86 In rendering this subject, one could compete with the great

painters of antiquity, like Apelles or Zeuxis and challenge the classic prototype of a painting that

was believed to have such a powerful effect on the senses.87 As Sluiter contends, “The very fact

that the divine violator did not appear in human form made it possible to depict the moment of

intercourse: sexual fantasies were all the more stimulated by the implicit manner of portrayal.”88

The story of Danaë, revealed through visual representations functioned in a manner that was meant to excite the beholder sexually.

The commonality that binds these images together is that each artist accepted the contemporary (sixteenth-century) language used to describe Danaë as a corrupt princess. Each of the artists discussed in the chapter represented Danaë at the moment when she received the golden shower. It could be argued that each artist chose to interpret the language of his peers and in doing so, represented the culturally constructed conception of the corrupt princess. Titian and his contemporaries accepted the dictates of language by structuring their representations of

84 A. Blankert et al., Gods, Saints and heroes. Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt. National Gallery of Art, (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1980) 92. 85 Santore, “Danaë,”424. 86 Sluijter, “Emulating Sensual Beauty,” 16. 87 Ibid. 88 Ibid., 18.

45 Danaë in terms of the myth that was passed down through language and letters. Writers like

Boccaccio and the Italian mythographers used language to describe Danaë as a corrupt princess

and effectively succeeded in reducing her role to a group of signifiers that can be read as “sex for

money” or “money for sex.” Either way, the female’s individual identity is non existent. Rather what remains are images of women who were defined by a painterly language of men who internalized contemporary discourse on the subject of Danaë. The third phase of development then is marked by the artist’s ability to interpret the signs and signifiers of language and to create a painterly discourse that controlled both desire and communication.

46 Conclusion

The first chapter of this study explored the social and cultural milieu of sixteenth-century

Venice and the connection between Titian and the cortigiana onesta with the goal of providing a

historical context for this study. Chapter two explored Titian’s Venus of Urbino and suggested

that this painting represents the moment in the courtesan’s history where there existed no

painterly language to show how to represent an onesta with the accoutrements of her profession.

The third chapter analyzed Titian’s Venus with a Mirror, and argued that the mirror is symbolic

of the ambivalent nature of the courtesan subject who reflected ideals of the sixteenth-century

urban Italian elite. I propose that this is the moment in history where Titian recognized the

courtesan as a constituted whole and rendered her in a manner that acknowledged a relationship

between the ego and the specular image. Marking the development of the narcissistic relationship between the self and the image are representations of fetishes such as jewelry, fur,

and flesh. Finally, chapter four examines Titian’s representations of the myth of Danaë in

relation to various depictions of the same subject matter by contemporary rivals. This myth first

appeared in language and, by extension in society, and passed into artistic/painterly discourse

through the internalization of contemporary language concerning the myth of Danaë.

Throughout this study, I have tried to show that these paintings are representations of a

specific type called the cortigiana onesta. However, what Titian’s paintings show is that each

representation of an onesta reduced the female subject to a passive role ripe for the projection of

male fantasies. Titian looked to contemporary literary sources and no doubt was influenced by

the painterly language espoused by his peers. Therefore, it could be deduced that Titian sought

less to identify the female sitter as an individual than as the embodiment of the ego ideal,

dictated by a male-dominated society. Titian achieved great fame for depicting mythological

47 subjects in a manner, which was erotic, influenced by Humanism, and pleasing to the elite

patrons that he served. Hence, it is not difficult to argue that perhaps the sitters were dually

complicit in having themselves represented in this manner.

Courtesans were able to overcome the restrictions of marginal status by the

commodification of their bodies and identification with the standards set forth by the urban

Italian elite. Generally speaking, the onesta saw art both as a means to permanent fame and as

an instrument to achieve practical and transient ends. In an environment that could be hostile

and dangerous, words and oils were visible signs of her status, translating into money and

distinction.89 With social mobility, came a heavy burden for the onesta was constantly vacillating between perceived notions of what she was supposed to be and what she really was: a woman who sold her body to make a living. In reality representations of her became arbitrary signifiers of what society, as dominated by patriarchal order, told her to be. This is the same for eroticized visual representations of cortigiane oneste. In Titian’s paintings, the pictorial references were all rendered so that the image aroused the sentiment of the male beholder. In the most basic sense, these images functioned as an advertisement for the good and services available in Venice.

89 Bassanese, “Mythological Representations of the Renaissance Cortigiana,” 6.

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53 Images

Fig. 1 Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538, oil on canvas, 119 x 165 cm., Uffizi, Florence

Fig. 2 Titian, Venus with a Mirror, 1555, oil on canvas, 124.5 x 105.5 cm., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

54

Fig. 3 Titian, Danaë, 1546 oil on canvas, 120 x 172 cm., Museum Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples

Fig. 4 Titian, Self-Portrait, c.1550-1562, oil on canvas, 96 x 75 cm., Staatliche Museum, Berlin

55

Fig. 5 Raphael, Pope Leo X with Two Cardinals, 1518, oil on wood, 154 x 119 cm., Uffizi, Florence

Fig. 6 Titian, Portrait of Charles V, 1533, oil on canvas, 192 x 111 cm., Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

56

Fig. 7 Titian, Portrait of Philip II, c.1550/1, oil on canvas, 107.2 x 92.7cm., Cincinnati Art Museum

Fig. 8 Tintoretto, Portrait of Jacopo Sansovino, 1560-70, oil on canvas, 70 x 66 cm.,Uffizi, Florence

57

Fig. 9 Titian, Portrait of Pietro Aretino. 1545. oil on canvas, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy.

Fig. 10 Tintoretto, Portrait of a Lady (Thought to be Veronica Franco), 16th century, oil on canvas, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA.

58

Fig. 11 Marcantonio Raimondi, Position #7, 1524, woodcut, 15.5 x 22.4 cm., Private Collection, Venice

Fig. 12 Giorgione, Sleeping Venus, c. 1501, oil on canvas, 108.5 × 175 cm., Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden

59

Fig.. 13 Titian, Flora, 1515/1520, oil on canvas, 79.7 x 63.5 cm., Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Fig. 14 Jacopo Palma the Elder, Flora, 1528 oil on wood, 77.5 x 64.1 cm., National Gallery of Art, London

60

Fig.15 Titian, Venus with a Mirror, 1555, oil on canvas, 124.5 x 105.5 cm., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Fig. 16 Titian, Venus with a Mirror, 1555, oil on canvas, 124.5 x 105.5 cm., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

61

Fig. 17 Titian, Venus with a Mirror, 1555, oil on canvas, 124.5 x 105.5 cm., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Fig. 18 Titian, Venus with a Mirror, 1555, oil on canvas, 124.5 x 105.5 cm., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

62

Fig. 19 Titian, Venus with a Mirror, 1555, oil on canvas, 124.5 x 105.5 cm., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Fig. 20 Titian, Woman with a Mirror, c. 1512/15, oil on canvas, 99 x 76 cm., Louis XIV collection, Musee du Louvre, Paris

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Fig. 21 Follower of Titian, Allegory (Possibly Alfonso d'Este and Laura Dianti), date unknown, oil on canvas, 91.4 x 81.9 cm., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Fig. 22 Titian, Danaë and the Shower of Gold, 1554, Museo del Prado, Madrid

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Fig. 23 Titian, Danaë,1555 oil on canvas, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Fig. 24 Jan Gossaert, Danaë, 1527, oil on wood, 95 x 114 cm., Alte Pinakothek, Munich

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Fig. 25 Tintoretto, Danaë, 1570, oil on canvas, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon

Fig. 26 Hendrick Goltzius, Danaë, 1603, oil on canvas, 173.3 x 200 cm., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California

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