Venus of Urbino

The Venus of Urbino (also known as Reclining Venus) is an oil painting by Italian painter Titian, depicting a nude young woman, traditionally identified with the goddess Venus, reclining on a couch or bed in the sumptuous surroundings of a Renaissance palace. Work on the painting seems to have begun anywhere from 1532 or 1534, and was perhaps completed in 1534, but not sold until 1538. It is currently held in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence.

The figure’s pose derives from the Dresden Venus made around 1510–11, traditionally attributed to Giorgione but with the landscape completed by Titian. In this painting, Titian places Venus indoors, meets the viewer’s gaze, and makes her sensuality explicit. Iconographic interpretations of the painting among art historians fall into two groups; both agree that the painting has a powerful erotic charge, but beyond that, it is seen either as a portrait of a courtesan, perhaps Zaffetta, or as a painting celebrating the marriage of its first owner (who according to some may not have commissioned it).