Venus with a Mirror

Venus sits beside a deep red cloak, absorbed in her own reflection. Under the paint lies a secret: an abandoned double portrait that Titian painted over.

The story behind the painting

Titian painted this Venus around 1555, and he kept it close. He made several pictures of the same subject, but this is believed to be the earliest and the only version entirely by his own hand, without help from assistants. It stayed in his house in Venice until his death in 1576. Other versions followed: one perhaps for the Venetian lawyer Niccolò Crasso, now lost but known through a studio copy in the Hermitage, and another sent to King Philip II of Spain in 1567, also lost, whose appearance survives in a copy by Peter Paul Rubens in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.

What to look for

Venus sits half draped, her long blond hair falling down her back, with a ring, a bracelet and earrings catching the light. Her pose recalls classical statues such as the Venus de' Medici in Florence and the Capitoline Venus in Rome, which Titian may have seen. Look closely at the deep red cloak tucked under her arm. X-rays show that Titian painted this Venus over an abandoned double portrait, and that he kept the red cloak of one of its figures. That rescued fabric probably shaped the whole composition, giving the warm, glowing mass against which her pale skin and the shining mirror stand out.

Meaning and intent

What is the painting about? The sources offer two readings, and perhaps both are true. It can be seen as a celebration of the ideal beauty of the female body, in the line of the ancient statues Titian admired; he wrote of "learning from the marvelous ancient stones". It can also be seen as a gentle critique of vanity, a goddess absorbed in her own reflection. Titian was trained in the Venetian tradition led by his teacher Giovanni Bellini, famous for its mastery of colour, and here colour carries the meaning: warm flesh, a red cloak and the cool gleam of glass set side by side.

Legacy

In 1581 Titian's son sold the contents of the house, including this canvas, to Christoforo Barbarigo. In 1850 it was bought from the Barbarigo family for Tsar Nicholas I and entered the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. In 1931 the Soviet government secretly sold it, and the American collector Andrew Mellon acquired it. He gave it to the United States in 1937, and it was among the first masterpieces shown when the National Gallery of Art in Washington opened in 1941. Rubens and Anthony van Dyck copied it, Diego Velázquez adapted the theme, and it even inspired a scene in Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's 1870 novel Venus in Furs.

Did you know?

X-rays show the painting lies over an abandoned double portrait.
It is believed to be the only version of the subject entirely by Titian's hand.
It remained in Titian's house until his death in 1576.
It was one of the first masterpieces shown at the National Gallery of Art in 1941.

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