Titian love earthly and heavenly description. Composition based on the painting by Titian “Heavenly Love and Earthly Love

5 - "Heavenly Love, Earthly Love"

How many commentators suffered to understand the real meaning of Titian's painting, which is listed under the title "Heavenly Love and Earthly Love" (Gallery Borghese in Rome). Now, thanks to Wyckhoff's research, the enigma has been unraveled. A naked woman is Venus, dressed is Medea, whom the goddess persuades to surrender to Jason's love. However, nevertheless, we do not have an illustration for an ancient fairy tale; Titian used the plot as a pretext and created something completely independent and not even remotely resembling a theme. If we already talk about love in front of this picture, then only about earthly love, about love for all nature, for all life as a whole, in which these two beautiful women also have the meaning of parts of the whole, and not "heroines". How many praises have been expressed for the landscape that forms the background of the picture, as if it were not a “landscape” as a whole, not our beautiful land, on which life is so beautiful, on which virgin nature, and the works of people, and a beautiful naked body give so much pleasure, and luxurious outfits, and pastures, lakes, groves, and villages, cities and castles!

The depicted area is shrouded in the twilight of a voluptuous night; - only high on the tower of the castle and in the clouds the white reflection of dawn burns out. A mysterious moment of calm, respite. The human fuss is receding to rest, travelers are hurrying home, and the hour of Venus is coming, holding a lamp in her hand to shine in the darkness, the hour of Eros, disturbing the magical reservoir and turning its dark waters into a wonderful potion. The royal girl listens to all the rustles in the grass, to the splash of water, to the rustle of foliage thickened in the fading light, to distant exclamations and singing, and it seems to her that she is being called somewhere, she sees the gods of love comforts, she heeds the vows of future embraces and conception.

"Earthly love and heavenly love" is a painting-type not only of Titian, but of all Venice 76 . Both Titian and Giorgione painted pictures even more juicy, even more beautiful in colors, more free in concept 77 . But nowhere, nevertheless, so many different elements, in which we can see the manifestation of the "taste of Titian", "Venetian taste", are not combined into one whole, as in this picture. And the character of some kind of massiveness, density is especially striking in it. Medea's heavy dress should restrain her impulses, make her movements slow 78 . The naked body of Venus also does not speak of speed, of passion, but reflects a calm nature, alien to rebelliousness. In the composition itself, in this preponderance of one (left) part of the picture over the other, the same tendency to heaviness, to some kind of “materiality”, which was already visible in Giambellino’s later paintings and which, as we have seen, turned into apathetic boredom in Palma, is reflected. . Not a trace remains here of the asceticism of Padua, of purely spiritual aspirations, which were still so clearly expressed in the art of the last Vivarini.

In the marble city of the lagoons, whose inhabitants looked to the mainland as to the promised land, dreamed of the expanse of fields, the heady aromas of flowers, fruit trees, and herds of animals as the most seductive in the world, the art in which this " nostalgia for the earth" received the expression of a full-sounding, grandiose poem. The dream of every Venetian was to save up enough money to buy himself an estate on terra ferma, and isn't this dream expressed in Venetian painting in some kind of sometimes even excessive worship of earthly flesh, in some kind of "enthusiast materialism"? It is possible that in the natives of terra ferma, who permanently settled on the "ship of Venice", this dream was especially strong. After all, it was precisely those Venetians who were born among the Alps or on their slopes that portrayed this “enjoyment of the earth” best of all, more fully, more enthusiastically than others: Titian, Palma, Giorgione and Bassano.

Notes

76 This painting was probably painted in 1512-1513 by order of Niccolò Aurelio, the great chancellor of the Republic of Venice, whose coat of arms adorns the pool that occupies the middle of the composition.

77 Unfortunately, the picture has suffered from time, and, perhaps, because of this, it is deprived of that freshness that is inherent in other homogeneous and simultaneous works of the master.

78 If this is really Medea, then the costume anachronism that Titian allowed himself here is striking. What is it - ignorance or something deliberate? The assumption of ignorance is ruled out simply because, without a doubt, an elementary and external acquaintance with the ancient world should have been available to a resident of Venice - at that time one of the main centers of humanism. It can also be assumed that Titian was somewhat unfriendly to the revival of antiquity. Isn't this attitude expressed, for example, in his caricature of the group "Laocoon with his sons", discovered in 1506 and depicted by him in the form of convulsively writhing monkeys (we know this drawing by the wood engraving master Boldrini)? Titian also distinguished himself with freedom in relation to the forms of the ancient world in subsequent times, when he began to resort more and more often to subjects from ancient mythology. During his stay in Rome, in 1545, he was delighted with the treasures of art that he studied here (Titian informs Aretin about this in his letters) and even declared to Charles V that he "learns from wonderful ancient stones, in order to more worthily portray the victories of the emperor in the East. However, even in the last years of his work, his fascination with antiquity did not prevent him from placing a typical Venetian housekeeper next to Danae, next to Antiope to present hunters in modern costumes, next to Venus in Madrid to depict a cavalier in a tunic, collars and with a sword, under the guise of Venus (Hermitage) to present a type of Venetian courtesan, to give a Gothic shield with the coat of arms of the "Holy Empire" into the hands of a soldier at the Holy Sepulcher, to depict Pilate's palace in the form of a building of Palladius; the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the form of those characteristic figures that could be met on a festive day in the Piazza, students in Emmaus - in the most philistine costumes, etc., etc. The impressions of the surrounding "living life" were obviously too obscured in Titian impressions gleaned from books and conversations with friends.

For several centuries, Titian's painting was considered only an allegory. However, the artist wrote something else: he deliberately mixed symbols with specific details. After all, the goal was not at all abstract - to smooth out the scandal in the secular circles of Venice.

The name “Heavenly Love and Earthly Love” was given to the painting by early Titian in 1693. Based on this, the women depicted on it with identical faces were identified by art historians with two hypostases of the goddess of love, known to the intellectuals of the Renaissance from the works of ancient philosophers. However, for the first time the name of the masterpiece of Titian was mentioned in 1613 as "Beauty embellished and unadorned." It is not known how the artist himself or the customer called the canvas.

Only in the 20th century did researchers pay attention to the abundance of wedding symbols and the coat of arms of the Venetian family on the canvas. They concluded that the owner of the coat of arms, Secretary of the Council of Ten Nicolò Aurelio, commissioned the painting from Titian on the occasion of his marriage in 1514 to Laura Bagarotto, a young widow from Padua. As the Venetian chronicler of that time, Marin Sanudo, noted, this wedding was “discussed everywhere” - the newlywed had a too difficult past.

In 1509, at the height of the military conflict between the Venetian Republic and the Holy Roman Empire, Laura's first husband, the Padua aristocrat Francesco Borromeo, took the emperor's side. Padua was subject to Venice, because Borromeo was arrested and probably executed by the Council of Ten as a traitor. Many of Laura's relatives ended up in prison and exile. Her father, Bertuccio Bagarotto, a university professor, was hanged in front of his wife and children on the same charge, which in his case was unjust.

The permission for the marriage of a high-ranking Venetian official with the widow and daughter of state criminals was discussed by a commission headed by the doge, and it was received. The previously confiscated rich dowry to Laura was returned through the efforts of the groom the day before the wedding. The painting, commissioned from the most prestigious and by no means cheap artist in Venice, was probably supposed to add respectability to the marriage in the eyes of fellow citizens.


1. Bride. According to the art historian Rona Goffin, this is hardly a portrait of Laura Bagarotto, because then the naked lady was painted from her, which in those days would have damaged the reputation of a decent woman. This is an idealized image of the newlywed.

2. Dress. As shown by radiographic analysis, Titian first wrote it in red. However, at the top of the list of Laura's dowry was a wedding dress made of white satin, and Rona Goffin believed that the artist decided to depict this particular dress. A belt, a symbol of marital fidelity, and gloves are also attributes of a wedding dress: grooms gave these things for betrothal as a sign of seriousness of intentions.

3. Wreath. Evergreen myrtle is a plant of Venus, symbolizing love and fidelity. Wreaths woven from it were an attribute of weddings in ancient Rome.

4. Bowl. As Rona Goffin wrote, in such vessels, grooms traditionally presented wedding gifts to Venetian brides.

5. Rabbits. The symbol of fertility next to the figure of the bride is a wish for the newlyweds to have numerous offspring.

6. Nude. According to most researchers, including the Italian Renaissance art expert Federico Zeri and the British art specialist Titian Charles Hope, this is the goddess Venus. They are so similar to the newlywed, because in ancient poetry the bride was often compared with the goddess of love. Venus blesses the earthly woman for marriage.

7. Landscape. According to Dzeri, two contrasting symbols associated with marriage are shown behind the backs of the characters: the uphill road is the difficult path of prudence and unbreakable fidelity, the plain is bodily pleasures in marriage.

8. Cupid. The son of Venus, the winged god of love is here the mediator between the goddess and the bride.

9. Fountain. It bears the coat of arms of the Aurelio family. According to the art historian Walter Friedländer, this is the tomb of Adonis, beloved of Venus, described in the 15th century novel Hypnerotomachy Poliphilus, a sarcophagus (a symbol of death) from which water (a symbol of life) flows. The marble relief depicts the beating of Adonis by a jealous Mars: according to the novel, the young man died at the hands of the god of war. This is not only an indication of the tragically ended love of the goddess, but also a reminder of the sad past of Laura Bagarotto.

10. Lamp. The ancient lamp in the hand of Venus, according to Federico Zeri, symbolizes the flame of divine, sublime love.

Painter Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)

Between 1474 and 1490 - was born in the city of Pieve di Cadore, which since 1420 was part of the Venetian Republic, in a noble family.

Around 1500 - moved to Venice to study fine arts.

1517 - received from the Venetian authorities the position of an intermediary in the supply of salt, which, according to researchers, indicates his status as the official painter of the republic.

1525 - married Cecilia Soldano, from whom by that time he already had two sons.

1530 - widowed, wife died after the birth of her daughter Lavinia.

1551–1562 - created "Poems", a series of paintings based on Ovid's "Metamorphoses"

1576 - died in his workshop, buried in the Venetian church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari.

The great and famous painter of Venice, Titian Veccelio, was once commissioned to paint a painting as a gift for a bride. The author did not name his canvas in any way, since he had no idea that he was creating one of the greatest canvases of art. A few years later, when the painting was purchased, it was given the name "Heavenly Love and Earthly Love."

The painting by the well depicts two beautiful girls. One is very nicely dressed. She is wearing a chic white dress with red sleeves. Golden fluffy hair. Pure white skin. On the opposite side, not inferior in beauty to the first girl, a completely naked woman sits. Only beautiful satin fabric covers the most intimate areas a little. Her shape and body are just perfect. The skin is clear, the hair of golden color is long and silky. Apparently, this is the goddess of beauty. She went down to the earthly beauty for an important conversation. The goddess tells her something, and the girl listens attentively and thinks.

Twilight is already visible in the background. The sun has disappeared behind the clouds, and only a line of orange color adorns the sky. Behind the well, a little cupid plays with water. Perhaps he went down with the goddess, or perhaps he accompanied a girl in love. It seems to me that this is the bride, to whom the picture was intended. The author compared her with a goddess and showed that earthly women are very beautiful and attractive.

This picture occupies an important place both in the past and in our time and belongs to the best paintings of the author. Even critics admire her.

For several centuries, Titian's painting was considered only an allegory. However, the artist wrote something else: he deliberately mixed symbols with specific details. After all, the goal was not at all abstract - to smooth out the scandal in the secular circles of Venice.

Titian "Heavenly Love and Earthly Love" Gallery Borghese

The painting was painted around 1514. The name “Heavenly Love and Earthly Love” was given to the painting in 1693. The women depicted on it with the same faces were identified with two hypostases of the goddess of love, known to the intellectuals of the Renaissance from the works of ancient philosophers. However, for the first time the name of the masterpiece of Titian was mentioned in 1613 as "Beauty embellished and unadorned." It is not known how the artist himself or the customer called the canvas.

Only in the 20th century did researchers pay attention to the abundance of wedding symbols and the coat of arms of the Venetian family on the canvas. They concluded that the owner of the coat of arms, Secretary of the Council of Ten Nicolò Aurelio, commissioned the painting from Titian on the occasion of his marriage in 1514 to Laura Bagarotto, a young widow from Padua. As the Venetian chronicler of that time, Marin Sanudo, noted, this wedding was “discussed everywhere” - the newlywed had a too difficult past.

In 1509, at the height of the military conflict between the Venetian Republic and the Holy Roman Empire, Laura's first husband, the Padua aristocrat Francesco Borromeo, took the emperor's side. Padua was subject to Venice, because Borromeo was arrested and probably executed by the Council of Ten as a traitor. Many of Laura's relatives ended up in prison and exile. Her father, Bertuccio Bagarotto, a university professor, was hanged in front of his wife and children on the same charge, which in his case was unjust.

The permission for the marriage of a high-ranking Venetian official with the widow and daughter of state criminals was discussed by a commission headed by the doge, and it was received. The previously confiscated rich dowry to Laura was returned through the efforts of the groom the day before the wedding. The painting, commissioned from the most prestigious and by no means cheap artist of Venice, was probably supposed to add respectability to the marriage in the eyes of fellow citizens.

1. Bride. According to art historian Rona Goffin, this is hardly a portrait of Laura Bagarotto, because then a naked lady was painted from her, which in those days would have damaged the reputation of a decent woman. This is an idealized image of the newlywed.

2. Dress. As shown by radiographic analysis, Titian first wrote it in red. However, at the top of the list of Laura's dowry was a wedding dress made of white satin, and Rona Goffin suggested that the artist decided to depict this particular dress. A belt, a symbol of marital fidelity, and gloves are also attributes of a wedding attire: the grooms gave these things for betrothal as a sign of seriousness of intentions.

3. Wreath. Evergreen myrtle is a plant of Venus, symbolizing love and fidelity. Wreaths woven from it were an attribute of weddings in ancient Rome.

4. Bowl. As Rona Goffin wrote, in such vessels, grooms traditionally presented wedding gifts to Venetian brides.

5. Rabbits. The symbol of fertility next to the figure of the bride is a wish for the newlyweds to have numerous offspring.

6. Nude. According to most researchers, including the Italian Renaissance art expert Federico Zeri and the British art specialist Titian Charles Hope, this is the goddess Venus. They are so similar to the newlywed, because in ancient poetry the bride was often compared with the goddess of love. Venus blesses the earthly woman for marriage.

7. Landscape. According to Dzeri, two contrasting symbols associated with marriage are shown behind the backs of the characters: the uphill road is the difficult path of prudence and unbreakable fidelity, the plain is bodily pleasures in marriage.

8. Cupid. The son of Venus, the winged god of love is here the mediator between the goddess and the bride.

9. Fountain. It bears the coat of arms of the Aurelio family. According to the art historian Walter Friedländer, this is the tomb of Adonis, beloved of Venus, described in the 15th-century novel Hypnerotomachia Poliphila, a sarcophagus (a symbol of death) from which water (a symbol of life) flows. The marble relief depicts the beating of Adonis by a jealous Mars: according to the novel, the young man died at the hands of the god of war. This is not only an indication of the tragically ended love of the goddess, but also a reminder of the sad past of Laura Bagarotto.

10. Lamp. The ancient lamp in the hand of Venus, according to Federico Zeri, symbolizes the flame of divine, sublime love.

For several centuries, Titian's painting was considered only an allegory. However, the artist wrote something else: he deliberately mixed symbols with specific details. After all, the goal was not at all abstract - to smooth out the scandal in the secular circles of Venice

Painting "Heavenly Love and Earthly Love"
Oil on canvas, 118 x 278 cm
Year of creation: around 1514
Now kept in Rome in the Borghese Gallery.

The name “Heavenly Love and Earthly Love” was given to the painting by early Titian in 1693. Based on this, the women depicted on it with identical faces were identified by art historians with two hypostases of the goddess of love, known to the intellectuals of the Renaissance from the works of ancient philosophers. However, for the first time the name of the masterpiece of Titian was mentioned in 1613 as "Beauty embellished and unadorned." It is not known how the artist himself or the customer called the canvas.

Only in the 20th century did researchers pay attention to the abundance of wedding symbols and the coat of arms of the Venetian family on the canvas. They concluded that the owner of the coat of arms, Secretary of the Council of Ten Nicolò Aurelio, commissioned the painting from Titian on the occasion of his marriage in 1514 to Laura Bagarotto, a young widow from Padua. As the Venetian chronicler of that time, Marin Sanudo, noted, this wedding was “discussed everywhere” - the newlywed had a too difficult past. In 1509, at the height of the military conflict between the Venetian Republic and the Holy Roman Empire, Laura's first husband, the Padua aristocrat Francesco Borromeo, took the emperor's side. Padua was subject to Venice, because Borromeo was arrested and probably executed by the Council of Ten as a traitor. Many of Laura's relatives ended up in prison and exile. Her father, Bertuccio Bagarotto, a university professor, was hanged in front of his wife and children on the same charge, which in his case was unjust.

The permission for the marriage of a high-ranking Venetian official with the widow and daughter of state criminals was discussed by a commission headed by the doge, and it was received. The previously confiscated rich dowry to Laura was returned through the efforts of the groom the day before the wedding. The painting, commissioned from the most prestigious and by no means cheap artist in Venice, was probably supposed to add respectability to the marriage in the eyes of fellow citizens.

1. Bride. According to art historian Rona Goffin, this is hardly a portrait of Laura Bagarotto, because then the naked lady was painted from her, which in those days would have damaged the reputation of a decent woman. This is an idealized image of the newlywed.

2. Dress. As shown by radiographic analysis, Titian first wrote it in red. However, at the top of the list of Laura's dowry was a wedding dress made of white satin, and Rona Goffin believed that the artist decided to depict this particular dress. A belt, a symbol of marital fidelity, and gloves are also attributes of a wedding dress: grooms gave these things for betrothal as a sign of seriousness of intentions.

3. Wreath. Evergreen myrtle is a plant of Venus, symbolizing love and fidelity. Wreaths woven from it were an attribute of weddings in ancient Rome.

4. Bowl. As Rona Goffin wrote, in such vessels, the grooms traditionally presented wedding gifts to Venetian brides.

5. Rabbits. The symbol of fertility next to the figure of the bride is a wish for the newlyweds to have numerous offspring.

6. Nude. According to most researchers, including the Italian Renaissance art expert Federico Zeri and the British art specialist Titian Charles Hope, this is the goddess Venus. They are so similar to the newlywed, because in ancient poetry the bride was often compared with the goddess of love. Venus blesses the earthly woman for marriage.

7. Landscape. According to Dzeri, two contrasting symbols associated with marriage are shown behind the backs of the characters: the uphill road is the difficult path of prudence and unbreakable fidelity, the plain is bodily pleasures in marriage.

8. Cupid. The son of Venus, the winged god of love is here the mediator between the goddess and the bride.

9. Fountain. It bears the coat of arms of the Aurelio family. According to the art historian Walter Friedländer, this is the tomb of Adonis, beloved of Venus, described in the 15th century novel Hypnerotomachy Poliphilus, a sarcophagus (a symbol of death) from which water (a symbol of life) flows. The marble relief depicts the beating of Adonis by a jealous Mars: according to the novel, the young man died at the hands of the god of war. This is not only an indication of the tragically ended love of the goddess, but also a reminder of the sad past of Laura Bagarotto.

10. Light. The ancient lamp in the hand of Venus, according to Federico Zeri, symbolizes the flame of divine, sublime love.

Painter
Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)

Between 1474 and 1490- was born in the city of Pieve di Cadore, which since 1420 was part of the Venetian Republic, in a noble family.
Around 1500- Moved to Venice to study fine arts.
1517 - received from the Venetian authorities the position of an intermediary in the supply of salt, which, according to researchers, indicates his status as the official painter of the republic.
1525 - married Cecilia Soldano, from whom by that time he already had two sons.
1530 - widowed, wife died after the birth of her daughter Lavinia.
1551–1562 - created "Poems", a series of paintings based on "Metamorphoses" by Ovid.
1576 - died in his workshop, buried in the Venetian church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari.