Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Arguably the quintessential work of the High Renaissance in Venice, Titian's Venus of Urbino also represents one of the major themes of western art: the female nude. But how did Titian intend this work to be received? Is she Venus, as the popular title - a modern invention - implies; or is she merely a courtesan? This book tackles this and other questions in six essays by European and American art historians. Examining the work within the context of Renaissance art theory, as well as the psychology and society of sixteenth-century Italy, and even in relation to Manet's nineteenth-century 'translation' of the work, their observations begin and end with the painting itself, and with appreciation of Titian's great achievement in creating this archetypal image of feminine beauty.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction
• 1 Titian, Ovid, and sixteenth-century codes for erotic illustration
• 2 So and so reclining on her couch
• 3 Sex, space, and social history in Titian's Venus of Urbino
• 4 The Venus of Urbino, or the archetype of a glance
• 5 Veiling the Venus of Urbino
• 6 Olympia's choice
• Bibliography
• Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Both these books are the latest offerings in series that focus on individual masterpieces. Titian's "Venus of Urbino," thought by many to be the apotheosis of High Renaissance painting, is also a founding landmark of one of Western art's major topics: the female nude. Goffen (art history, Rutgers) has collected six scholarly essays by accomplished art historians that consider the Uffizi Gallery's famous work from numerous methodological points of view. Each writer addresses the painting's principal mystery: Does this eroticized, self-caressing nude actually represent Venus or is she just a 16th-century Venetian courtesan? The resulting package is a mixed bag that will no doubt at times strike many readers as pedantic and unnecessarily recondite. Written by theorists and intended for other cognoscenti and the inhabitants of their classrooms, this title should by virtue of its subject alone be purchased by larger academic libraries. Johnson (art, Univ. of Iowa) has written a far more complete, cohesive study of a single work, albeit one of much less consequence and appeal than Titian's masterpiece. In a direct and unpretentious style refreshingly free of academic cant, Johnson thoroughly delineates the literary and aesthetic antecedents of David's neoclassic depiction of two adolescent lovers' final parting‘an image derived from latter-day refigurings of Homer's Odyssey. Her analysis of the painting's imagery will be accessible to a broad spectrum of readers, and her lucid explanation of its political and biographical contexts makes what at first glance seems a pale allegorical potboiler become instead a sensitive and meaningful work of art. For academic libraries.‘Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L., Cal. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

As one of the authors in this anthology states, the "ambivalence" in Titian's famous painting the Venus of Urbino has provoked "reactions that sometimes make the purity of a celestial Venus recognizable in this figure, sometimes the sex appeal of a contemporary courtesan." Some recent interpretations of the painting have placed its significance within Renaissance images of marriage and fertility--prominent among them the writings of this collection's editor. Not surprisingly, these essays tend to stress this idea, although there are brief references to other symbolic or narrative readings of the painting. This volume, one of a new series, "Masterpieces of Western Painting," offers substantial factual information on the painting, along with interpretive readings. Although mysteries remain about Titian's Venus, this is a useful book and would be a particularly helpful supplement for art history students. Unfortunately, color reproductions are limited to a small image of the complete painting on the back cover and a detail on the front cover; otherwise, there are only mediocre black-and-white plates. This choice has no doubt kept the price low, but one good-sized color plate would have been helpful. Undergraduate; graduate; faculty. J. I. Miller; California State University, Long Beach