Intro to visual arts

Intro To Visual Arts Venus of Urbino General of Art Work Venus of Urbino is aportrait art by a famous artist known as Tiziano Vecellio, popularly goes by Titian. This canvas oil painting was painted specifically for Guidobaldo II della Rovere, the Duke of Urbino in 1538 (Lazzari, Schlesier 22-25)
The content of the painting is concentrating on a young, nude woman reclined on a bed, staring directly to her viewer comfortably and confident without showing any sign of shyness. Her hair falls over her shoulder and the neck is reclined exposing her left side of the body. Titian nude Venus has a well-defined shape and pale skin with no blemish.
She is very appealing with her nipples erect and fixated on her chest due to her laying position. She covers her genital area with her left hand just by a glimpse of her fingers. On the right hand, she is holding a cluster of red flowers and one flower fallen on the bed cover. She lies sensually with her legs crossed. A dog is sleeping on the edge of the bed on the covers. At the end of the room are housemaids, one is kneeling down with head inside a suitcase and the other standing beside her.
This painting falls in the category of fine arts. The painting has aesthetic qualities; conceptual qualities of viewing art object as being beautiful and having a good taste. Venus has qualities that are capturing and enlightening to the viewer to judge the painter of having a good taste. This quality differentiates it from popular arts.
Function of Art
The Venus of Urbino painting portrays private and domestic function of a woman as a sexy goddess who is appealing to her husband. It also portrays the need of a woman to remain seductive and appealing to her husband. (Lazzari, Schlesier 22-25) It is for marital significance for the eyes of the husband only. The painting is intended for personal and private use of the owner.
Formal Elements of Art
The line element portrayed on the crisis folding of the covers gives textural contrast of the cover. Line element reveals the well-defined body mass and volume of the woman. The floor patterns outline line element as a well coordinated and liberate space to show the harmonization of the room and social class taste of the residing people.
Light element is used to demonstrate the illusion that the nude Venus is appearing to closer people than people behind (Lazzari, Schlesier 22-25). The dark wall behind her is able to bring contrast between the woman and the wall clearly to portray her body structure and formation without straining. It also brings emptiness on the dark background. On the window, light element is used to portray the tonal value of the clouds that it is either dusk or morning before sunlight.
In the painting, shape element is used to represent physical form of the woman. The dog in the painting reveals shape element to create the illusion that the dog is tiny in size. The nude Venus creates an illusion of the three dimensions while on two-dimension form (Lazzari, Schlesier 22-25).
The volume element covers the painting of the woman appears to be the main subject of the piece of art, the rest is details to the art. It occupies a greater proportion compared to the rest of the objects.
The time element of the portrait is composition of an ancient elite class of 1500. From the view of the window, light penetrating gives the perspective that it either dusk or very early in the morning.
The element of texture uses line and light shading composition on the covers to express the lightness of the cover suggesting it is smooth texture (Lazzari, Schlesier 22-25). Texture element creates the illusion the floor appearing polished and smooth textured.
Space element is evidential with appliance to linear perspective mood, where distant objects appear smaller than closer objects in the painting. The media used is oil paint canvas and size 3’11” x5’5” (Lazzari, Schlesier 22-25).
Content of work
Pre-iconographic analysis
A nude woman lies recline on her right shoulder as hair falls on her shoulders. A dry stare, that is rather comfortable and showing less concern of her nudity. In the background two maids, one kneeling looking for clothes and the other standing waiting for the other maid. The window displays a potted plant.
Iconographic analysis
Why is the woman lying so comfortably while nude? Could it because she wants to seduce her husband? Could she be relaxing after a shower waiting for the maid to bring her clothes? Could that dog be her pet?
Iconological analysis
The woman on the painting is lays in a relaxed posture with a stare that suggest her looking into a husband or a lover. Her eyes are at ease with what she sees and portray a sigh of love. The dog lying on the side of the bed shows it is a pet of the house and sign of marital fidelity (Lazzari, Schlesier 22-25).
Maids in the background are searching for something in a suitcase that could be clothing. One of the maids standing is holding what looks like a gown.
The Name Venus of Urbino
Meaning of the Artwork
The laze looks on the nude woman that is not shy endorsing for sensuality and sexual activity of a marital relationship. The dog pet is a clear sign of a marital fidelity of the couple in the home. Lines on the floor are revealing a spacious composition of the house and smooth texture (Lazzari, Schlesier 22-25). The line on the covers and cushions portray rather smooth texture and comfy atmospheric. The dark shaded wall on the background displays contrast between the room, to show the public and private separation of the house. Light element reveals that the woman is illuminated more than the background maids, showing their distance between them.
References
Lazzari, Margaret, and Dona Schlesier. Exploring Art: A Global, Thematic Approach. 4th Edition. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2012.