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Venus of Urbino

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

The figure's pose is based on the Dresden Venus, traditionally attributed to Giorgione but which Titian at least completed the landscape. In this depiction, Titian has domesticated Venus by moving her to an indoor setting, engaging her with the viewer, and making her sensuality explicit; some even believe the figure is engaging in masturbation.

Interpretations of the painting 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). This disagreement forms part of a wider debate on the meaning of the mainly Venetian tradition of the reclining female nude, which Titian had created, or helped to create, some 25 years before with the Dresden Venus of around 1510–11.

Venus of Urbino Stamp Collection

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Paraguay 1986  Venus of Urbino by Titian 1534

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Ajman 1971  Venus of Urbino by Titian 1534

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Bhutan 1989  Venus of Urbino by Titian 1534 - the block  (detail)

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Paraguay 1971  Venus of Urbino by Titian 1534

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Guinea Equatorial  1976  Venus of Urbino by Titian 1534

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Bhutan 1989  Venus of Urbino by Titian 1534  - the stamp (detail)

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Italy  2004  Venus of Urbino by Titian 1534

The Venus of Urbino was one of the inspirations for Édouard Manet's 1863 Olympia, in which the figure of Venus is replaced with the model Victorine Meurent

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Paraguay 1989  Olympia by Édouard Manet 1863

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