Venus and Music

Titian painted this reclining Venus and her musician not once but several times, in versions now scattered from Madrid to Berlin to New York. The setup barely changes. Venus lies back before a tall window that opens onto a garden and a receding avenue of trees, while at her feet a man breaks off from his organ to turn and look at her. Scholars have argued for centuries over what the pairing means, whether it is simply erotic or a quiet contest between the senses, hearing set against sight. Titian made these pictures around 1550 for the Spanish Habsburg court, where the appetite for the reclining nude ran deep, and one old tradition even claimed the organist wears the features of the young Philip II, though few today believe it.