Vénus anadyomène

Titian painted this around 1520, when he was the rising star of Venice and the city was hungry for the ancient world. The pose comes from a lost painting described by writers of Roman times, a Venus born from the sea, and its name simply means Venus rising. She stands in shallow water, wringing the sea from her long reddish hair, a small shell floating beside her as a quiet reminder of how she was born. The old Greek and Roman version was famous but gone for over a thousand years. Titian is not copying a statue here; he gives her warm, living skin and a slow, unhurried turn of the body. The canvas later travelled through some of the great collections of Europe, including that of Queen Christina of Sweden, before reaching Edinburgh.