Vénus avec un organiste et Cupidon

Titian returned to this scene again and again, a reclining Venus, a young man at an organ turning to look at her, Cupid leaning in at her shoulder. He painted at least five versions across the 1540s and 1550s, several bound for the Spanish court of Philip II, for whom Titian was then supplying a steady stream of mythological pictures. Scholars have long read the pairing of the musician and the goddess as a quiet debate about the senses, whether beauty is better known through the eyes or the ears. This version, signed by Titian, entered the Spanish royal collection and passed from there into the Prado, where it hangs now.