That is why Venus and Adonis is chosen, as opposed to some of Titan's other creations. While the story of Venus and Adonis is tragic, and thus fitting the subject of the book, on first glance, especially for someone not very familiar with the painting or the myth, the central image on the cover is anything but tragic -- it is merely eye-catching. To find out why the painting is tragic, the viewer would have to read the book.
The fact that the painting is being used to arouse interest, rather than awe or pity is reinforced by the fact that the image has been cropped on the cover. This is so the viewer's eyes are drawn directly to Venus's nudity, not the entire, narrative sprawl of the painting. Because the figure of Adonis is only shown in part, the fact that he is dressed in warlike clothing is less obvious, instead his one bare pectoral muscle is given prominence. The two look more like lovers rather than two people engaged in a struggle. Titian's theme of love not conquering all is less directly reinforced than in the whole image, with the straining dogs and the wide scene of nature, which tends to diminish the importance of the physicality of Venus in the context of Adonis' impending death.
In this modern uses of ancient nudes, the nudity of the work is used to make the cover of the book and its subject seem more sensuous and less academic. The author Thomas Puttfarken, after all, could have used any of Titian's nudes, but he specifically chose a painting that revealed a nude from behind and only from behind. Buttocks, as opposed to frontal nudity, tend to suggest more juvenile or crude behavior today. But this is unlikely to have been part of Titian's original intention when painting the tragic tale of Venus and Adonis. His overall intention seems less humorous than a commentary on the tale. It is important to note that in the Renaissance, the nude was linked not to personal sexual liberation, but a liberation from Christian aesthetics in a way that was often just as much intellectual as it was sexual:...
Nude figures based on antique models appear in Italy as early as the mid-thirteenth century, and by the mid-fifteenth century, nudes had become symbols of antiquity and its reincarnation" (Sorabella 2008).
Because modern gazers are less astute about Greek mythology, the power of the goddess is also likely to have been forgotten. The humor of nudity, particularly back nudity, makes Venus almost a figure of fun. Even Adonis, with his bare breast, seems feminine and overly sensual. Taken out of its artistic context, it is difficult to see this Renaissance nude as a cultural expression of perfection. To modern eyes, the ancient nude of Venus looks more like 'overdone' sexuality. The human physical ideal has changed radically. Venus' fleshy physique does not mesh with the current toned physique of the modern world. She looks like a symbol of unhealthy overabundance rather than classicism. Regarding the 'quoting' of this nude on the cover of an academic text, while readers of a modern academic book may be expected to have a cursory knowledge of the image's history, it is very unlikely they will respond emotionally in the same way as the original observers of the painting. They are unlikely to feel a thrill of recognizing the classical past brought to life by a contemporary artist, or feel sensuous desire at the sight of Venus. The desire for this type of a Venus figure is now part of the past.
Works Cited
Puttfarken, Thomas. Titan and Tragic Painting. New Haven: Yale, 2005.
Sorabella, Jean. "The Nude in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000 -- . January 2009.
May 21, 2009.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/numr/hd_numr.htm
Venus and Adonis. The Getty Museum. May 21, 2009.
www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=1030
