The nude: a critical history

Nude: Venus and Adonis

In the Renaissance painter Titian's original depiction of Venus and Adonis, the nude Venus sits, clinging to her lover Adonis, as she tries to restrain him from going to hunt wild boar. Her nudity represents female perfection and sensuality in the context of Titian's work. Titian's audience would be familiar with the gods and goddesses of mythology and the story depicted in the painting. Venus was famously the goddess of love, the most beautiful woman in the world, and Adonis, her mortal lover, was the most beautiful man in the world. Today, although the story is less well-known, Venus (and Cupid in the background) is still famed as the goddess of love and beauty, and a handsome male is often called an 'Adonis.' But the seemingly exaggerated fleshiness of Venus (in modern eyes), her bare buttocks, and the feminized yet powerfully dressed Adonis suggests that the painting might inspire humor rather than pity in a modern observer. Titian's original audience was likely to have taken the painting more seriously, as well as been more familiar with the story of Adonis' untimely death, which is not shown in the painting.

In terms of the scenic arrangement of the original work, only Venus' exposed backside is revealed and her front is concealed from the viewer, probably covered by a drapery. Her form looks soft and rotund compared with Adonis' hard, armor-encased frame, as he stands, ready to go and do battle with nature. It looks as if the two of them have been sleeping side-by-side, until Adonis dressed to leave. Venus has decided to arouse herself, half-clothed, aware that her lover is going to his doom. "She clings to him, imploring him not to go, but Adonis looks down at her impassively. His dogs strain at their leashes, echoing his impatience, as detailed in the tragic love story found in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Cupid sleeps in the background, a symbol of Adonis's resistance to Venus's entreaties, since his ineffective arrows hang uselessly in a tree. The story ends tragically; during the hunt the mortal Adonis is fatally gored by a wild boar" (Venus and Adonis, The Getty Museum, 2009). The story is a tale of the futility of eternal love, even the love of the gods, in the face of human mortality.

This is the paradox of the painting -- although Venus looks more vulnerable because of her nudity and femininity, it is really Adonis, the human male who is more vulnerable. In resisting the nude and the goddess' sexuality, he is departing for his own grave. The nude goddess of love represents life, Adonis heads to his death. Although Venus' buttocks, depicted in the foreground of the painting, are often used for humorous purposes in modern depictions of the nude, this is not the case in the original painting. "Venus's awkward pose… was inspired by an ancient sculptural relief" (Venus and Adonis, The Getty Museum, 2009). The painting reflects the revival of classical artwork that manifested itself during the Renaissance. It also shows a new interest in celebrating physicality and sensuality as well as anatomy. Her awkwardness suggests her difficulty in restraining Adonis.

Venus' nudity is not displayed in a static fashion: it is highly kinesthetic, which makes it seem even more sexual. Venus is writhing and actively involved in the painting as she pleads for her lover to stay. "Titian's loose, energetic strokes of paint give the painting a sense of spontaneity and movement. In some areas, the artist even painted with his finger, as seen in Adonis's arm. The composition's dynamism…used rich colors, shimmering highlights, and a lush landscape to create the painting's evocative, poignant mood" (Venus and Adonis, The Getty Museum, 2009).

As depicted on the cover of a scholarly book, Titan and Tragic Painting, however, the nude Venus is used to draw the eye of the viewer to purchase the work. The use of Venus' nudity has a more playful quality, as her buttocks are at the center of the cover design. Perhaps this choice of centering Venus indicates that the writer has some sense of humor about his subject. He may have wished to convey the fact that, despite the seriousness of the work there is something 'sexy' in a playful way about it, despite its title. 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: "The rediscovery of Greco-Roman culture in the Renaissance restored the nude to the heart of creative endeavor. 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).