Sacred and Profane Love

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Background on the Artist

This painting is an oil on canvas work created by the Italian painter Tiziano Vecelli, otherwise known as Titian. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, Italy and was nicknamed da Cadore, after his birthplace

About the Painting! Quotes from the Scholars:

"This image might almost serve as an emblem for the two kinds of love celebrated and often contrasted in seventeenth-century verse. In Titian's Neoplatonic program, the nude figure bearing the torch is the celestial Venus, the principle of universal and eternal beauty and love; the clothed figure is the earthly Venus, who creates the perishable images of beauty in humans, flowers and trees, gold and gems, and works of art. Cupid is placed between them but somewhat closer to the terrestrial Venus" --Norton

"Tiziano: Amor Sacro e Amor Profano (recently shown at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni,

Rome; (closed 22nd May) was designed to celebrate the completed restoration of Titian's two great mythological allegories belonging to the Galleria Borghese: the early Sacred and profane love and the late Venus blindfolding Cupid. The former turned out to be in much poorer condition than the latter, particularly in its broad areas of irretrievably browned foliage, and hence it posed much greater difficulties for the restorers. It also received much greater emphasis in the exhibition and in the substantial

accompanying catalogue! As is indicated by the stemma on the foreground sarcophagus, the picture was painted for the prominent Venetian citizen Niccolo Aurelio; and it is now also generally accepted that the commission was occasioned by his marriage to Laura Bagarotto in 1514. True, the recent restoration has shown that the brushstrokes at the base of the silver bowl on top of the sarcophagus cannot, after all, be construed as representing Laura's own stemma; and at least in my opinion, 1516 would be a more likely date for the actual execution. Nevertheless, the evident allusion in the somewhat complex iconography to the twin themes of love and chastity, combined with the cassone-like shape of the field, does appear to confirm that this is a marriage picture, and it justifies the decision of the exhibition organisers to explore further the theme of bridal and marital virtue in the choice of exhibits."--Peter Humfrey

"Titian's Sacred and Profane Love in the Borghese Gallery is an oblong picture almost three times as wide as it is high. Titian has insisted upon its character by means of a series of very emphatic horizontals. In the foreground are two women seated at either end of a marble tank. One of them is very sumptuously dressed and behind her there is a dark rather stormy landscape crowned by a fortress. The other is almost naked and behind her we see the calm waters of an estuary, pastures, a church spire and a shepherd with his flock; she holds in her left hand a Roman lamp which burns against a cloudy but serene sky; she leans towards the clothed figure who, while facing away out of the picture, is also slightly inclined towards her companion; between them a putto dips one hand in the waters of the tank which is carved with the figures of men and horses. Now the historians tell us that these figures represent two kinds of love, that the clothed figure symbolises the Venus of this world while the nude belth disornata represents a more spiritual passion, the landscape echoes their characters, on the one side is mundane power, on the other spiritual repose, they are different and yet they are in harmony, the putto between them alludes perhaps to the waters of truth while the tank itself, a sarcophagus, reminds us of death."--Quentin Bell

Sources:

Google images

The Norton Anthology English Literature: Stephen Greenblatt (pgs 907-17 and C18)

http://www.juggle.com/sacred-and-profane-love

http://www.backtoclassics.com/gallery/vecelliotiziano/sacredandprofanelove-detail/

http://artmight.com/Artists/Titian-1488-1576/Titian-Sacred-and-Profane-Love-detail1-38069p.html

http://www.artrev.com/blog/blogentry.asp?bid=151

http://drc.ohiolink.edu/handle/2374.OX/104829

http://www.finearttouch.com/Sacred_and_Profane_Love,_Stylistic_Differences_Between_Titian_and_Giorgione.html

http://www.aiwaz.net/sacred-and-profane-love-by-titian/a118

http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/eamor.htm

http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.auctr.edu:2051/stable/3046560?&Search=yes&searchText=Sacred&searchText=Love%2C&searchText=Profane&searchText=Titian&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicResults%3Fhp%3D25%26la%3D%26wc%3Don%26acc%3Don%26gw%3Djtx%26jcpsi%3D1%26artsi%3D1%26Query%3DSacred%2BAND%2BProfane%2BLove%252C%2BTitian%26sbq%3DSacred%2BAND%2BProfane%2BLove%252C%2BTitian%26prq%3DThe%2BArt%2BCritic%2BAND%2Bthe%2BArt%2BHistorian%26si%3D26%26jtxsi%3D26&prevSearch=&item=29&ttl=364&returnArticleService=showFullText

http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.auctr.edu:2051/stable/1342828?&Search=yes&searchText=Sacred&searchText=Love%2C&searchText=Profane&searchText=Titian&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicResults%3Fhp%3D25%26la%3D%26wc%3Don%26acc%3Don%26gw%3Djtx%26jcpsi%3D1%26artsi%3D1%26Query%3DSacred%2BAND%2BProfane%2BLove%252C%2BTitian%26sbq%3DSacred%2BAND%2BProfane%2BLove%252C%2BTitian%26prq%3DThe%2BArt%2BCritic%2BAND%2Bthe%2BArt%2BHistorian%26si%3D26%26jtxsi%3D26&prevSearch=&item=31&ttl=364&returnArticleService=showFullText

http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.auctr.edu:2051/stable/3048166?&Search=yes&searchText=born%3F&searchText=Titian&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DWhen%2Bwas%2BTitian%2BBorn%253F%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don&prevSearch=&item=16&ttl=643&returnArticleService=showFullText

http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.auctr.edu:2051/stable/886526?&Search=yes&searchText=Sacred&searchText=Love%2C&searchText=Profane&searchText=Titian&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicResults%3Fhp%3D25%26la%3D%26wc%3Don%26acc%3Don%26gw%3Djtx%26jcpsi%3D1%26artsi%3D1%26Query%3DSacred%2BAND%2BProfane%2BLove%252C%2BTitian%26sbq%3DSacred%2BAND%2BProfane%2BLove%252C%2BTitian%26prq%3DThe%2BArt%2BCritic%2BAND%2Bthe%2BArt%2BHistorian%26si%3D1%26jtxsi%3D1&prevSearch=&item=4&ttl=364&returnArticleService=showFullText

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