Detail of Venus and the Lute Player by Titian in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2019

Venus and the Lute Player
ca. 1565–70

Object Details

Artist: Titian (Italian, Pieve di Cadore ca. 1485/90?–1576 Venice) and Workshop

Date: ca. 1565–70

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 65 x 82 1/2 in. (165.1 x 209.6 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Munsey Fund, 1936

Accession Number: 36.29


Venus, the goddess of love, interrupts her music-making to be crowned with a wreath of flowers by Cupid. An admiring, well-dressed youth playing the lute—the quintessential instrument for love madrigals—gazes at her raptly. In the background nymphs and satyrs dance to the music of a shepherd. Titian painted this amatory theme multiple times. This one was left unfinished, except for the landscape background, which is fully painted by Titian. Once believed to allude to contemporary debates concerning "seeing" versus "hearing" as the primary means for perceiving beauty, these pictures seem primarily to celebrate sensual pleasures.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437827