Titian's-Venus-of-Urbino

Sexual Fables

This article accompanies the fable
The Age of Consent

Titian-Venus-of-Urbino

Late Renaissance European painters were impressed by this extravagance of erotic visions.

Above and below are Titian’s Venus of Urbino (1538) and Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus (1485-86) – change was in the air, and sometimes in the bedroom too. Sex helped launch the Age of Exploration and the Protestant Reformation, but that’s another story. Twain affectionately dubbed Titian’s painting “the foulest, the vilest, the obscenest picture the world possesses.” Byron adored it too. Botticelli’s Venus is one of the most homaged and parodied images in popular culture.

Botticelli-The-Birth-of-Venus

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