Venus and the Lute Player | Titian and Workshop | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

Gallery LabelTitian and his workshop treated the theme of Venus and a musician at various times during the latter part of his career. He may have worked on this version sporadically over an extended period leaving it unfinished at the time of his death. The landscape is characteristic of Titian's work of around 1560. Following his death, certain parts such as Venus's face and hands were brought to a much higher degree of finish.

Much has been written about the meaning of Titian's paintings of Venus. In addition to celebrating love and music (Venus pauses from making music to be crowned by Cupid), they have been thought to address the Neo-Platonic debate of seeing versus hearing as the primary means for perceiving beauty.

NotesOf numerous related paintings, the one most similar to the MMA picture is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (no. 129). An old copy was formerly in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden (no. 177; lost in World War II). Paintings depicting Venus and Cupid with an organ player, rather than a lute player, are in the Museo del Prado, Madrid (nos. 420, 421), and the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (no. 1849).

Provenance?Cardinal Carlo Emanuele Pio di Savoia, Rome (in 1624; inv., 1624, no. 74); Cardinal Carlo Pio di Savoia, Rome (in 1664); principe Giberto Pio di Savoia, Rome (in 1724; inv., 1724, no. 195); principe Pio di Savoia, Rome (until at least 1742; inv., 1742); Sir Thomas Coke, later Earl of Leicester, Holkham Hall, Norfolk (until d. 1759); his widow, Margaret, Countess of Leicester, Holkham Hall (1759–d. 1775); Sir Thomas Coke's nephew, Wenman Roberts Coke, Holkham Hall (1775–d. 1776); his son, Thomas William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, Holkham Hall (1776–d. 1842); Thomas William Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester, Holkham Hall (1842–d. 1909); Thomas William Coke, 3rd Earl of Leicester, Holkham Hall (1909–30; sold for $200,000 to Duveen); [Duveen, London, Paris, and New York, 1930–36; on loan to National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, November 1933; sold to MMA]

Exhibition History

Art Institute of Chicago. "A Century of Progress," June 1–November 1, 1933, no. 140.

Venice. Museo d'Arte Moderna Ca' Pesaro. "Mostra di Tiziano," April 25–November 4, 1935, no. 101.

Worcester Art Museum. "Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Art of Europe during the XVIth–XVIIth Centuries," April 11–May 16, 1948, no. 2.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Classical Contribution to Western Civilization," April 1949, not in catalogue.

Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Diamond Jubilee Exhibition: Masterpieces of Painting," November 4, 1950–February 11, 1951, no. 23.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art Treasures of the Metropolitan," November 7, 1952–September 7, 1953, no. 109.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Masterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 16–November 1, 1970, unnumbered cat.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 15, 1970–February 15, 1971, no. 210.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Venetian Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum," May 1–September 2, 1974, no catalogue.

Vienna. Kunsthistorisches Museum. "Der späte Tizian und die Sinnlichkeit der Malerei," October 18, 2007–January 6, 2008, no. 2.7.

Fort Worth. Kimbell Art Museum. "Art and Love in Renaissance Italy," March 15–June 14, 2009, not in catalogue.

References

Inventario della Guardarobba dell'Ill.mo. s. Card.le Pio consegnata al s.r Antonio Arsiani Milanese Guardarobba di SS.ria Ill.ma. July 12, 1624, no. 74 [Archivio Pio Falcò, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, VN 296; published in Ref. Testa 1994, p. 99].

[Giovanni Pietro Bellori]. Nota delli musei, librerie, gallerie et ornamenti di statue e pitture ne' palazzi, nelle case, e ne' giardini di Roma. Rome, 1664, p. 45 [reprinted in Ref. Zocca 1976, p. 100].

Invent.m pro Exc.mo D. Pnpe Don Giberto Pio de Sabaudia. March 3, 1724, no. 195 [Notai del Tribunale A.C., notaio S.Paparozzi, vol. 5177, cc. 666r–713r, Archivio di Stato di Roma; published in Ref. Testa 1994, p. 124].

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Ulrich Middeldorf. "Letter to the editor." Art Bulletin 29 (March 1947), pp. 65–67.

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Francis Russell in The Treasures Houses of Britain. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1985, p. 383, under no. 313.

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Richard Rand in The Ahmanson Gifts: European Masterpieces in the Collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles, 1991, pp. 138–39, fig. 35c, under no. 35.

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Maria Agnese Chiari Moretto Wiel in Filippo Pedrocco. Titian. New York, 2001, pp. 218, 259, no. 215, ill. (color).

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Fernando Checa in Der späte Tizian und die Sinnlichkeit der Malerei. Exh. cat., Kunsthistorisches Museum. Vienna, 2007, pp. 217–19, 223 n. 2.

Keith Christiansen in Der späte Tizian und die Sinnlichkeit der Malerei. Exh. cat., Kunsthistorisches Museum. Vienna, 2007, pp. 252–55, no. 2.7, ill. (color and x-ray).

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David Rosand in Frederick Ilchman. Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 2009, pp. 180, 194, 281 n. 15, fig. 79 (color).

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