Venus Anadyomene (Greek - literally Venus rising from the sea), is a c.1520 oil painting by Titian, depicting Venus (identified by the shell bottom left - she was said to have been born from a shell) rising from the sea and wringing her hair, either after bathing or after her birth. The shell is smaller than usual in birth of Venus scenes (such as Botticelli's), and is likely just an identifier rather than a sure sign that this is a birth of Venu...
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Venus Anadyomene (Greek - literally Venus rising from the sea), is a c.1520 oil painting by Titian, depicting Venus (identified by the shell bottom left - she was said to have been born from a shell) rising from the sea and wringing her hair, either after bathing or after her birth. The shell is smaller than usual in birth of Venus scenes (such as Botticelli's), and is likely just an identifier rather than a sure sign that this is a birth of Venus scene.
The voluptuousness of the Venus presented, and her sideways glance, also owe much to the Crouching Venus and Cnidian Venus types of antique sculpture. The wringing of her hair is a direct imitation of Apelles's lost masterwork of the same title (in which the goddess was also washing her hair - a fact mentioned in Pliny's Natural History), deliberately included by Titian to prove that he could rival the art of antiquity.
The painting is in exceptionally fine condition. It was once owned by Christina of Sweden, and passed via the...
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