This paper is a comparison of Madonna’s of the Meadow and Venus of Urbino. Raffaello Sanzio painted Raphael Madonna of the Meadow, back in 1505. This period is well known as the Renaissance of the Italian. The painting was from oil on a panel and had stood 3 feet 8.5 in X 2 feet 10.25 in. It is currently in the Museum of Kunsthistorisches in Vienna, Italy. Madonna of the Meadow is made of a classical nature that is very common of the period of time. A good demonstration of this would be the real nude characters that have been used in the art. The medium used oil was also used very widely by Italians at this period of time. It made the painter to come up with very realistic shades also the colors. The landscape and figures in the painting also appeared very fluid and extremely real due to good use of the oil paint.
The iconography of the make lies in history of the famous characters. The three figures originate from the Bible; nevertheless, the artist took some liberties. The picture involves the Virgin Mary, baby Jesus and his cousin John the Baptist. The picture foretells the death of Jesus on the cross. This point has been displayed in the action of painting where John the Baptist is handing Christ a small cross and Mary is gazing upon it figuring out what was to come. There is a certain feeling of association between the three, by the way, which they are staring at each other and still the cross. Although I found no documentation on this, I felt that there was also a symbol of trinity in the three flowers that are at the left-hand side of Mary. The flowers are extremely prevalent and are linked to the figures by having the same color that is found in the Virgin’s shirt. Through speculation, the water that is in the background is a symbol of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. The fact that the Virgin Mary is barefooted indicates that she is walking on a holy ground. This painting is in the midst of a series that has been named Madonna of the Lands since the countryside of Florentine in the background is believed to be under the protection of the Child, the Virgin, and the infant Baptist.
In contrast, the Venus of Urbino is a painting done on 1538 oil by the Italian master Titian. It represents an image of a nude young woman who has been identified with the goddess, Venus. It reclines on a bed or couch in surroundings that are sumptuous of a Renaissance palace. It hangs in Florence in the Galleria degli Uffizi. The pose of the figure has been based on Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus, that Titian completed. In this representation, Titian has restricted Venus by moving her to indoor setting, appealing her with the viewer, and making her to be sensuality explicit. Devoid as it is of any allegorical or classical trappings, Venus does not display any attributes of the goddess that she is supposed to represent, still the painting is apologetically erotic.
The Venus’s frankness of expression is normally noted; she looks straight at the viewer, not concerned of whether she was nude. Towards her right hand, she is holding a roses’ posy whilst while her left is covering her groin that is provocatively kept in the composition centre. The next background is a dog, which is a symbol of either sexual profligacy; that the dog is asleep hints that the person portrayed is unfaithful.
In the year 1880 travelogue, Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad called the Venus of Urbino ” the vilest, the foulest, the obscenest painting the world possesses”. He went on proposing that “it had been painted for a bagnio, and it might have been refused because of being a trifle too strong”.