| Sacred and Profane Love | |
|---|---|
| Italian: Amor Sacro e Amor Profano | |
.jpg) | |
| Artist | Titian |
| Year | 1514 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 118 cm × 279 cm (46 in × 110 in) |
| Location | Galleria Borghese, Rome |
Sacred and Profane Love (Italian: Amor Sacro e Amor Profano) is an oil painting by Titian, probably painted in 1514, early in his career. The painting is presumed to have been commissioned by Niccolò Aurelio, a secretary to the Venetian Council of Ten, whose coat of arms appears on the sarcophagus or fountain, to celebrate his marriage to a young widow, Laura Bagarotto.[1][2] It perhaps depicts a figure representing the bride dressed in white, sitting beside Cupid and accompanied by the goddess Venus.[3]
The title of the painting is first recorded in 1693, when it was listed in an inventory as Amor Divino e Amor Profano (Divine love and Profane love), and may not represent the original concept at all.[2][4][5]
Although "much ink has been spilt by art historians attempting to decipher the iconography of the painting", and some measure of consensus has been achieved, basic aspects of the intended meaning of the painting, including the identity of the central figures, remain disputed.[6][7][8]
- ^ Robertson, G. (June 1988). "Honour, Love and Truth, an Alternative Reading of Titian's Sacred and Profane Love". Renaissance Studies. 2 (2): 268–279(12). doi:10.1111/1477-4658.00064.
- ^ a b Jaffé 2003, p. 92.
- ^ Essentially the identification proposed by Charles Hope in a paper of 1976. See Puttfarken 2005, p. 146
- ^ Brilliant 2000, p. 78.
- ^ Brown 2008, p. 239.
- ^ Jaffé 2003, p. 92, quoted.
- ^ Puttfarken 2005, p. 147.
- ^ Brilliant 2000, pp. 75–80.