Sacred and Profane Love

Sacred and Profane Love is a piece done by Titian circa 1515 for Niccolò Aurelio [1]. Niccolò Aurelio, secretary of the Venice Council of Ten, commissioned this painting for his marriage to Laura Bagarotto [2].

The painting itself depicts two ladies, the one on the left sitting lower than the one on the right who sits up straight and gazes over to the lady on the left. These two figures are believed to be a bride on the left, adorned in traditional, ceremonial wedding clothes and the almost nude figure on the right illustrates Venus [3]. Venus’ loin is covered by a white cloth and a large, red  cloth is draped over her shoulders. Accompanying the bride and Venus is Cupid, who sits in between, and playfully reaches his hand into the fountain shaped sarcophagus staring down into the watery bath. Behind the bride is a hilly landscape that leads up to a castle-like structure off in the distance. On Venus’s side the composition is much less filled and consists of a more serene landscape that includes a blue lake and a hazy village structure. Erwin Panofsky suggests that the subject of this piece relate to the Platonic philosophies seen in many Renaissance works. He suggests that Cupid stirring the water, a source of life, suggests love as the intermediary between heaven and earth [4]. These representative of heaven, Venus, and of earth, the bride, are together and allude to a celebration of love, most likely celebrating the new love of Aurelio and Bagarotto. 

1. Titian. Sacred and Profane Love. https://library.artstor.org/asset/SCALA_ARCHIVES_10310195612.

2. “Sacred and Profane Love, 1514 by Titian,” Sacred and Profane Love, 1514 by Titian, accessed November 14, 2020, https://www.titian.org/sacred-and-profane-love.jsp.

3. Author: Titian, “Sacred and Profane Love by Titian,” Galerie Borghèse, August 4, 2019, https://borghese.gallery/collection/paintings/sacred-and-profane-love.html.

4. Erwin Panofsky, Studies in Iconology; Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance (New York: O.U.P., 1939).

Titian

Panofsky, Erwin. Studies in Iconology; Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance. New York: O.U.P., 1939. 

Sacred and Profane Love, 1514 by Titian. Accessed November 14, 2020. https://www.titian.org/sacred-and-profane-love.jsp. 

Titian, Author: “Sacred and Profane Love by Titian.” Galerie Borghèse, August 4, 2019. https://borghese.gallery/collection/paintings/sacred-and-profane-love.html. 

Titian. c. 1515. Sacred and Profane Love. painting. Place: Galleria Borghese. https:// library.artstor.org/asset/SCALA_ARCHIVES_10310195612.

Commissioned by Niccolò Aurelio.

Image Source: 
Titian. c. 1515. Sacred and Profane Love. painting. Place: Galleria Borghese. https://library.artstor.org/asset/SCALA_ARCHIVES_10310195612.

c. 1515

Olivia Migli

(c) 2006, SCALA, Florence / ART RESOURCE, N.Y.

Oil on canvas, 118 x 279 cm.

Painting

Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy