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There have been several different interpretations of who the three female figures in this work are, and what they mean. At one point, it was identified as the Three Graces, but later the main figure was identified as Venus, blindfolding her son Cupid…

In this painting, we see Venus--the Roman goddess of love and affection--depicted with blonde hair, draped with a fine and elegant fabric from the waist down. In her lap lies Adonis, an adept hunter in Greco-Roman mythology who dons bright and…

     In this painting, we see a multitude of figures, some of which are in the nude whereas others are defined by idealized drapery. Immediately, the first aspect noticed is the shape of the canvas: a rectangular center with 4 semicircular lobes…

The painting Triumph of Saint George by Vittore Carpaccio is the fifth of seven paintings in a collection known as Episodes from the Life of Sts Jerome, George and Triphun that depict three stories of Christian saints. This specific painting depicts…

Tityus, sometimes spelled Tityos, is a giant from ancient Greek mythology and the illegitimate son of Zeus and Elara. After attempting to rape Leto, he is killed by the gods Artemis and Apollo and sent to eternal damnation in the depths of the Greek…

Titian, a highly revered artist of the Venetian Renaissance, was commissioned by Alfonso I d’Este the Duke of Ferrara to work on a series of paintings for the Alabaster Chamber. The collection had a Dionysian theme and included The Worship of Venus,…

Carpaccio’s "The Vision of St. Augustine" depicts St. Augustine in his cell writing a letter to St. Jerome to try to quantify the exact amount of joy that a person feels in the presence of God. In the moment that is painted, a bright light with the…

For a period the work was attributed to Giorgone, but in 1904 it was then changed and attributed to Titian by scholar Wilhelm Schmidt [1]. While some scholars still disagree, most conclude Titian was the original author but took inspiration from…

The Tempest is one of Giorgione’s few paintings and most enigmatic as there are over thirty identified interpretations ranging from biblical to Venetian [1]. Giorgione was commissioned circa 1510 to make this painting for the wealthy Venetian,…

The Tempest was an important work in Renaissance landscape painting, and one of the 5 surviving works by Giorgione. The painting depicts a storm moving towards two main figures, with a child in the arms of the woman. The male figure looks at the…