Venus of Urbino

Oil painting by Titian 1538 (Uffizi, Florence), in which a nude woman reclines luxuriously on a bed, accompanied by symbols of love and fidelity. Titian used thin layers of paint to achieve a lifelike rendition of flesh.

Although based on Giorgione's Sleeping Venus about 1510 (Gemäldegalerie, Dresden), the inviting gaze of Titian's Venus places her at the beginning of the tradition of the odalisque, the voluptuous slave or mistress, painted by such artists as Ingres or Matisse.