Venus and the Lute Player
c. 1565–1570 · Oil on canvas · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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About this work
- Artist
- Titian (c. 1488–1576)
- Year
- c. 1565–1570
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 165.1 × 209.6 cm
- Collection
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Movement
- Renaissance
Venus reclines on a couch beneath a heavy red curtain, crowned by a small Cupid, while a young man in contemporary dress sits at the end of the bed with a lute and turns to look at her; through the open loggia a wide landscape of trees and distant blue mountains runs to the horizon. The composition is one of a series, Venus and Musician, that Titian and his workshop produced in several versions from the late 1540s, some with an organist and some with a lutenist. The Metropolitan Museum dates this canvas to about 1565–1570 and traces it from the version in Cambridge. The landscape is painted freely in Titian's late manner, while other parts appear to have been finished after his death in 1576, so studio hands are thought to have had a part in it. It belonged to the house of Savoy by 1624, later hung at Holkham Hall in Norfolk, and was bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1936.
This full-bleed edition prints the work edge to edge from a high-resolution scan of the original, very slightly cropped (a few percent at most) to fit the sheet. The gallery edition shows the whole work, uncropped. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A reclining Venus beneath a red curtain with a lute player and a blue mountain landscape through an open loggia, for a bedroom or living room above a sofa at 24×18 in black. A deep red, warm umber or stone wall; it pairs with Danaë.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Renaissance painting
- Era
- 16th century (c. 1565–1570)
- Orientation
- Landscape
- Mood
- grand
- Rooms
- living room, bedroom, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 24×18. Prints at 16×12, 24×18 in — 16×12 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 24×18 above a console or sideboard.
Framing. Printed edge to edge: a slim black or natural wood frame right to the image, or let the canvas wrap do the framing.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Venus and the Lute Player in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Venus and the Lute Player painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
