Within the cultural framework of sixteenth-century Italy, the dichotomy between female and male pervaded all aspects of society. This gendered duality was employed in Renaissance painting as a means to create a work of art with complexity and coalescence. Characteristics such as dominance and intellect were considered masculine while the attributes of submissiveness and emotion were inherently feminine. These humanist divisions between male reason and female intuition created tension within the arts. In particular, Venice’s aesthetic preference for a more feminine style is epitomized in Titian’s poesia with his emphasis on mood and sensuality. Titian employed this dualism of gender as a means to integrate the subject and setting into a unifying composition.

By way of example, Titian’s Sleeping Venus and Rape of Europa display the female personage in the depiction of the landscape and imbues the mythological narrative with an emotive feminine atmosphere. Through the gendered nuances of nature, Titian endowed the classical theme of his paintings with greater poetic meaning. The humanist interest in reviving classical notions of Arcadia are evident in the pastoral setting of Sleeping Venus (see Figure 1) in which fertile fields become a locus amoenus for the goddess of love. Around 1510, Titian either painted in or repainted the landscape of Giorgione’s Venus, transforming the tenor of the picture by doing so.[1] The classical recumbent pose of the female figure parallels the horizontal view of the landscape resulting in a harmonious coexistence between the ethereal goddess and her earthly paradise. The lush panoramic view, in which the verdant fields extend to the distant mountain range, assumes a meaning beyond its obvious naturalistic function[2] as nature’s fecundity alludes to the fertility of the female nude.

While Sleeping Venus expresses a serene Arcadia with erotic undertones, The Rape of Europe (see Figure 2) of 1562 explicitly evokes sexuality in its turbulent seascape. Titian’s visual translation of Ovid’s tale of seduction provides a sensual drama in which the natural setting is more than a formal background. Ovid’s mythic account describes how Zeus disguises himself as a white bull in order to seduce the beautiful Europa; after gaining the maiden’s trust with deceptively docile behavior, Zeus abducts Europa to the isle of Crete.[3] This moment of flight is captured by Titian as the natural surroundings reflect the bull’s virile action and Europa’s effeminate reaction. The twilight sky is depicted in a vibrant array of blue and pink hues which seem to emanate from the vulnerable pose of the female protagonist[4] reflecting her contradictory emotions of both resistance and acceptance. Unlike the feminization of a passive landscape in Sleeping Venus, nature dominates the marine scene and thus acquires a masculine role. Europa is enveloped in a violent environment in which the rocky coastline seems to crumble before a hurricane wind while the cliff and clouds fuse into a chromatic effect.[5] Thus, the climatic elements of the storm dramatize the narrative and denote the ominous power of nature. While the peaceful landscape of Venus provokes a reverie about feminine beauty, the aggressive seascape of Europa encourages contemplation concerning the female response to masculine control.

In what was considered a feminine style of painting landscape, Titian exploited the expressive potential of the oil medium through his unique brushwork. In Sleeping Venus, the use of sfumato to create the rounded contours of Venus is echoed in the surrounding landscape of soft rolling hills and the sculpted cloud formations. Tension between artifice (the male domain) and nature (the female sphere) are alluded to through the village located in the background. The contrasting sharp edges of the architectonic details of the town highlights the diffused contours of the surrounding organic forms. The alluring smoothness and delicacy of the rendered landscape and woman illustrate the cultural expectations of what is ‘properly’ feminine.[6] Thus, the blurred outlines of the figure and setting assist in the sense of unity between the female persona and the pastoral idyll. As exemplified by the idealized natural light illuminating the scene in an even manner, the atmosphere of feminine grace of Arcadia is aided by subtle tonal gradation. In this new technique of painting, the actual stroke of the brush naturally came to assume more significance since the mark of paint left behind determined the very characters of the forms rendered.[7] In his later years, Titian’s loose brushwork developed into a more impressionistic style as can be viewed in Rape of Europa. The texture of the frothy white seafoam is evoked by the visibility of the woven canvas surface as well as the broken trail of pigment.[8] The emotive handling of the natural elements can also be read in the sheaves of angled brushwork and shafts of light to depict mist and rain.[9] This impasto effect indicates a more intuitive painting method which subsequently becomes labeled during the Renaissance as an instinctive feminine process. The immediacy of execution and variedness of the surface treatment of the seascape causes Europa to appear less as a desolate victim of rape than part of the endless cycle of change, fertilized by visceral passions of nature both human and divine.[10] While the bella maniera of the landscape in Sleeping Venus enhances the linkage between soft femininity and serene nature, the intuitive brushwork of the natural elements in Rape of Europa promotes the notion that wildness coincides with female hysteria. By allowing the materiality of the oil medium to be expressed in a ‘feminine’ manner, Titian goes beyond mere illusionist representation of the environment in order to evoke the essence of nature whether it be benign or malignant.

 As previously mentioned, a significant factor in the portrayal of landscape in the poesia is the male patron’s interest in the sensuality of female compliance. From the perspective of a Renaissance viewer, a docile landscape would be associated with female submissiveness as seen in the Sleeping Venus. With the depiction of Venus asleep in benign and semi-domesticated nature, her divine potency is subdued allowing the male patron to partake as the dominant beholder of the alluring beauty. The intertwined theme of possession of a beautiful woman and the ownership of land permeated the Renaissance conception of the female in art.[11] Thus, the degree to which landscape is bound up with issues of territorial control creates a ‘masculine’ command of the view.[12] This association between beauty and control is further displayed in the agrarian setting in which man has cultivated the natural scenery; both figure and landscape are once again interconnected by the submissive role they acquire for the benefit of the viewer.

 Sent to King Philip of Spain in 1562 as part of a poesia series, Rape of Europa, also visually articulates the gendered dynamics of power in relation to nature. While the goddess Venus rests within the stillness of terra firma, divine Zeus actively engages with his environment causing the water to stir and precipitation to accumulate. The animated water in reaction to the bull’s movement embodies male strength with disguised Zeus as master of the scene. This interplay between submission and dominance also occurs through the viewer’s psychological relationship to the composition as a whole as he actively participates in looking while the subject and setting passively receive the gaze. Thus, Titian’s gendered landscape in Rape of Europa provides the patron with a complex visual experience of being the dominant observer and the seduced viewer.

Although the Venetian poesia does not acknowledge landscape as an independent genre, artists such as Titian recognized the expressive potential of nature in creating mood and unifying the composition. By creating a natural setting with gendered connotations, Titian’s poesia provides psychological insight into the Renaissance treatment of sexuality. In both Sleeping Venus and Rape of Europa, the congruence between the sensuality of the heroines and their natural surroundings provides insight into the Renaissance conception of femininity in accordance with nature. With Titian’s ‘feminine’ style of brushwork, the formal elements of painting effectively evoke human passion and cosmic energy. While the agreeableness of a pastoral Venus is enhanced through the prolific nature of Arcadia, Europa’s experience of delightful horror is conveyed through the sublime masculine commotion of a seascape. In order to stimulate the viewer to engage with the mythological narrative, the illusion of control is employed through the tension between male dominance and female submission. As viewed in Sleeping Venus and The Rape of Europa, Titian reconciled the biological and social functions of gender to convey a poignant landscape.

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[1] Charles Hope et al., Titian (London: National Gallery London Publications, 2004), 113.

[2] David Rosand, Painting in the Sixteenth Century Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 83.

[3] Ibid., 145.

[4] A. W. Eaton, “Where Ethics and Aesthetic Meet: Titian’s Rape of Europe,” Hypatia, 18, 2003: 162.

[5] Filippo Pedrocco, Titian (New York: Rizzoli, 2001) , 256.

[6] Malsom Andrews, Landscape and Western Art, 133.

[7] David Rosand, Painting in the Sixteenth Century Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, 12.

[8] Ibid., 11.

[9] Charles Hope et al., Titian, 115.

[10] Ian Kennedy, Titian (London: Taschen, 2006), 77.

[11] Rona Goffen, Titian’s Women (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 9.

[12] Malcolm Andrews, Landscape and Western Art (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 157.