Venus and Musician

Painting by Titian

Venus and Musician or Venus with an Organist and a Dog, Prado, c. 1550 Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, with lute-player and Cupid, c. 1555–65 Gemäldegalerie Berlin, organist, dog and Cupid, 115 x 210 cm

Venus and Musician refers to a series of paintings by the Venetian Renaissance painter Titian and his workshop.

Titian's workshop produced many versions of Venus and Musician, which may be known by various other titles specifying the elements, such as Venus with an Organist, Venus with a Lute-player, and so on.[1] Most versions have a man playing a small organ on the left, but in others a lute is being played. Venus has a small companion on her pillows, sometimes a Cupid and in other versions a dog, or in Berlin both.[2] The paintings are thought to date from the late 1540s onwards.

Many of Titian's paintings exist in several versions, especially his nude mythological subjects. Later versions tend to be mostly or entirely by his workshop, with the degree of Titian's personal contribution uncertain and the subject of differing views. All the versions of the Venus and Musician are in oil on canvas, and fall into two proportions and sizes, with two of the organist versions wider.[3]

The five versions generally regarded as at least largely by Titian are, with an organist, the two in Madrid and one in Berlin, and with a lutenist those in Cambridge and New York.[4] Another version in the Uffizi in Florence is less highly regarded, and has no musician, but a Cupid, as well as a black and white dog at the foot of the bed, eyeing a partridge on the parapet.[5]

In all the versions Venus' bed appears to be set in a loggia or against a large open window with a low stone wall or parapet. Venus is shown at full-length, reclining on pillows. The musician sits on the end of the bed with his back to her, but is turned round to look towards her. By contrast she looks away to the right. He wears contemporary 16th-century dress, as do any small figures in the landscape backgrounds, and has a sword or dagger at his belt. A large red drape takes up the top left corner, and the top right corner in the less wide versions. There is a wide landscape outside, falling into two types. The two Prado versions show avenues of trees and a fountain in what seems to be the gardens of a palace. The other versions have a more open landscape, leading to distant mountains.[6]

## Titian's reclining nudes

[edit]

Titian's Venus of Urbino, c. 1534, Uffizi, largely the same pose in reverse Venus and Cupid with Dog and Partridge, mostly Titian's workshop, c. 1555, Uffizi

The painting is the final development of Titian's compositions with a reclining female nude in the Venetian style. After Giorgione's death in 1510 Titian had completed his Dresden Venus, and then around 1534 had painted the Venus of Urbino. A repetition of this from 1545, perhaps a lost recorded Venus sent to Charles V, "was the basis" for the Venus and Musician series.[7] Unlike these, the Cupid in most versions of Venus and Musician does allow a clear identification of the female as Venus, despite the modern decor.[8]

Otherwise the painting falls into the category showing courtesans, though these are also often described as "Venus", if only to retain some propriety. In all an unembarrassed Venus is completely naked, except for a gauzy cloth over her crotch in some versions, but wears several pieces of very expensive jewellery,[9] typical aspects of courtesan pictures.[10] The musician is smartly dressed, and carries a blade weapon, in several versions a large sword with gilded fittings. He could be taken as the client of an expensive Venetian courtesan.

Other reclining nudes are the Pardo Venus (or Jupiter and Antiope, now in the Louvre), "that laboured attempt to recapture his early style",[11] from the mid-1540s. A more original composition and physique, also begun in the mid-1540s, but with versions painted in the 1550s and perhaps 1560s, is used in the series of Danaë paintings, which Kenneth Clark sees as Titian adopting the conventions for the nude prevailing outside Venice; "in the rest of Italy bodies of an entirely different shape had long been fashionable".[12]

For Clark, the Venus of the Venus and Musician versions, where the head changes direction but the body remains exactly the same, is "entirely Venetian, younger sister of all those expensive ladies whom Palma Vecchio, Paris Bordone and Bonifazio painted for local consumption."[13] The nude figures are "rich, heavy and a trifle coarse ... the Venuses of this series are not provocative. The almost brutal directness with which their bodies are presented to us makes them, now that their delicate texture has been removed by restoration, singularly un-aphrodisiac. Moreover, they are far more conventionalized than is evident at first sight."[14]

## Allegory?

[edit]

The erotic appeal of the subject is evident, but some critics have argued for a more allegorical meaning to do with the appreciation of beauty through both the eyes and ears, and the superiority of the former.[15] Whereas the two Prado organists still seem to be playing, with one hand on the keyboard in the first version, and two in the second, the Berlin organist has abandoned playing to gaze at Venus, a point given great significance by Erwin Panofsky, as representing the "triumph of the sense of sight over the sense of hearing".[16] The depiction of the organs has been criticized by organ scholars: "The pipes are too squat, and if they sounded at all would produce a tubby, inelegant wallowing".[17]

The lutenists are able to turn their instruments along with their body, and both seem to continue playing. According to Panofsky, this "means that a musician interrupted in the act of making music by the sight of visual beauty embodied in Venus has been transformed into a musician doing homage to the visual beauty embodied in Venus by the very act of making music. It is difficult to play the organ and to admire a beautiful woman at the same time; but it is easy to serenade her, as it were, to the accompaniment of a lute, while giving full attention to her charms."[18]

The 20th-century fashion for explaining paintings with reference to the subtle doctrines of Renaissance Neoplatonism reached the series, although in the case of Titian there is even more resistance than usual to such explanations. Edgar Wind noted a pictorial convention, seen also in the Pastoral Concert and other works, where divine figures are nude, but mortals clothed. In the Musician paintings "the disparity between mortal and goddess is heightened by a paradox of posture. While the courtier plays music under the inspiration of love ... he does not face the goddess directly, but turns his head over his shoulder to look back at her; he thus enacts the Platonic ἐπιστροφἠ, the reversal of vision by which alone a mortal can hope to face transcendent Beauty".[19] Nonetheless, Wind later describes the composition as "a somewhat tiresome show-piece".[20]

Although there is no inevitable contradiction between an allegorical interpretation and a more straightforward decorative and erotic one, more recent scholars have often rejected or at least played down the allegorical interpretation. Ulrich Middeldorf, in 1947, began the reaction: "The main figures in Titian's Sacred and Profane Love (Galleria Borghese, Rome) possess a dignity and purity that make any high-flung interpretation of the picture seem acceptable. It is quite a unique picture, which we can well imagine as painted to suit the elevated tastes of an extremely refined person. The character of Titian's later Venuses and Danaes, however, seems to place them on an infinitely lower level. They are beautiful, but vulgar in comparison to the Sacred and Profane Love. Also the fact that they were produced in an extraordinary number of replicas does not encourage an attempt to look in them for purity of thought . . . . In brief, the suspicion can hardly be avoided that these pictures were rather 'ornamental furniture' than profound philosophical treatises. And the rooms which they . . . were supposed to decorate, were bedrooms."[21]

## The Prado's two versions

[edit]

The Prado's second version, with a cupid, c. 1555

The earliest record of a version of the composition is one with an organist known to have been painted for Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor when Titian was in Augsburg in 1548, which the emperor then gave to his minister, Cardinal Granvelle. But it is not certain which this is, though both versions in the Museo del Prado in Madrid have been asserted to be it, especially the Venus with an Organist and Dog, the wider of the two (148 x 217 cm; this is Prado 420). This is now thought by the Prado to date to about 1550,[22] so ruling it out of being the original Cardinal Granvelle picture, which was the usual opinion until the Prado revised its date recently.[23] It has a dog and is the only version discussed here with no Cupid. Following the Prado's redating, the version given by Charles V to Granvelle is regarded as missing, and presumed lost.[24]

Although lacking Venus' attribute of Cupid, the painting is always recorded as showing the goddess. Unlike other versions, it is thought that the painting may celebrate a marriage. The woman wears a wedding ring and has none of the traditional attributes of Venus. Compared to other Venuses by Titian, she is not accompanied by a Cupid and "it is the only one in which both figures have individualised features".[25]

Radiography reveals that Titian made alterations during the painting's execution. Originally the work was more daring; Venus lay uninhibitedly with her gaze fixed on the musician, which none of the versions discussed here have. Probably the client or the artist thought that the arrangement was too provocative, so Venus' head was turned, and a lap dog added to give her something to look at, and also touch, so reinforcing any allegory of the senses that might be intended. Venus is now given a more passive role.[26]

It belonged to a lawyer called Francesco Assonica, who was used professionally by Titian and is mentioned as a friend of the artist, and had other Titians.[27] Possibly it was painted for him. It remained in Venice until the 1620s, and was sketched there by Anthony van Dyck, and probably in connection with him acquired for the collection of Charles I of England. After his execution it was bought for £165 by Colonel John Hutchinson at the sale of Charles' art in 1649. The same day Hutchinson paid £600 for Titian's Pardo Venus, or Jupiter and Antiope. In 1651/52 it was bought for £600 by David Teniers the Younger as agent for the Habsburgs, and sent to Madrid for the Spanish royal collection, where it remained before the collection was transferred to the Prado.[28] [29] A number of copies were made during the painting's time in England, and the Royal Collection had one by the time of Charles II of England, which is possibly the good copy they still have.[30]

The Prado's other version, Venus with an Organist and Cupid, (148 x 217 cm, Prado 421, signed "TITIANUS F.") with a Cupid rather than a dog, has been thought by some to date from 1547 to 1548, but they currently date it to c. 1555. Miguel Falomir says that recent x-ray and infra-red reflectography make it clear that this was traced from the other Prado version (though they were not re-united again in the Spanish royal collection for over a century). Titian and his studio often used tracing of the main elements to make replica versions.[31]

This too used to be thought to be Charles V and Granvelle's version from 1648, which the current dating would rule out, if correct. It has been in the Spanish royal collection since at least 1626, when Cassiano del Pozzo recorded it in Madrid, and features in later inventories. It was thought that it was one of Granvelle's painting bought (through imperial arm-twisting) by Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor from Ganvelle's heirs in 1600, and was later given to Philip III of Spain.[32] Hugh Trevor-Roper thought that the organist "has the features of Philip [II]",[33] but this seems to be a minority view among recent sources; the Berlin version has also been thought to show him;[34] Penny draws attention to the variable quality of the Berlin version, and calls the painting of the head "superb", where the drapery is "dull", the organ "routine", but the dog "an inspiration".[35]

## Lutenist versions

[edit]

Venus with an Lutenist, c. 1565–70, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The two main versions of Venus and Cupid with a Lute-player are similar in all but details. The one in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge is the earlier, dated by the museum to 1555–65, measuring 150.5 x 196.8 cm, and attributed just to Titian. It probably belonged to Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, and was certainly in the Imperial Collection in Prague by 1621. It then followed the path of the best of this collection: looted by the Swedes in 1648, taken to Rome by Queen Christina of Sweden when she abdicated, sold to the Orleans Collection after her death, and finally auctioned in London after the French Revolution. It was bought by Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Viscount FitzWilliam in 1798/99, whose bequest of his collections at his death in 1816 founded the museum.[36]

The Metropolitan Museum of Art dates its version, which it calls Venus and the Lute Player, to c. 1565–70 (65 x 82 1/2 inches/165.1 x 209.6 cm), and attributes it to Titian and his workshop. It has been traced from the Cambridge version, and there may well have been a cartoon or a "studio version" for copying kept in Venice.[37] It may have been kept in the studio for many years, being worked on sporadically, as the landscape, which is of high quality, "painted with speed and authority in Titian's freest style",[38] seems to match his style of about 1560, but other parts do not. Possibly it was unfinished at Titian's death in 1576, and then "following his death, certain parts such as Venus's face and hands were brought to a much higher degree of finish", and some areas left unfinished.[39]

The New York version belonged to members of the royal family of Savoy from at the latest 1624 until some time after 1742. It then came to England and was owned by Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (d. 1759) and his heirs until sold to the dealer Joseph Duveen in 1930, who sold it to the museum in 1933.[40] It had been at Holkham Hall in Norfolk, and in older sources may be called the Holkham Venus.[41]

Other versions with a lute-player, perhaps at least from Titian's workshop, are one in Bordeaux, and one destroyed in World War II in Dresden.[42]

## See also

[edit]

* List of works by Titian

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Loh, 41. Venus with an Organist and a Dog and so forth.
2. ^ Loh, 42
3. ^ Falomir, 61–68, and Loh throughout are both analyses of Titian's "replicas and variants"; Christiansen
4. ^ Prado; Christiansen
5. ^ Christiansen
6. ^ Loh, 40–42; McIver, 14–17
7. ^ Falomir, 61–62
8. ^ Bull, 210-211; Falomir, 67. Bull points out that the Dresden Venus originally had a Cupid.
9. ^ McIver, 14
10. ^ Hollander, 314-21, for two views on "courtesan" pictures; Bull, 210-211
11. ^ Clark, 121
12. ^ Clark, 122–123, 122 quoted
13. ^ Clark, 122
14. ^ Clark, 122–123
15. ^ Falomir, 189–190, note 30, summarizes the "passionate debate", as does Christiansen; Prado
16. ^ McIver, 13–20; Panofsky quoted in Yearsley
17. ^ Yearsley
18. ^ McIver, 13–20; Panofsky quoted in Yearsley
19. ^ Wind, 143 note 7. Typically for this territory, Wind notes and dismisses an alternative Neoplatonic interpretation by Otto Brendel.
20. ^ Wind, 273
21. ^ Quoted by Christiansen. Wind's comments quoted above come from a chapter mainly concerned with his "high-flung interpretation" of the Sacred and Profane Love
22. ^ Falomir, 64–65
23. ^ See eg Brotton, 236 or Loh, 40, who predate this revision. But in 1996 the Prado catalogue cited re Prado 421, the other version, thought that was Granvelle's painting.
24. ^ Christiansen
25. ^ Falomir, 66–67; Prado, quoted; McIver, 18–19
26. ^ Prado; McIver, 16
27. ^ Penny, 93
28. ^ Brotton, 236, 270
29. ^ Prado
30. ^ Venus with an Organist, "after Titian, c.1550-1660", Royal Collection page
31. ^ Falomir, 64–66
32. ^ Museo del Prado, Catálogo de las pinturas, 1996, p. 401, Ministerio de Educación y Cultura, Madrid, ISBN 8487317537
33. ^ Trevor-Roper, 52
34. ^ Rearick, W. R. "Titian's Later Mythologies." 24, Artibus Et Historiae 17, no. 33 (1996): 23-67. doi:10.2307/1483551
35. ^ Penny, 283
36. ^ Venus and Cupid with a lute-player Archived 2 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine Fitzwilliam page
37. ^ Christiansen; see Penny, 280–284 for a similar discussion relating to Venus and Adonis.
38. ^ Hartt, 603
39. ^ Venus and the Lute Player Metropolitan page, quoted; Christiansen
40. ^ MMA Provenance section, same webpage as Christiansen
41. ^ For example by Edgar Wind in Wind, 143 note 7 (first published in 1958)
42. ^ McIver, 20 note 7

## References

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Venus with musician (Titian).

* Brotton, Jerry, The Sale of the Late King's Goods: Charles I and His Art Collection, 2007, Pan Macmillan, ISBN 9780330427098
* Bull, Malcolm, The Mirror of the Gods, How Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods, Oxford UP, 2005, ISBN 0195219236
* Christiansen, Keith, Catalogue Entry, Metropolitan Museum website, extracted from ?, 2010
* Clark, Kenneth, The Nude, A Study in Ideal Form, orig. 1949, various edns, page refs from Pelican edn of 1960
* Falomir, Miguel, "Titian's Replicas and Variants", in Jaffé, David (ed), Titian, The National Gallery Company/Yale, London 2003, ISBN 1 857099036
* Freedberg, Sydney J. Painting in Italy, 1500–1600, 3rd edn. 1993, Yale, ISBN 0300055870
* Hartt, Frederick, History of Italian Renaissance Art, (2nd edn.)1987, Thames & Hudson (US Harry N Abrams), ISBN 0500235104
* Hollander, Anne, "Titian and Women", in Feeding the Eye: Essays, 2000, University of California Press, ISBN 0520226593, 9780520226593, google books
* Loh, Maria H., Titian Remade: Repetition and the Transformation of Early Modern Italian Art, 2007, Getty Publications, ISBN 089236873X, 9780892368730, google books (full view)
* McIver, Katherine A., in Carroll, Linda L. (ed), "Sexualities, Textualities, Art and Music in Early Modern Italy", 2017, Routledge, ISBN 1351548980, 9781351548984, google books
* Penny, Nicholas, National Gallery Catalogues (new series): The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume II, Venice 1540–1600, 2008, National Gallery Publications Ltd, ISBN 1857099133
* "Prado": Prado commentary webpage, on their "main" or first version
* Trevor-Roper, Hugh; Princes and Artists, Patronage and Ideology at Four Habsburg Courts 1517–1633, Thames & Hudson, London, 1976, ISBN 0500232326
* Wind, Edgar, Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance, 1967 edn., Peregrine Books

## Further reading

[edit]

* Panofsky, Erwin, Problems in Titian, mostly Iconographic, 1969

* v
* t
* e

Titian

* List of works

Portraits|

* Jacopo Pesaro being presented by Pope Alexander VI to Saint Peter (1503–1506)
* A Man with a Quilted Sleeve (c. 1509)
* La Schiavona (1510–1512)
* A Man
* New York, c. 1512)
* (Indianapolis, c. 1515
* Shepherd with a Flute (c. 1510–1515)
* A Man in a Red Cap (c. 1510–1515)
* A Sick Man (1515)
* A Knight of Malta (c. 1515)
* Jacopo Sannazaro (c. 1514–1518)
* Gian Giacomo Bartolotti da Parma (c. 1515-1518)
* Vincenzo Mosti (c. 1520)
* Young Woman in a Black Dress (c. 1520)
* Man with a Glove (c. 1520)
* Laura Dianti (c. 1520–1525)
* Alfonso I d'Este (1523)
* A Lady (c. 1525–1565)
* Federico II Gonzaga (c. 1529)
* Giacomo di Andrea Dolfin (c. 1531–1532)
* Alfonso d'Avalos with a Page (1533)
* Charles V with a Dog (1533)
* Ippolito de' Medici (1532–1533)
* Giacomo Doria (1533–1535)
* Charles V (1533–1535)
* Isabella d'Este (1534–1536)
* La Bella (1536)
* Girl in a Fur (1536–1538)
* Count Antonio Porcia and Brugnera (c. 1535–1540)
* A Man with a Falcon (c. 1525-1537)
* Eleonora Gonzaga della Rovere (1538)
* Francesco Maria della Rovere (1536-1538)
* Cardinal Pietro Bembo (1539–1540)
* Benedetto Varchi (c. 1540)
* Pope Sixtus IV (c. 1540)
* A Young Englishman (1540–1545)
* Ranuccio Farnese (c. 1542)
* Clarissa Strozzi (1542)
* The Vendramin Family (1543–1547)
* Pietro Aretino (1545)
* Lavinia Vecellio (c. 1545)
* Pope Paul III (1545–1546)
* Pope Paul III with Camauro (1545–1546)
* Pope Paul III and His Grandsons (1545–1546)
* Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (c. 1545–1546)
* Pier Luigi Farnese (1546)
* Andrea Gritti (c. 1546–1550)
* Equestrian Portrait of Charles V (1548)
* Charles V (seated) (1548)
* Isabella of Portugal (1548)
* John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony (c. 1550–1551)
* A General (c. 1550)
* Philip II in Armour (1551)
* Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo (1552)
* Philip II (1554)
* Woman Holding an Apple (c. 1550–1555)
* Girl with a Platter of Fruit (c. 1555–1558)
* Fabrizio Salvaresio (1558)
* An Unknown Lady (c. 1550–1560 – also attributed to Titian's workshop)
* Jacopo Strada (1567–1568)
* A Lady in White (c. 1561)

Self portraits|

* Self-Portrait (1546–1547)
* Self-Portrait (c. 1560)

Secular|

* Detroit Trio (c. 1500 – also attributed to Giorgione and others)
* The Birth of Adonis (c. 1506–1508)
* The Legend of Polydoros (c. 1506–1508)
* Justice (c. 1508)
* Pastoral Concert (c. 1509 – also attributed to Giorgione)
* Dresden Venus (with Giorgione, c. 1510)
* The Lovers (c. 1510 – attributed)
* The Three Ages of Man (c. 1512–1514)
* Sacred and Profane Love (c. 1514)
* The Feast of the Gods (1514)
* Venus and Cupid (1510–1515)
* Lucretia and her Husband Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus (1515)
* The Bravo (c. 1515)
* Flora (c. 1515)
* Vanity (c. 1515)
* Violante (c. 1515)
* Woman with a Mirror (c. 1515)
* The Worship of Venus (1518–19)
* Venus Anadyomene (c. 1520)
* Bacchus and Ariadne (1520–1523)
* The Bacchanal of the Andrians (1523–1526)
* Allegory of Marriage (c. 1530–1535)
* Eleven Caesars (1536–1540)
* Venus of Urbino (1538)
* Alfonso d'Avalos Addressing his Troops (1540)
* Venus and Musician (several versions, 1540s–1570s)
* Tityus (1549)
* Sisyphus (1549)
* Danaë (several versions; 1543–1565)
* Venus and Adonis (several versions)
* Mars, Venus and Amor (c. 1550)
* Pardo Venus (1551)
* Venus with a Mirror (1555)
* Perseus and Andromeda (1554–1556)
* Diana and Actaeon (1556–1559)
* Diana and Callisto (1556–1559)
* The Death of Actaeon (c. 1559–1575)
* The Rape of Europa (c. 1560–1562)
* The Concert (c. 1543–1564)
* Venus Blindfolding Cupid (c. 1565)
* Allegory of Prudence (c. 1565–1570)
* Nymph and Shepherd (c. 1570)
* Tarquin and Lucretia (comp. 1571)
* Flaying of Marsyas (1570–1576)

Religious|

* Christ Carrying the Cross  (c. 1505 – also attributed to Giorgione)
* Bache Madonna (c. 1508)
* Flight into Egypt (c. 1508
* Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c. 1508)
* Lochis Madonna (1508–1510)
* Saint Mark Enthroned (c. 1510)
* The Gypsy Madonna (c. 1510)
* Holy Family with a Shepherd (c. 1510)
* Christ and the Adulteress
* Glasgow, c. 1510)
* (Vienna, c. 1520
* Virgin and Child Between Saints Anthony of Padua and Roch (c. 1511)
* The Resurrected Christ (c. 1511–12)
* Baptism of Christ (c. 1512)
* Virgin and Child with Saints Stephen, Jerome and Maurice (Paris; c. 1510–1525)
* Miracle of the Jealous Husband (1511)
* Balbi Holy Conversation (c. 1513)
* Noli me tangere (c. 1514)
* The Archangel Raphael and Tobias (c. 1512–1514; c. 1540–1545)
* Salome
* Rome, c. 1515)
* (Madrid, c. 1550)
* (Private, c. 1570
* Madonna of the Cherries (1515)
* The Tribute Money (c. 1516)
* Assumption of the Virgin (1516–1518)
* The Virgin and Child with Saint George and Saint Dorothy (1516–1518)
* Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and an Unidentified Saint (c. 1515–1520)
* Madonna and Child with Four Saints (c. 1516–1520)
* Pesaro Madonna (1519–1526)
* Virgin and Child with Saints Anthony Abbot, Jerome and Francis (c. 1519)
* Gozzi Altarpiece (1520)
* Virgin and Child with Saints Stephen, Jerome and Maurice (Vienna; c. 1520)
* Malchiostro Annunciation (c. 1520)
* The Entombment of Christ (c. 1520)
* Averoldi Polyptych (1520–1522)
* Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata (1525)
* The Assassination of Saint Peter Martyr (1529)
* Aldobrandini Madonna (1530)
* Madonna of the Rabbit (1530)
* Madonna of the Roses (c. 1530)
* Penitent Magdalene (1531)
* Saint Jerome in Penitence (1531)
* Pilgrims at Emmaus (c. 1533–1534)
* Supper at Emmaus (c. 1534; c. 1545)
* The Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple (1534–1538)
* Saint John the Baptist (1540)
* Sciarra Madonna (c. 1540)
* The Crowning with Thorns (1542–43)
* Ecce Homo
* Vienna, 1543
* David and Goliath (c. 1542–1544)
* Abraham and Isaac (c. 1543–1544)
* Cain and Abel (c. 1543–1545)
* Serravalle Altarpiece (1548)
* Castello Roganzuolo Altarpiece (1549)
* The Fall of Man (c. 1550)
* Penitent Magdalene (c. 1550)
* Saint Jerome in Penitence (1552)
* The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence (c. 1548–1559)
* La Gloria (1554)
* Christ Appearing to his Mother after his Resurrection (1554)
* Mater Dolorosa with Clasped Hands (c. 1555)
* Saint Jerome in Penitence (1575)
* Crucifixion (1558)
* The Entombment (1559)
* Saint Margaret and the Dragon (c. 1559)
* Annunciation (1559–1564)
* Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria (c. 1560)
* Penitent Magdalene (1565)
* Saint Dominic (c. 1565)
* Judith with the Head of Holofernes (c. 1570)
* Religion saved by Spain (1572–1575)
* Saint Sebastian (c. 1575)
* The Crowning with Thorns (1576)
* Pietà (1576)

Museums|

* Casa natale di Tiziano Vecellio

Related|

* Orazio Vecellio (son)
* Francesco Vecellio (brother)
* Cesare Vecellio (cousin)
* Marco Vecellio (nephew)
* Girolamo di Tiziano (disciple)
* Titian (crater)

* v
* t
* e

Museo del Prado

Buildings

* Villanueva building
* Casón del Buen Retiro
* Hall of Realms
* Cloister of Saint Jerome

Paintings

| Spanish|

* Esquivel: José de Espronceda
* Gisbert: Execution of Torrijos and his Companions on the Beach at Málaga
* Goya: Allegory of Industry – Asmodea – Atropos – Blind Man's Bluff – Boys Playing Soldiers – Charles IV of Spain and His Family – Los caprichos – Christ Crucified – The Clothed Maja – The Colossus – The Countess of Chinchon – Los disparates – The Dog – The Drunk Mason – The Duchess of Alba and la Beata – Fight with Cudgels – Josefa Bayeu – Judith and Holofernes – La Leocadia – Man Mocked by Two Women – La novillada – Portrait of the Marchioness of Santa Cruz – Men Reading – The Milkmaid of Bordeaux – The Naked Maja – The Parasol – A Pilgrimage to San Isidro – Pilgrimage to the Fountain of San Isidro – Saturn Devouring His Son – The Second of May 1808 – Self-Portrait at 69 years – Summer – The Third of May 1808 – Two Old Men – Two Old Ones Eating Soup – The Victorious Hannibal Seeing Italy from the Alps for the First Time – Witches' Flight – Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat)
* El Greco: The Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest – Adoration of the Shepherds – Doña María de Aragón Altarpiece – Annunciation – Christ Carrying the Cross – The Fable – The Flight into Egypt – Holy Face of Jesus – Holy Trinity – Julián Romero and Saint Julian – Portrait of a Doctor – Portrait of a Gentleman – Portrait of a Young Nobleman – Portrait of an Elderly Man – Portrait of an Unknown Gentleman – Portrait of Jerónimo de Cevallos – Portrait of Rodrigo Vázquez de Arce – Saint Andrew and Saint Francis – Saint Anthony of Padua – Saint Bernardino of Siena [1] – Saint James the Great – Saint John the Evangelist – Saint Paul – Saint Sebastian – Saint Thomas the Apostle – Holy Trinity – The Saviour – Virgin Mary
* Luna: The Death of Cleopatra
* Maíno: Adoration of the Magi – Portrait of a Gentleman – The Recovery of Bahía de Todos los Santos
* Murillo: Adoration of the Shepherds (1650) – Aranjuez Immaculate Conception – The Christ Child and the Infant John the Baptist with a Shell – Christ on the Cross (1675, 1677) – The Conversion of Saint Paul – The Good Shepherd – The Holy Family with a Little Bird – The Immaculate Conception of El Escorial – The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables – The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew – Our Lady of the Rosary – The Patrician's Dream – Rebecca and Eleazar
* Pradilla: Doña Joanna the Mad
* Ribera: Jacob's Dream – Democritus – Isaac and Jacob – Ixion – Tityos – The Martyrdom of Saint Philip – The Blind Sculptor
* Sánchez Gallque: The Mulattos of Esmeraldas [2]
* Velázquez: Las Meninas – The Triumph of Bacchus – Las Hilanderas – The Surrender of Breda – Mars Resting – Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV – Equestrian Portrait of Elisabeth of France – Equestrian Portrait of Prince Balthasar Charles – Equestrian Portrait of Philip III – Equestrian Portrait of Margarita of Austria – Equestrian Portrait of the Count-Duke of Olivares – Adoration of the Magi – Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan – Christ Crucified – Coronation of the Virgin – View of the Garden of the Villa Medici – Prince Balthasar Charles as a Hunter – Portrait of the Infante Don Carlos – Doña Antonia de Ipeñarrieta y Galdós and Her Son Don Luis – The Jester Barbarroja – The Jester Calabacillas – The Jester Don Diego de Acedo – The Jester Don John of Austria – Portrait of Francisco Lezcano – Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Pink Dress – Portrait of Maria Anna – Portrait of Juan Martínez Montañés – The Nun Jerónima de la Fuente – Portrait of Pablo de Valladolid – Portrait of Philip IV in Armour – Portrait of Mariana of Austria – Portrait of Sebastián de Morra
* Zurbarán: Agnus Dei – The Death of Hercules – The Defence of Cádiz Against the English – Hercules and the Hydra – Hercules Separates Mounts Calpe and Abylla – Hercules Fighting the Nemean Lion – Saint Elizabeth of Portugal – Saint Luke Painting the Crucifixion – Saint Peter Nolasco's Vision of Saint Peter the Apostle – Still Life with Pots – The Vision of Saint Peter Nolasco

|

Dutch,
Flemish,
German|

* Anonymous: The Fountain of Life
* Baldung: The Ages and Death
* Bosch: The Garden of Earthly Delights – Adoration of the Magi – Cutting the Stone – The Haywain Triptych – Head of a Halberdier – The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things – The Temptation of St Anthony
* Bouts: Triptych with Scenes from the Life of the Virgin
* Bruegel the Elder: The Triumph of Death – The Wine of Saint Martin's Day – Excursion in the Countryside of Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia – Life in the Countryside – The Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia in the Mariemont Park (with de Momper) – Landscape (with de Momper) – The Five Senses (with Rubens)
* Campin: Marriage of the Virgin – Werl Triptych
* de Crayer: Caritas Romana (1625)
* David: Rest on the Flight into Egypt
* Dürer: Adam and Eve – Self-Portrait
* van Dyck: Self-portrait with Sir Endymion Porter – The Betrayal of Christ – The Brazen Serpent – Diana and a Nymph Surprised by a Satyr – Saint Rosalia – The Crowning with Thorns
* van Hemessen: The Surgeon
* Francken the Younger: The Sciences and the Arts
* Jordaens: Apollo as Victor over Pan – Meleager and Atalanta – The Painter's Family
* Memling: Adoration of the Magi
* Mengs: Portrait of José Nicolás de Azara
* de Momper: Landscape with Sea and Mountains – A Farm – Flemish Market and Washing Place – Landscape with Skaters – The Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia in the Mariemont Park (with Brueghel the Elder) – Landscape (with Brueghel the Elder)
* Patinir: Landscape with Charon Crossing the Styx
* Rembrandt: Judith at the Banquet of Holofernes
* Rubens: The Judgement of Paris (1638) – The Three Graces – Adoration of the Magi – The Dance of the Villagers – Diana and Callisto – Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma – The Fall of Man – The Garden of Love – The Birth of the Milky Way – The Rape of Europa – The Rape of Ganymede – Saint George and the Dragon – Saturn – The Triumph of the Church – Deucalion and Pyrrha – The Five Senses (with Brueghel the Elder)
* Stom: The Incredulity of Saint Thomas
* Strobel: Feast of Herod with the Beheading of St John the Baptist
* Teniers the Younger: Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Painting Gallery in Brussels (1651)
* Verhaecht: Alpine Landscape
* van der Weyden: The Descent from the Cross – Durán Madonna

Italian|

* Fra Angelico: Annunciation
* Anguissola: Portrait of Elisabeth of Valois – Portrait of Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia [3] – Portrait of Giovanni Battista Caselli
* Barocci: Nativity
* Bellini: Madonna and Child with Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint Ursula
* Botticelli: The Story of Nastagio Degli Onesti, part one
* Caravaggio: David and Goliath
* Carracci: Assumption of the Virgin – Mural Paintings from the Herrera Chapel – Venus, Adonis and Cupid
* Correggio: Noli me tangere – Madonna and Child with the Infant John the Baptist
* A. Gentileschi: The Birth of Saint John the Baptist
* O. Gentileschi: The Finding of Moses (1633)
* Leonardo: Mona Lisa (by his studio)
* Lotto: Portrait of Marsilio Cassotti and His Bride Faustina
* Mantegna: Death of the Virgin
* Parmigianino: Holy Family with Angels – Portrait of Camilla Gonzaga and Her Three Sons – Portrait of Pier Maria Rossi di San Secondo – Saint Barbara
* Raphael: Portrait of a Cardinal – Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary – Madonna of the Rose – Visitation – La Perla (with Romano)
* Romano: Holy Family under an Oak Tree
* Andrea del Sarto: Sacrifice of Isaac
* Tintoretto: Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet – Joseph and Potiphar's Wife – Judith and Holofernes (by his studio) – The Washing of the Feet
* Tiepolo: The Immaculate Conception
* Titian: The Bacchanal of the Andrians – Equestrian Portrait of Charles V – The Fall of Man – Alfonso d'Avalos Addressing his Troops – Danaë Receiving the Golden Rain (1565) – The Entombment – La Gloria – Virgin and Child Between Saints Anthony of Padua and Roch – Mater Dolorosa with Clasped Hands – Philip II in Armour – Portrait of Charles V with a Dog – Portrait of Federico II Gonzaga – Portrait of Isabella of Portugal – Sisyphus – Tityus – Religion saved by Spain – Salome \- Self-Portrait (1567) – Saint Margaret and the Dragon – Venus and Adonis (1554) – Venus and Musician (1550, 1555) – The Virgin and Child with Saint George and Saint Dorothy – The Worship of Venus
* Veronese: Venus and Adonis – Christ Among the Doctors – The Finding of Moses

French|

* Anonymous: Agony in the Garden
* Baudry: The Pearl and the Wave
* van Loo: The Family of Philip V (1743)
* Lorrain: Landscape with St Paula of Rome Embarking at Ostia – The Ford – Landscape with St María de Cervelló – Landscape with the Burial of St Serapia – Landscape with the Finding of Moses – Landscape with the Temptation of St Anthony – Landscape with Tobias and Raphael
* Poussin: Parnassus – Landscape with Three Figures – Saint Cecilia
* Ranc: The Family of Philip V (1723) – Portrait of Ferdinand VI as a Boy
* Watteau: Marriage Contract and Country Dancing
* Vouet: Time Defeated by Love, Beauty and Hope

Other|

* British paintings

Sculptures

| Rome|

* The Apotheosis of Claudius
* Castor and Pollux

|

* [1] On display at El Greco Museum in Toledo
* [2] On display at Museo de América in Madrid
* [3] On display at the Spanish Embassy in Paris

* Category

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*[c.]: circa