There are many different artists from the Renaissance period who we consider to be the forefathers of modern painting or modern art in general. Among the greats like Leonardo or Picasso, there is a man named Tiziano Vecellio also known as Titian. I hadn't heard of Titian before the trip to the National Galleries in DC, but I felt an immediate connection to his work. It is for this reason that I chose to write about his painting Venus with a Mirror. Venus with a Mirror was painted in 1555. It is a fairly large oil painting (49 x 41 9/16 inches), although digital images don't do it justice. As we learned in art history class, this was very common for painters. to choose subjects relating to ancient cultures such as Geek gods or goddesses or Roman mythology. Titian's choice to paint Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, came as a respite from his usual works, which consisted of predominantly Catholic iconography and theme. Compared to other works he made, this piece embodies the ideas of the revival of humanism, secularism and individualism. This essay will explore the visual and conceptual aspects of Titan's Venus with a mirror. The central figure (Venus) dominates the composition and is so carefully modeled that the quality of life that I believe Titian was striving to depict has been fully realized. Her body has a solidarity and overall weight that anchors it to the image plane and demands the viewer's attention. The technical aspects of this painting are in my opinion far from realistic or perfect. Many of the characters' proportions are distorted, such as the proportion of his head in relation to the mass of his body. Cupids also have moments where their bodies are not sized to what we believe to be a baby's body... middle of paper ... those were the days because female nudes were very rare. Titian's representation of the female body is very idealized. there are no hard edges or color changes that give it a youthfulness similar to Cupids. Overall, Titian was able to convey the most ideal embodiment of feminine sensuality and grace while adhering to artistic standards or composition. He took a subject (the female portrait) and supported its beauty with images that solidified an already iconic ideal. Works Cited Titian, Venus with a Mirror. 1555. Oil on canvas. 49 x 41 9/16 in. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC “National Gallery of Art”. Explore this work. http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/highlights/highlight41.html (accessed April 1, 2014). Gombrich, EH. “light and color”. In The History of Art. 16th ed. London: Phaidon Press, 1995. .