Venus with the Organ Player

Venus, accompanied by Cupid, is lying on a ceremonial couch in an open loggia. Her slightly raised torso is set against the background of a red velvet curtain, which covers the right upper third of the picture and opens up a view of an extensive landscape in the centre. On the left, at the foot of the couch, a well-dressed cavalier is sitting in front of the organ; his hands are on the keyboard but he has eyes only for the goddess’s bare beauty. The unusual combination of Venus and organ player, which exists in a few other variations, is an iconographic innovation by Titian. There are contradictory hypotheses about the origins and interpretation of the painting: some say that the picture follows neo-Platonic ideas by symbolically representing the senses of seeing and hearing as they recognise beauty. But this is countered by the notion that the nude female figure is a lady or courtesan who is being wooed by the organist with the aid of his music, with Cupid interpreted