A Quantitative Survey of

Iconography of Venus in Italian Art from the Middle Ages to Modern Times by

K. Bender [email protected] 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Introduction Methodology Analysis and results Conclusions References

1. Introduction The survey of the iconography of Venus in Italian art from the Middle Ages to Modern Times, discussed in this paper, is based upon a compilation of 1840 artworks from 649 Italian artists. The catalogue, recently published (Bender 2007), is probably the largest available, in spite of the fact that the types of artworks considered are limited to sculptures, reliefs, paintings, frescos, drawings, prints and illustrations of identified artists, i.e. anonymous artists were not included. The ‘Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300-1990s’ (Reid 1993) lists about 650 artworks of this kind. Obviously, such an inventory can never be fully exhaustive but can only be judged as a fair sample of the indefinite number of artworks with the subject ‘Venus’, created by an unknown number of Italian artists. The size of the sample allows for a quantitative analysis of topics and distribution of works and artists over the time considered. The methodology of the compilation and a tentative analysis with results are presented hereafter.

2. Methodology The compilation is based solely either on the use of the Roman name ‘Venus’ (or her Greek counterpart ‘Aphrodite’) in the title of the work - given by its creator or used by the owner - or on a subject closely related to ‘Venus’, i.c. the story of the ‘Judgement of Paris’ and the ‘Tale of Psyche’. No attempt has been made to interpret artworks which seemingly refer to ‘Venus’ but which do not bear her name in the title. In a few cases, however, such artworks are identified in the catalogue if the owner or art scholars explicitly refer to ‘Venus’ in the description of the artwork. Works related to the paleohistoric ‘so-called Venus’ are not considered.

1

Only those artists born in Italy are catalogued, but some non-native artists have been added because their work was solely or for the large part created in Italy and is therefore regarded as Italian (e.g. GIAMBOLOGNA, born in Boulogne). The many Italian artists who worked abroad are of course included. The catalogue entries comprise the artworks, ordered by 18 main topics and, - within a topic or subtopic - listed chronologically, giving essential details on the date of creation, the artist, the title(s) of the work, the type of work and its size, the owner, the inventory number of the owner, the source(s) of information and the reference numbers of the author of the catalogue. The interested reader is referred to the section ‘Guide to the Catalogue’ of the publication for a full description of the methodology applied: in this paper we highlight only three crucial aspects of the methodology.

2.1.

The choice of topics

The choice of topics is based on well-established characteristics or attributes of Venus and on her classical companions. In order to limit for practical purposes the number of topics, certain topics have been grouped together in a reasonable way. Thus we have: 1.Allegories (Garden of Venus, Hymen, Love, Music, Spring) / Planet Venus 1. Allegories (Garden of Venus, Hymen, Love, Music, Spring) / Planet Venus 2. Apotheosis/Sacrifice/Temple/Triumph/Worship of Venus 2. Apotheosis/Sacrifice/Temple/Triumph/Worship of Venus 3. Attributes of Venus (apple, chariot, doves, mirror, roses, swans, torch, tortoise) 3. Attributes of Venus (apple, chariot, doves, mirror, roses, swans, torch, tortoise) 4. Birth of Venus/Venus Anadyomene/Venus Marina/dolphins/sea & shells/fountains & water 4. Birth of Venus/Venus Anadyomene/Venus Marina/dolphins/sea & shells/fountains & 5. Toilet/Bath water of Venus/Venus crouching 6. Venus and Adonis 5. Toilet/Bath of Venus/Venus crouching 7. Venus andand Anchises, 6. Venus AdonisAeneas (see also Vulcan) 8. Venus andand Anteros/Cupid 7. Venus Anchises, Aeneas (see also Vulcan) 9. Venus andand Cupids 8. Venus Anteros/Cupid 10. 9. Venus and theCupids Judgement of Paris/Venus with Helen and Paris Venus and 11. 10. Venus andand Mars also Vulcan) Venus the(see Judgement of Paris/Venus with Helen and Paris 12. 11. Venus andand other Gods, or Heroes (Apollo, Bacchus, Ceres, Diana, Diomedes, Venus Mars (seeDeities also Vulcan) Europa, Flora, Graces/Nymphs, Hercules, Juno, Jupiter, Mercury, Minerva, Neptun, Pluto, 12. Venus and other Deities or Heroes (Apollo, Bacchus, Ceres, Diana, Diomedes, Pygmalion, Saturn orGods, Chronos or Time) Europa, Flora, Graces/Nymphs, Hercules, Juno, Jupiter, Mercury, Minerva, Neptun, 13. Venus andPygmalion, Psyche Saturn or Chronos or Time) Pluto, 14. 13. Venus andand Satyrs Venus Psyche 15. 14. Venus andand Vulcan (see also Aeneas, Mars) Venus Satyrs 16. 15. Venus asleep/ Urbino/ Venus with the Musician Venus and Venus Vulcanof(see also Aeneas, Mars) 17. 16. Venus statues (armata, Cesarini, Felix, Genetrix, Venus asleep/ VenusCallipyga, of Urbino/Capitolina/Knidos, Venus with the Musician Italica/Hope, Mazarin, Medici, Milo, pudica, Victrix) 17. Venus statues (armata, Callipyga, Capitolina/Knidos, Cesarini, Felix, Genetrix, unaccompanied 18. Venus Italica/Hope, Mazarin, Medici, Milo, pudica, Victrix) 18. Venus unaccompanied

2

This choice and grouping is not without ambiguity: for example, a work with the title Garden of Venus (under 1. Allegories) can also be listed under 2. Apotheosis…Worship of Venus; the attribute mirror features often in works entitled Toilet of Venus or Venus at her mirror; roses are related to Adonis; the apple is linked to Venus Victrix, and so on. This simply means that the given sample of works could be re-ordered in several ways and thus a well-defined approach is needed. The title of the work is the starting point. In many cases, however, the given title of the work is too general and does not allow for a topical cataloguing: in this case a full description and/or visual inspection of the work is needed. This also enables the definition of subtopics and subdivisions, as applied in the catalogue, whenever the total number of works under a main topic was too large for efficient ordering.

2.2 The identity of the artist/creator The artist of the artwork may be identified, but where there is uncertainty, this is expressed by the wording “attributed to…”. Other expressions used include: “workshop/studio of…” which indicates that the creator was taught by, or worked under the guidance of the named artist; and “circle of…”means that the creator was part of the immediate entourage of the named artist. In all these cases we accepted the identification of the named artist for the given artwork, assuming that the artwork was created during the lifetime of the named artist. Works by unknown artists, described “after …” or “follower of …”, often with a later date of creation, did not receive a catalogue entry; this is also the case for works generally identified under the name “School of…” or “Italian Art”.

2.3 Replicas and copies A replica is a work resembling very closely the original, made by the artist (or attributed to or by his/her circle or workshop/studio) of the original. Replicas were accounted for in the number of works. A work is a copy of the original if produced by another artist, often unidentified. If the artist of the copy is both identified and Italian, then the work has been given a separate entry and was thus enumerated in the number of works. Prints (woodcuts, engravings, etchings, lithographs, silk-screens) or illustrations (illuminations, book-illustrations, ex-libris) by identified Italian creators have been accounted for in the number of works. Copies of prints or illustrations and copies of (bronze) sculptures have not been numbered.

3. Analysis and results The data of the analysis are summarized in Table 1, which shows the number of artworks ordered by the 18 main topics and distributed over 13 separate periods of 50 years, from –1399 to 1950+ (up to 2007). Percentages with respect to the total number of works (1840) per topic and per period are also given in the table as well as the number of artists (total 649) with assumed main activity and associated percentages per period. Estimating 3

main activity of the artist in a given period of 50 years is rather difficult and in many cases the date of creation of an artwork is not well known, but the graph in Fig.1 gives a clear picture (Fig.1). The trend is admittedly well known: the “Venus” subject became very popular during the 16th century (1500-1599) with 39.5 % of the total number of works created by 28.6 % of the total number of artists. The popularity of the subject as well as the number of artists who found inspiration in the subject, decreased steadily thereafter and reached its lowest point during the 19th century, particularly during the period 1850-1899 (only 1.7 % of works, created by 3.5 % of artists). The last century (1900- up to 2007) showed a slight increase again with 6.9 % of works by 14.2 % of artists. The trend lines, calculated as the moving average of two periods, illustrate this tendency. Also of interest is the relative importance of the 18 main topics and the change of this over time (Fig.2). “Venus and Adonis” (13,2 % overall), next to the perennial “Venus and Cupid” (16.2 % overall), were for a long time the most popular topics, but disappeared almost completely in the late 19th and in the 20th century. Most other topics also disappeared in the 19th century or later, but “Birth of Venus” (5.2 % overall) and “Venus statues” (4.0 % overall) have remained a source of inspiration for 20th century artists, alongside “Venus unaccompanied” which was also well represented earlier in the 16th century (9.2 % overall). Fig.1 Distribution and trend lines of artworks and artists

Number of artworks/artists

400 350 300 Artworks

250

Artists

200

2 per. Mov. Avg. (Artworks)

150

2 per. Mov. Avg. (Artists)

100 50 0 -1399 1450- 1550- 1650- 1750- 1850- 1950+ 99 99 99 99 99

Period

There is a strong correlation, not surprisingly, between the number of artists and the number of works in each period, as shown in Fig.3. The statistical measure for the linear correlation is the coefficient R = 0.95 (the maximum would be 1). A polynomial trend line is also shown.

4

5 7 26 9 18 9

4 2 4 0 22

1 1 1 0 5

3

9 0 1 2 0

2

12 2

3 3

96 5,22 71 3,86 242 13,15 49 2,66 299 16,25 53 2,88

13 14 15 16

11 Venus and Mars 12 Venus and other Gods, etc

26 29

25 35

15 19

5

16 11

13 11

7 12

4 5

3 0

3 0

649 100,00

46 2,50 74 4,02 170 9,24 1840 100,00 100,00

7,01 3,15 2,77 4,89

5 0 39 8 30 8

6 4

129 58 51 90

11 9 31 15 29 12

11 4

3 20 27 16 13 12 24 11 3 Venus and Psyche 3 40 2 1 4 6 2 Venus and Satyrs 2 11 8 9 16 5 Venus and Vulcan 22 15 13 11 17 10 2 Venus asleep/ Urbino/ Venus with the Musician 1 10 13 5 3 1 3 3 2 5 17 Venus statues 1 0 1 12 9 5 4 4 5 14 6 5 8 18 Venus unaccompanied 2 3 40 23 17 4 0 5 7 7 18 44 TOTALS 5 8 38 355 371 268 195 187 164 91 31 40 87 % 0,27 0,43 2,07 19,29 20,16 14,57 10,60 10,16 8,91 4,95 1,68 2,17 4,73 Number of artists with main 5 8 35 95 91 82 62 54 61 41 23 37 55 activity in the period % 0,77 1,23 5,39 14,64 14,02 12,63 9,55 8,32 9,40 6,32 3,54 5,70 8,47

13 20 53 7 56 5

8 7

6,63 6,96

3 3

2

18 24 62 4 74 5

7 4

122 128

1 2 3 1

1

1

15 6 22 2 60 13

3

3 3

3,10 3,21

4 13

57 59

7 20

3 1

1

1

2,50

%

- 1400- 1450- 1500- 1550- 1600- 1650- 1700- 1750- 1800- 1850- 19001950+ 1399 49 99 49 99 49 99 49 99 49 99 49 TOTALS 46 2 2 7 9 7 9 2 2 2 3 1

5 3

1 Allegories of Venus/Planet 2 Apotheosis/Sacrifice/Temples/ Triumph/Worship of Venus 3 Attributes of Venus 4 Birth of Venus/Venus Anadyomene/Venus Marina 5 Toilet/Bath/Venus crouching 6 Venus and Adonis 7 Venus and Anchises, Aeneas 8 Venus and Anteros/Cupid 9 Venus and Cupids 10 Venus and Judgement of Paris/ Venus with Helen

TOPICS/PERIODS

Table 1. Data of works per topic/period and artists per period

Number of artworks

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Fig.1 Distribution of topics

12.Others

11.Mars

10.Paris 9.Cupids

8.Cupid

6

Topics 1 to 18

18.Unaccompanied 17.Statues 16.Asleep

15.Vulcan 14.Satyrs 13.Psyche

7.Aeneas

6.Adonis

5.Toilet

4.Birth

3.Attributes

2.Apotheosis

1.Allegories

-1399 1400-49 1450-99 1500-49 1550-99 1600-49 1650-99 Periods 1700-49 1750-99 1800-49 1850-99 1900-49 1950+

of 50 years

Fig.3 Correlation between artists and artworks in each period (R=0.95) 400

Number of artworks

350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Number of artists

The average number of artworks per artist is almost 3 (1840/649 = 2.8). However, a detailed analysis of the data per artist shows that 57 % of artists created only one work and less than 8 % created more than 10 works with the subject “Venus”. These results are presented in Fig.4.

% of total number of artists

Fig.4 Number of artworks per artist 60

50

40

30

20

10

0 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Number of artworks

Finally, Table 2 ranks the 10 most productive artists, starting with Francesco ALBANI who created 42 works (rank 100).

7

100

Table 2. Ranking of the most productive artists Name Rank ALBANI, Francesco (1578-1660) 100 CAMBIASO, Luca (1527-1585) 86 TIZIANO, Vecellio (c1488-1575) 83 GIORDANO, Luca (1632-1705) 71 ROMANO, Giulio (c1492-1546) 67 RAIMONDI, Marcantonio (c1480-c1527) 64 RICCI, Sebastiano (1639-1734) 64 RAFFAELLO, Sanzi (1483-1520) 60 VERONESE, Paolo (c1528-1588) 60 CANOVA, Antonio (1757-1822) 55

4. Conclusion This survey of the iconography of Venus in Italian art from the Middle Ages to Modern Times, limited to sculptures, reliefs, paintings, frescos, drawings, prints and illustrations of identified Italian artists, is based on a fair sample of the indefinite number of artworks made by an unknown number of artists (Bender 2007). The methodology of the compilation is discussed and the selected 18 main topics of the iconography are briefly introduced. The size of the sample (1840 artworks) enables a detailed analysis and a tentative approach is presented. The data, presented for 13 periods of 50 years (Table 1), give support to the well-known fact that the popularity of the subject “Venus” suddenly reached a peak in the period 1500-1599 and steadily decreased thereafter to its lowest point in the period 1850-1899 (Fig.1). There was a slight increase again in the 20th century, mainly with topics “Venus unaccompanied”, “Venus statues” and “Birth of Venus” as sources of inspiration. All other topics, which proved popular in former periods, such as “Venus and Cupid” or Venus and Adonis”, have very nearly disappeared (Fig.2). The data also show that a majority (57 %) of the 649 identified artists created only one “Venus”-work (Fig.4). Among the ten most “productive” creators are well known artists such as TIZIANO, RAFFAELLO, VERONESE, CANOVA and others (Table 2). The author is extending the survey towards other groups of artists (i.e. French artists, artists of the Low Countries, of other European countries) This will offer opportunities for further analysis and support documented comparison studies. Comments are most welcome and can be sent to .

5. References Bender, K. (2007) The Iconography of Venus from the Middle Ages to Modern Times. Vol. 1.1 The Italian Venus: a topical catalogue of sculptures, reliefs, paintings, frescos, drawings, prints and illustrations of identified Italian artists. 156 pp. Published as a hard copy book or a pdf-document by www.lulu.com under the Creative Commons License Deed. Reid, J.D. (1993) The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300-1990s. Two volumes, 1310 pp. Oxford University Press, New York & Oxford. This document (8 pp., January 2008) is free for downloading at http://www.lulu.com/content/1916009 or http://stores.lulu.com/benderk

8