Venus and the Lute Player

Titian and his workshop painted the theme of Venus and a musician in multiple versions during the latter part of his career. Venus’s contours would be transferred to a new canvas and laid in by the workshop, varying the composition. In this majestic example, Titian fully painted the landscape as well as attended to the flesh tones of Venus, but other parts, such as the viol, remained unfinished. These paintings celebrate the coming together of love and music, but they may also allude to contemporary debates concerning "seeing" versus "hearing" as the primary means for perceiving beauty. (Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)