Édouard Manet's Olympia and the Venus of Urbino: At the Sources of an Erotic and Pictorial Scandal
- Art d'Histoire
- May 28
- 3 min read
Paris, in the heart of the nineteenth century.
Manet's Olympia is inspired by Titian's Venus of Urbino. No one, or almost no one, notices.
Why? Olympia is judged too crudely erotic to be compared to Titian's masterpiece. Yet, the Venus had, in its time, been an erotic "fetish," a dimension buried in favour of its academic canonisation. A look back at a double hypocrisy.
The Salon of 1865 opens with one of the greatest scandals in the history of modern art: the exhibition at the Salon of the work Olympia, painted by Édouard Manet.
Manet, as is his habit, adapts a classical painting, the Venus of Urbino; only one critic, Cantaloube, notices it, but is offended. One dares to profane Titian's model under the guise of a frontally exposed and poorly painted prostitute.
This was to forget that Venus, in its time, had been a highly erotic canvas.
The Demythologisation of Academic Beauty
Was Titian's Venus the portrait of an ancient divinity?
The patron of the work, Duke Guidobaldo, as well as the inventories of the court of Urbino written in 1623 and 1631, make no mention of a Venus in the collections. The painting is very prosaically recorded under the terms "reclining woman" or "donna nuda." It was the historian Vasari who, in the absence of any traditional divine attribute such as a Cupid, would use the name Venus in a purely generic capacity.
The detailed study of symbols, conducted by Rona Goffen, allows the work to be reintegrated into its original—and, to say the least, sulphurous—domestic reality. The undressed young woman takes her place in an interior featuring a cassone—a marriage chest often adorned with voluptuous scenes intended to exalt the sexuality of the couple. The most striking detail lies in the attitude of the model's hand.
During the Renaissance, medicine validated the theory of "double seed," actively encouraging female stimulation to optimise the chances of procreation. This hand gesture was therefore by no means a posture of academic modesty, but took on an erotic and procreative function.
Time passes, and the Venus eventually causes great embarrassment even among the Duke's own heirs.
Technical Evidence of Moral Censorship
A copy of the work is commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who was by no means fooled by the licentious character of the "donna nuda." He asks Titian to create the replica using the features of his own mistress, the courtesan Angela. The Venus hides the portrait of his beauty.
However, in the time of the demure Counter-Reformation, this eroticism is no longer acceptable. Modern technical examinations, notably radiography, have revealed the successive alterations undergone by the canvas.
To tone down the carnal reference, the mistress's face was repainted and the head, tilted, made her unrecognisable. Above all, the famous hand judged immodest was hidden under a cloth, the figure of the woman transformed into a Danaë. The original erotic dimension no longer had a place, except within the myth accepted by all academies.
The sulphurous reclining woman was taking the path toward institutionalisation.
The Affront of 1865: The Return of Plebeian Flesh
It is in this context of historical amnesia that Manet unveils his Olympia. The Parisian critics unleash their fury.
The chronicler Amédée Cantaloube and a critic signing under the pseudonym Pierrot—who might be one and the same person according to the historian T. J. Clark—violently attack this degrading imitation of the Venus of Urbino. They compare the Parisian woman to a female gorilla mimicking the Venetian composition, taking offense, of course, at the immodest clenching of the hand, when women are by nature so weary... when they are healthy!
Our videoconference on Olympia revisits the causes of the amnesia that seized the critics, who were otherwise seasoned in searching for classical precedents in contemporary painting. It is available via open access.
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