Venus Anadyomene (Titian)

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Venus Anadyomene
Titian, c.1520
Oil on canvas
75.80 × 57.60 cm
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

Venus Anadyomene (Greek - literally Venus rising from the sea), is a c.1520 oil painting by Titian, depicting Venus (identified by the shell bottom left - she was said to have been born from a shell) rising from the sea and wringing her hair, either after bathing or after her birth. The shell is smaller than usual in birth of Venus scenes (such as Botticelli's), and is likely just an identifier rather than a sure sign that this is a birth of Venus scene.

The voluptuousness of the Venus presented, and her sideways glance, also owe much to the Crouching Venus and Cnidian Venus types of antique sculpure. The wringing of her hair is a direct imitation of Apelles's lost masterwork of the same title (in which the goddess was also washing her hair - a fact mentioned in Pliny's Natural History), deliberately included by Titian to prove that he could rival the art of antiquity.

The painting is in exceptionally fine condition. It was once owned by Christina of Sweden, and later became part of the collection of the 6th Duke of Sutherland, who loaned it (with 26 other paintings) to the National Galleries of Scotland in 1945. On his death in 2000, it was acquired from his son (who said the family had wanted the painting to stay exactly where it was), for more than £11m in 2003, with the aid of the National Arts Collection Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation), £7.6m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and £2.5m from the Scottish Executive. To facilitate the sale, £2.4m of the picture's value was offset against inheritance tax. The market value has been estimated at £20m. After the sale, the 7th Duke said "To all intents and purposes nothing has changed, except the painting will now belong to the nation." Its Accession no. is NG 2751.