Titian's Influence

Venus and Adonis (1550s) by Titian

     Titian was a master painter in the sixteenth century that Peter Paul Rubens greatly admired and used as inspiration for many works. 

     After Rubens was knighted by King Philip, the grandson of Charles V, the king who had knighted Titian, Rubens became a man obsessed. He felt there was now a connection between himself and Titian, his idol. To Rubens, there was no higher honor than being bestowed the same award as Titian himself. Rubens found himself adding in Titian's elements to his paintings. His landscapes were dosed with Titian's pastoral work. Rubens's soft, sensual women were created from Titian's own version of women, leading Rubens to create his trademark 'Rubenesque' style of painting women.

     Rubens also began emulating Titian's works, recreating every painting of Titian's that his patron owned. Before Rubens painted Venus and Adonis, he had performed a study on Titian's version of the painting, recreating it in his own hand. Rubens then decided he was not content merely with emulating Titian's masterpieces and instead he needed to create his own version of Titian's painting Venus and Adonis. 

      As seen above, Rubens's version of Venus and Adonis is strikingly similar to Titian's. They both feature the same moment in the myth, with Venus reaching out in hopes of stopping Adonis from embarking on his fateful final hunt. Unlike Titian's, however, Rubens's shows Adonis from behind and looking at Venus over his shoulder. Titian's version shows the opposite happening, with Adonis shown straight on with the same pleasantly amused expression on his face as he gazes down at a now-backward Venus. This gives Rubens's later painting a feeling of having been rendered as a study of Titian's, or as though Rubens was paying homage to the great painter.