The Birth Of Venus Of Urbino Analysis

Throughout the history of art human form, female nude is always a muse for artists. Sandro Botticelli depicted the goddess Venus in Birth of Venus and Titian created the standard for representations of the reclining female nude, Venus of Urbino in 1538. The both works have their own beauty, but there are always differences to allow each painting to stand on its own. There are special aspects on Rembrandt’s interpretation on Bathsheba Reading King David's Letter such as the nude’s gesture, emotions, composition and background will be discussed in this paper to analyze what did this painting reveal about the role of nude in the 17th century.

Rembrandt van Rijn was born on July 15,1606, in Leyden, Netherlands. Rembrandt went to school at

The scene depicts a moment from biblical narrative of King David, (II Samuel: Ch. XI: 1-27). Bathsheba is reading a letter from King David. In addition to bible text, Rembrandt captures the moment of Bathsheba is reading the letter from King David. He depicted Bathsheba as a young pretty woman with her eyes with sorrow. Nudity was the principle attribute in Rembrandt's Bathsheba Reading King David's Letter. Rembrandt’s painting can be read to exude a moral and erotic narrative, highlighting Bathsheba as both a sinner and a victim. There is variety of interpretations of this painting. Regarding the painting, the body, emotion, composition and background reveals the role of nude in the 17th century in this

Bathsheba is painted in life-size in a 56x56 inch canvas. Rembrandt is known as the light and shade and as an artist who favored an uncompromising realism that would lead to the criticism that he preferred ugliness to beauty, which he greatly demonstrate his skills in this painting. The figure is placed on the shading background to set off the brightly lit body. The result is to now focus all attention on Bathsheba. No other painting founded her nude figure as such a dominating charisma. Rembrandt’s painting of 1654 depicts a life-size Bathsheba whose brightly lit nude body completely dominates the canvas. At her feet sits an old woman – her figure enveloped in a deep shadow and cropped on two sides by the frame – who is attending to Bathsheba’s right foot. In her right hand Bathsheba holds a letter, of which only blank back is visible. He applied the contrast of the old woman’s wrinkle with Bathsheba’s youthful female beauty. This eye-catching letter and the old woman, together with the young woman’s nudity and beauty, were the motifs that enabled the 17th century viewer to identify the main figure as Bathsheba. Furthermore, it was a unique approach on putting emphasis on the main figure by a very dark background and highlighted the figure. If in earlier paintings Rembrandt had made the bodies of his nudes stand out sharply against a very dark