When beauty withstands the test of almost 500 years, it is truly La Bella. Painted in oil on canvas in 1536, Titan's masterpiece, La Bella: Woman in a Blue Dress exhibits a glimpse into the sensuality of Venetian style. On view until November 20, 2011 at the Nevada Museum of Art (NMA), the recently restored classic portrait is available to the public. On Friday, October 7th at noon, Art Historian Brett Van Hoesen displayed a series of slides and lecture with questions and answers at NMA on the topic of Renaissance Portraiture. La Bella was compared to other of Titan's works including The Portrait of the Duke of Urbino, 1536, The Duchess of Urbino, 1536, Woman in a Fur Coat, 1536, and the Venus of Urbino,1538. Many questions surround the identity of the female model inTitan's female portraiture, particularly those painting commissioned by the Duke of Urbino himself. In the era of Venetian wealth and prosperity was La Bella a mistress or Courtesan of the prosperous Duke? The jewels adorning her delicate face and elegant costume would suggest as much.
My questions along this line were, would the Duchess of Urbino allow such portraits to hang in her castle?
The answer was that this was an early form of pornography which met some need of the Duke's.
After a close-up inspection of the treasured painting I would also inquire as to the age of the model? She appears to be in her early teens to me, which brings up other issues of child pornography. Who would have thought?
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