Aphrodite1.0071

Titian, 1488/1490-1576, “Venus with a Mirror,” ca. 1555, oil on canvas, Washington, National Gallery of Art, Andrew W. Mellon Collection 1937.1.34.

Titian enhances his adaptation of the Capitoline Venus, covering and revealing her upper body simultaneously, by placing her in her toilet gazing at herself in a mirror. The conceit of the painting’s voyeurism (scopophilia) plays famously in Hitchcock’s Psycho, where the painting is mounted on the wall of Norman Bates’ multi-purpose parlor. This painting predated, and had a tremendous influence upon important paintings by Rubens, Venus in Front of the Mirror, and Velazquez' Rokeby Venus. And it is used thematically in Hitchcock's Psycho (also Van Sant's).

National Gallery of Art, Washington. 2016. *Highlights from the National Gallery of Arts, Washington.” P. 94-95 w/ illustration.