0116Aphrodite_TitianHitchcock

qz 0116Aphrodite_TitianHitchcock ''

Venus at her toilet, aided by Cupids, one holding a mirror, one a wreath, and another behind her shoulder.

Jon Solomon, The Ancient World in Cinema (New Haven and London, 2001), 22-24 discusses Hitchcock's use of the painting in Psycho: "When Norman Bates talks with Marion Crane in a room off the lobby of the now infamous hotel, the instant the conversation turn to the subject of Norman's mother the camera angle changes dramatically to focus on his face in the foreground and a reproduction of Titian's Venus at Her Toilet in the background. This painting, which depicts Venus with her doting son Cupid, sits on the wall that separates them from the room that Norman, dressed as his mother, will enter to stab Marion to death. Hitchcock himself highlighted the poignant parallel between Norman, his mother, and Cupid in a trailer to the film."

Solomon observes further that in the 1998 remake by Gus Van Sant, the painting is used also, but since it is placed on a different wall, the effect is dissimilar.