SACRED AND PROFANE LOVE

THE ORIGINAL, ON CANVAS, 118 X 279 CM, IS IN THE GALLERIA BORGHESE, ROME. THE PAINTING WAS COMMISIONED BY THE VENETIAN MERCHANT NICCOLò AURELIO ON THE OCCASION OF HIS MARRIAGE TO LAURA BAGAROTTO OF PADUA IN 1514. IT WAS ACQUIRED BY CARDINAL SCIPIONE BORGHESE IN 1608 FROM THE ESTATE OF THE MILANESE CARDINAL SFONDRATO (SEE H.E. WETHEY, THE PAINTINGS OF TITIAN, III, 1975, PP.175/9, NO33, PLATE 20). THROUGHOUT THE CENTURIES SCHOLARS HAVE TRIED TO IDENTIFY THE EXACT MEANING OF THE SUBJECT. WHEREAS E. PANOFSKY FELT IT MAY BE REPRESENTING THE CELESTIAL VENUS AND THE EARTHLY VENUS, THUS REFELECTING THE CONTEMPORARY NEOPLATONIC HUMANIST THEORIES, W. FRIEDLäNDER THOUGHT THE PRESENT COMPOSITION MAY DEPICT THE STORY OF POLIA, TOLD BY COLONNA IN HIS HYPNEROTOMACHIA. IN HIS DESCRIPTION OF THE PAINTING, THE AUTHOR GIVES A CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE VARIOUS INTERPRETATIONS AND CONCLUDES THAT STILL NO SATISFACTORY SOLUTION HAS BEEN FOUND (SEE WETHEY, OP. CIT., PP.178/9).