To show the presence of the bed in the figurative art, I chose two completely different works of art, from contrasting historic contexts of production, movements and techniques.
Venere di Urbino (1538)
Artist: Tiziano Vecellio (1488-1576)
Movement: Renaissance
Oil on canvas - Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
This painting comes from a long tradition of representations of Venus, the goddess of love, and it appears to have been based on Giorgione's Sleeping Venus (1510), although Tiziano's interpretation of the goddess, laying in bed, is much more erotic. Completed in 1538, this artwork was a gift from the Duke of Urbino, Guidobaldo II Della Rovere, to his young wife, Giulia Varano. The painting represents the allegory of marriage and symbolizes eroticism, fidelity and motherhood.
Thanks to the wise use of color and its contrasts, as well as the subtle meanings and allusions, Tiziano achieves the goal of representing the perfect Renaissance woman who, just like Venus, becomes the symbol of love, beauty and fertility. This image is considered one of the most famous and accomplished examples of the genre and over the centuries the canvas has inspired numerous other works.
My Bed (1998)
Artist: Tracey Emin (1963)
Movement: Young British Artists
Box frame, mattress, linens, pillows and various objects - Tate, London
This piece is Tracey Emin's record of several days spent in bed in the grip of depression. The bed is unmade and the sheets are stained. All around are strewn a variety of items such as condoms, contraceptive pills, underwear stained with menstrual blood, money, and cigarette ends. The artist used biographical items that once belonged to her to express a common emotion or state through a very personal and intimate lens. This artwork is not a representation of an object such as a painting or a sculpture. The art object doesn't refer to another object, it is the object itself.
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