Here we see the ideal classical beauty, represented admiring herself between a set of mirrors - thus Titian’s apt title of the work, Woman with a Mirror. 

This image would have blown up on your 16th-century social media feed, talk about a beauty! Our subject’s long, flowing hair is held slightly away from her exposed decolletage. Her bare shoulders and green dress frame an ample bosom, and her rosy, pale face is serene. The scene is very soft, fleshy, round. Is this lady trying to get some, or remind suitors of their inferiority? I hope the latter. This sensuous woman, after all, is being waited on by a man, holding her mirrors up. Cloaked in red and hovering above her right shoulder, he could be a curtain, candle holder, or any other prop, playing second fiddle to the central woman. What makes him stand out, however, is the intricacy of his garment. Titian’s subtle use of a variety of red shades in his top mark a shift in painting style at this time. Titian was trying to be ahead of the #fashion of the times. At only 27, when this was painted, Titian had plenty of time ahead of him to continue being a trendsetter. 

Now, that’s not to say he was completely separated from the past. This painting is also in conversation with the work of his mentor, Giorgione, who was interested in the relationship and comparison between painting and sculpture. Through Titian’s composition with the woman at the center of the painting, slightly angled; the way the mirrors highlight her body from multiple views; and the contrast of her light skin against the rest of the work, Titian draws into question the sculptural quality of her form.

Clearly, Titian was into ladies’ bodies. The subject of the woman was also popular with other (male) artists at this time. In 1515, other artists Palma, Bordoni, and Savoldo were exploring portraiture of the ideal Venetian woman. Clearly, more than 500 years later we still have not lost our taste for the exploration of the ideal womanly form, and its representation. Scroll through any feed, flip through your nearest magazine, turn on the TV and we are flooded with representations of the modern woman. Luckily, not all of them are made by men anymore.