Titty-An

I love Titian, or as the Smart Ass Guide to Art reminds us, Titty-an. This is a funny guide to several pieces of art with real, down to earth commentary. The author provides accepted information about an artist or a work, but then adds those interesting, sometimes off-color bits that make art so damn interesting.

As for that Titty-an, the Smart Ass Guide to Art refreshed my memory about the Venus of Urbino. In the classic Saturday Night Live sketch "Art Classics with E. Buzz Miller," Dan Aykroyd pronounces the artist's name as "Titty-an," instead of tishan, remarking "I don't think anybody can deny this is a very nice painting of a broad on a couch."




Personally though, I like this one much better. Manet painted a naked lady in a whole new way. Instead of a goddess or an allegory, she was Victorine Meurent, a woman everyone knew and she was unabashedly naked and in a bed for a reason. She's ignoring the flowers and she's not looking shyly at you. Victorine looks right at you, very aware that you are looking at her naked. Look at her nakedness now.