Venus and the Lute Player
Tiziano Vecellio
Oil on canvas, 65 inches x 82.5 inches. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
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Far in the background a blue mountain waits
To echo back the song
The note-necked swan, while it reverberates,
Paddles the tune along.
The player is a young man richly dressed.
His hand is never mute.
But quick in motion as if it caressed
Both lady and the lute.
Nude as the sunlit air the lady rests.
She does not listen with her dainty ear,
But trembles at the love song as her breasts
Turn pink to hear.
She does not rise up at his voice's fall,
But takes that music in,
By pointed leg and searching hand, with all
Her naked skin.
Out of that scene, far off, her hot eyes fall,
Hoping they will take in
The nearing lover, whom she can give all
Her naked skin.
Paul Engle
About the artist Tiziano Vecelli(1490, 1576)was one of the most versatile of Italian painters. He had numerous works of arts of portraits, landscape backgrounds, and mythological and religious subjects. His painting methods influenced not only the painters of Italian Renaissance, but the future generations of Western Art. Titian’s artistic manner changed drastically but he retained interest in color during the course of his life.
About the poet Paul Engle (1908-1991), was an American poet, editor, teacher, literary critic, novelist and playwright. He has written elegiac poems exploring themes of travel, allegiance, and family. Engle published dozens of poetry during the course of his life. He also wrote children’s books and a memoir of his own. He was the series editor for the O. Henry prize from 1954-1959.
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Analysis of the poem and the painting
Engle uses a imagery to reflect what he sees in the poem. There is a music and a rhythm behind the letters. His words are -smooth like the sound of the lute in the painting and the syllables are the tick-tock metronome. “Far in the background a blue mountain waits”. He uses personification and a descriptive language to make the reader understand what he sees. The sound of a lute is beautiful but somewhat depressing. The painter, Vecellio, emphasizes the depressing atmosphere with the fragile expressions on the pale faces of these two young people. Parallel to the mood Vecellio creates, Engle explains it within words. “She does not listen with her dainty ear/But trembles at the love song as her breasts”. Not only he uses concrete details about what he sees in the painting, Engle creates emotions and sensations that can not be simply interpreted by someone just looking at it.
Poetry creates a story from a concrete work of art, a painting here, with the magic flow of words.
This is where poetry and art beautifully intersects.
Poetry creates a story from a concrete work of art, a painting here, with the magic flow of words.
This is where poetry and art beautifully intersects.
The piece of art above is a beautiful example of how poetry and art intermingle.
Wow!
This poem-painting is extremely powerful!
It has the magic flow of words and the fearless brushstrokes simultaneously.
Let's take time and listen to the beautiful sound of a lute