Venus with a Mirror

Venus with a Mirror
Artist	Titian
Year	1555
Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	124 cm × 104 cm (49 in × 41 in)
Location	National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Venus with a Mirror (c. 1555) is a painting by Titian, now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and it is considered to be one of the collection's highlights.^[1]

The pose of the Venus resembles the classical statues of the Venus de' Medici in Florence or the Capitoline Venus in Rome, which Titian may have seen when he wrote that was "learning from the marvelous ancient stones." The painting is said to celebrate the ideal beauty of the female form, or to be a critique of vanity, or perhaps both.^[2] It was copied by several later artists, including Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck.^[3]

Titian made a number of paintings of the same subject, but this is believed to be the earliest and the only version to be entirely by the hand of Titian, without additions by his assistants. It remained in his house until his death in 1576.^[3]