Topic: Art History

Type of paper: Essay (any type)

Discipline: Art : Art History

Format or citation style: APA

 First, briefly list the main arguments that Goffen uses to claim that the Venus of Urbino
celebrates marriage and procreation. Then discuss your thoughts on Goffen’s concluding remarks
(the last sentences on page 85 that I copy-paste below) about the personality of this Venus.
Explain why you agree or disagree with those remarks, considering information she has already
provided in her own text, and taking into consideration the video by John Berger.
Here are Goffen’s concluding remarks that I ask you to discuss: “Yet generative sex, although
given pride of place, takes a secondary role to Venus’s personality, which includes but is not
subsumed by her sexuality. That the Venus of Urbino looks so forcefully at the beholder is
assertive but not brazen. In short, the eyes have it: Venus’s eyes, which irresistibly hold our own,
assert her character, her intellect, and her power to choose.” 

 Briefly discuss a passage or theme of reading no. 3 by Garrard that you consider significant. You can choose a specific statement or argument the author makes or engage with her overall thesis more broadly. Explain why the theme you select to discuss is important to you and why you agree or disagree with the author. Basically, you can select for discussion anything you want, as long as you explain why you choose it and argue your opinion about it. Please mention the exact page(s) of the passage you choose to discuss. Alternatively, you can respond to the questions I pose above about reading no. 3. 

 SEX, SPACE, AND SOCIAL
HISTORY IN TITIAN’S VENUS OF URBINO 

 First, briefly list the main arguments that Goffen uses to claim that the Venus of Urbino
celebrates marriage and procreation. Then discuss your thoughts on Goffen’s concluding remarks
(the last sentences on page 85 that I copy-paste below) about the personality of this Venus.
Explain why you agree or disagree with those remarks, considering information she has already
provided in her own text, and taking into consideration the video by John Berger.
Here are Goffen’s concluding remarks that I ask you to discuss: “Yet generative sex, although
given pride of place, takes a secondary role to Venus’s personality, which includes but is not
subsumed by her sexuality. That the Venus of Urbino looks so forcefully at the beholder is
assertive but not brazen. In short, the eyes have it: Venus’s eyes, which irresistibly hold our own,
assert her character, her intellect, and her power to choose.”