Sacred Art in the Odoni Collection
Religion was at the heart of public and private life in sixteenth century Venice, and sacred art was a key means with which households displayed their devotion. Michiel lists three religious paintings in the Odoni collection. Perhaps the most intriguing of these is a Titian painting of the Madonna and Child that raises thought-provoking questions about Odoni's relationship to sacred art.
The National Gallery Painting
In his account of Odoni's collection, Michiel describes 'a picture representing Our Lady with the Divine Infant, St John as a child, and a female saint in a landscape…by Titian'. Scholars have suggested that this is the painting now known as the Aldobrandini Madonna by Titian in the National Gallery. This identification is based partly on its style and technique, which experts have dated to the early 1530s, and partly on the figure in the centre of the painting: a kneeling woman whose identity is unclear.
Titian, The Aldobrandini Madonna (c. 1532), oil on canvas. London, The National Gallery.
Although Michiel suggests she is a saint, there is nothing to indicate which saint she might be, which is unusual given that saints were usually depicted with a recognisable attribute. Later workshop reproductions of this painting include a piece of a broken wheel, the attribute of St Catherine of Alexandria. However, the fact that the wheel is added in later copies of the painting does not provide certainty that the woman in this original version was intended to be St Catherine, or even a saint at all.
Detail of The Aldobrandini Madonna; the kneeling woman
The Unidentified Woman
What we can say about the kneeling woman is that her direct engagement with the Madonna and Child is unusual. Her proximity to the two most sacred figures in Christianity oversteps the boundary between holy and non-holy, particularly if she is not intended to be a saint. If this was indeed the painting owned by Andrea Odoni, it is an intriguing choice: not only did he own very few religious artworks compared to his contemporary Venetian collectors, but he chose to display one that was challenging to Christian doctrine.
If Odoni chose to acquire this painting, it raises questions around how this reflects on the man himself. Might Odoni have felt a resonance with this elegantly dressed figure who, though inferior to the figures around her, oversteps a boundary in order to be in their midst? In the same way that Odoni claimed a certain freedom in the transgressive display of the façade of his home, there is a freedom in this woman’s unrestrained adoration of Christ, in contrast with the composure of the docile Madonna.
Sacred and Profane
In addition to the unusual theological implications of the Aldobrandini Madonna, its particular location within Odoni's home also conveys a provocative, though not necessarily unusual, message. Michiel tells us that the painting was in the upstairs bedroom, a place where paintings of the Madonna were often hung in Renaissance Venetian homes. Here, it shared the space with a large painting of a reclining nude Venus, which has tentatively been identified as Girolamo da Treviso's Sleeping Venus, now at the Borghese Gallery. This painting belonged to a standard Venetian genre of reclining nudes, the most well-known example being Giorgione's Sleeping Venus (1510). This genre was also typically displayed in bedrooms, as an aid to erotic desires and to promote fertility.
Girolamo da Treviso, Sleeping Venus (c. 1523), oil on canvas. Rome, Borghese Gallery.
In an usual example of conformity, Odoni's decision to display a nude alongside a religious artwork falls in line with a common feature of sixteenth century Venetian life: the coexistence of deeply religious values and sensuality, the latter of which was most evident in its popular courtesan culture. Furthermore, his possession of a work by Titian, the favourite painter of the Venetian elite, is a way in which Odoni, not always the rebel, aligns his artistic taste with that of his noble Venetian compatriots.