Current knowledge
Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) 752
Titian
Jupiter and Antiope, also called the Pardo Venus
Current measurements:
196cm x 385cm
Date:
finished 1551
Titian’s “great, large and famous piece” was given by Philip IV of Spain to Charles I, during his 1623 visit to Madrid as Prince of Wales. Named the Pardo Venus after the Spanish palace where it once hung, it is now thought to represent Jupiter’s rape of Antiope in the guise of a satyr.
Titian’s sprawling work inevitably dominates the room, forming the pagan counterpart to Giulio Romano’s Nativity.
Van der Doort 1639
Titian
Pardo Venus, great large and famous piece called in Spain 'Venus out of Pardo', 7 life-size, full-length figures and 4 more in the landscape with 6 dogs
Sale Inventory c.1649-51
Walpole Society reference (1972):