Titian v Manet

I suppose that this piece can, in a rather convoluted way, be linked to the earlier piece I did on Art or Pornography. Here I want to make a comparison of two paintings, Titian’s Venus of Urbino and Manet’s Olympia, and I want to do it in a short and simple manner; basically I want to compare the eroticism contained within them. Personally I think that Titian’s painting is by far the more sexually explicit of the two paintings and that Manet’s is the more erotic. Compare them and see what you think:-

So why do I think these thoughts about these paintings? Well it has everything to do with hand position; if we take Titian’s Venus, she appears to all intents and purposes to be masturbating, whereas Manet’s Olympia appears to be seductively hiding her genitalia from view. It is this reason that makes it difficult for me to understand the outcry against Manet’s Olympia when it was first exhibited. I have said my piece, it is now up to the reader to make his/her own decision.