Sacred and Profane Love

Italian artist Titian painted this Sacred and Profane Love around 1514 for Niccolò Aurelio, whose coat of arms appears on the sarcophagus-fountain. Two women sit at opposite ends of a marble basin, one clothed and one nude. Despite centuries of interpretation, scholars still debate which represents sacred love and which profane.

The nude figure may represent divine love (truth needs no clothing) while the dressed woman represents earthly attachment. Or the opposite: nudity as sensuality, clothing as virtue. Cupid stirs the water between them, suggesting love's symbolic power. The Venetian landscape glows with golden light. It remains one of the Borghese Gallery's most celebrated paintings.