These two similar pieces, created 325 years apart, are excellent examples of paintings influenced by earlier eras. The Venus of Urbino is an oil painting by Titian and the second is Olympia by Manet. These two works attracted a lot of attention for their eroticism, but evoked the same emotions for different reasons. The Venus of Urbino is the oldest piece dating from 1538. It is an oil painting by Titian, an Italian artist. It is the goddess Venus, but represented as a more naturalistic woman, lying on a bed. She stares at the viewer, known as the female gaze, and does not seem to mind her nudity. She holds a bouquet of flowers in her right hand and her left hand covers her pubis. A dog sleeps at the end of his bed, a symbol of marital fertility. Titian was commissioned by Guidobaldo II della Rovere, who was then duke, for his wife as a "model of instruction". He is said to have decorated a chest which was a typical wedding gift in Italy at the time. The controversy that this painting aroused was f...