Sacred and Profaned Love is an oil painting by Titian, probably painted in 1514, early in his career. The painting is presumed to have been commissioned by Niccolò Aurelio,whose coat of arms appears on the sarcophagus or fountain, to celebrate his marriage to a young widow, Laura Bagarotto.In an early proposed identification by Charles Hope in a paper of 1976, the painting depicted a bride dressed in white, sitting beside Cupid and accompanied by the goddess Venus.Although "much ink has been spilt by art historians attempting to decipher the iconography of the painting". Although some measure of consensus has been achieved, much of the intended meaning of the painting including the identity of the central figures remain in dispute.
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