As religious tensions rose across Europe, the Catholic Church declared the painting of nudes a “mortal sin.” At the same time, artists increasingly considered the nude as a place to showcase their talent.
The debate was especially intense in Spain, in part because its kings had developed a taste for the genre. Records show Philip IV, an avid art collector whose rule began in 1621, often visited a private space—referred to at the time as the room “where His majesty retires after lunch”—filled with nudes by Titian. Visiting officials would gift him nude paintings in an attempt to win favor. (Furini’s “Lot and His Daughters” was a brown-nosing wedding present from the Grand Duke of Tuscany.)
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