This paper discusses the reception of Ovid’s Metamorphoses through the lens of contra naturam (or actions “against nature”) focusing on two case studies: Titian’s Venus and Adonis and Cellini’s Perseus and Medusa. It exposes the intricacies of gender within Ovid’s Metamorphoses through the lens of sixteenth century Renaissance artists. On the surface, Venus and Adonis is presented as nature taking its course, rectifying the unnaturalness of Venus and Adonis’ relationship, however, further analysis highlights the intricacies between Ovid’s myths and the artist’s intentions through their instability of gender. Similarly, the hero and villain paradigm in Cellini’s Perseus and Medusa is complicated by the nuances of the gendered power dynamics.

Through an interdisciplinary examination of a privately-owned copy after Raphael Sanzio’s Madonna of Divine Love , this thesis synthesizes technical analysis and art historical knowledge to establish consistencies in technique between the copy and its original. The lead, tin, and trace elements discovered in every area examined hold particular significance and suggest a traditional method of canvas preparation. The artwork’s support material and pigments are identified and compared with the materials Raphael was known to have used in his practice. All evidence and data gathered suggests that the copy’s current attribution to Raphael adjacent artist, Gian Francesco Penni, is possible and/or the painting could have been produced sometime in the one-hundred-year period following Raphael’s death in 1520.