A question about works by Titian and Bernini?

The Meeting of Bacchus and Ariadne.

From;

http://associatedcontent.com/article/1748238/...

"Bacchus and Ariadne was a painting by Titian that depicted the story by Ovid and Catullus. He looked at their descriptions and followed what they said literally and to the word. For the encounter of Bacchus with Ariadne, Titian showed the cosmic effect when the two met. Titian used a remarkable piece of visual storytelling in this painting. Ariadne had been abandoned on the island of Naxos by Theseus, in spite of her vital assistance in defeating the minotaur. As she watches her lover's ship depart, her grief is interrupted by the arrival of a noisy procession. The head of an animal is on the ground and a leg is waved aloft by one of the satyrs, but Bacchus, the god of wine, leaps down from his chariot and declares his love for Ariadne. Promising to be a more faithful companion than Theseus, he offers her a constellation of stars, the Cnossian crown as a wedding gift. Titian managed to get the most amount of drama out of this story through the vibrant poses of Bacchus and Ariadne. In his painting of the picture, Titian put the brightest colors at the end where Bacchus and Ariadne are meeting. This shows the importance of the meeting. Bacchus is also floating in the air, while Adriane is blushing, which shows how delighted the both of them are to see each other. The other images in the shadows are dark images. They portray death dying and evil. Even though there are cherubs, they have evil looks on their face, and a man who is covered by a serpent, which is a messenger of the devil."

Apollo and Daphne.

From;

http://uk.wrs.yahoo.com/_ylt=A03uv8qBNhJLm80AgRtLB...

"Ovid’s Metamorphoses provides the background for which inspired this particular sculpture. Apollo is in love with Daphne and Cupid wounds him with a golden arrow, which causes love and wounds Daphne, who has declared herself eternally chaste. Apollo falls in love at first sight and his love grows through his visual senses. He chases Daphne and almost overtakes her when he breathes on her hair. She pleads with her father to make her ugly so that Apollo will stop hunting her. Her father transforms her skin to bark, her hair to leaves, and her arms to branches. Her beauty remains and even in this novel form, Apollo still loves her. This narrative tells about desire and pursuit and is full of references to sense and touch, which Bernini then takes and transforms into poetic art.

Bernini’s sculpture embodies the transformation of Daphne using touch and sight and the metamorphosis he shows is not just physical, but it is also sensual. Daphne turns her head to look back at Apollo as she begins to turn to laurel. Bernini is thus playing with the audience’s senses. Daphne’s facial expression shows her transformation is occurring. She is so afraid of being caught by Apollo, which Bernini remarkably portrays through the stone. Apollo’s mouth opens as she begins her transformation making this sculpture similar to the previous two sculptures in the Borghese group and the idea as it captures the moment. Apollo senses that something is wrong, but Bernini did not show this with his gaze. He still views Daphne in her human form, but he feels roots beneath his feet and the branch which grazes his loins as his left hand reaches towards her skin, which is turning to bark.

The metamorphosis that Bernini shows is not just physical, but it is also very sensual. The way Bernini turns Daphne’s head and the careful detail of the drapery falling off Apollo’s shoulder mimic Chembino Alberti’s engraving after Pollidoro da Carravagio. Berini placed Apollo and Daphne extremely close together in order to provide stability to the sculpture, but it also permits him to put Apollo’s arm completely around her. He puts Apollo’s gaze directly on Daphne’s face, which makes the obvious connections between vision and touch. "

Well, they are works from two different eras of Italian art -- Titian's painting from the 16th-century Venetian Renaissance and Bernini's sculpture from the 17th-century Roman Baroque.

However, one literary source for each work is the Roman poet Ovid, specifically his long poem "Metamorphoses," which examines mythological transformations, often in the context of love and sex, or at least sexual desire. Ariadne is found by Bacchus on Naxos, who turns her crown into a constellation of stars (you can see it in the upper left corner of Titian's painting). Daphne, pursued by Apollo, is transformed into a laurel tree.

You might consider the two works in that context: love and transformations.

The girl of shallot by way of Waterhouse,is one instance. its within the tate gallery and is founded on arthurian legend. The pre-raphaelites in most cases used literature as an concept. Thats a well begin.