Titian was the greatest Venetian painter of his age. His reputation and achievements in 16th-century Europe were rivaled only by Michelangelo. Venetian artists introduced their own particular style and vision into Renaissance art, as seen in the Venus of Urbino. Suddenly, female nudity and eroticism exploded onto the scene in a type of soft-core Renaissance pornography. This episode explores the unusual erotic iconography of the Venus of Urbino, and how it depicts a rather straight-forward visual voyeurism between subject and object.

Giulio Romano's "Room of the Giants" in the Palazzo Te is one of the most dramatic and unique pictorial cycles in history. Depicting the fall of the Titans to the Olympian gods, the colossal-scale figures, rounded corners, and illusionistic architecture create a veritable sense of virtual reality. It is a painting cycle with no beginning or end, where the spectator becomes part of the action, and the traditional subject-object relationship is destroyed.

The Room of Psyche in the Palazzo Te in Mantua, Italy, is one of the most erotic pictorial cycles of the Renaissance. From the 9 ceiling paintings that depict the story of Cupid and Psyche, to the lunettes depicting the labors of Psyche, to the wall paintings depicting examples of divine and bestial love, as well as earthly and divine banquets celebrating the redemption of Psyche, the room is a veritable explosion of sensual and erotic imagery.

This milestone celebrates the production of the 200th episode of the Rebuilding the Renaissance podcast. Looking back at the approximately two millennia that we have covered thus far, the various special guests who have appeared in the series, and the particularly important specific episodes, this episode not only retraces our steps, but also maps out the future of the podcast series.

The pictorial decoration inside of the Palazzo Te in Mantua, Italy, is some of the most inventive and delightful imagery of the Italian Renaissance. From the Room of Ovid, with representations of episodes from the "Metamorphoses," to the Room of the Imprese, with its many coat of arms and playful supporting putti, to the Room of the Sun and Moon Chariots, with its exceptional "di sotto in sù" perspective, to the Hall of the Horses with its many equestrian portraits of Gonzaga prize-winning horses and accompanying images of the labors of Hercules, This episode will begin to unpack the extraordinary decoration inside of the Palazzo Te.

The Palazzo Te (1526-1535) was both designed and decorated by the great Mannerist artist and pupil of Raphael, Giulio Romano. Built for the Marquis-turned-Duke of Mantua, Federico II Gonzaga, every detail of the building was intended to delight the visitor. This episode explores the history and architecture of this extraordinary pleasure palace.

Located in the Borghese Gallery in Rome, Correggio's sensual painting of the amorous relationship between Jupiter and the daughter of the King of Argos is sublime. Based on the account in Ovid's "Metamorphoses,'' Correggio is able to transform a literary metaphor into an equally powerful and erotic visual metaphor. In 1827, the painting was acquired by Cammillo IV Borghese, husband of Paulina Bonaparte, during one of his many trips to Paris, and installed into the family's extraordinary art collection.

Correggio's breath-taking dome fresco in the dome of Parma cathedral depicts the Assumption of the Virgin (1526). Gigantic painted figures of the apostles stand below an explosion of heavenly clouds and hundreds of angels that create a celestial architecture upon which the Virgin Mary is assumed into heaven. The dramatic energy of the painting is a clear harbinger of the great Baroque paintings of the following century.

Parma's National Gallery of Painting houses one of Italy's most important collections of medieval and Renaissance paintings. Amongst its treasures are several altarpieces by the great Correggio. This episode examines these extraordinary paintings and their expressive emotional power, which has inspired some to describe Correggio's work as "proto-Baroque."