If we’re thinking about Venetian Art, colour is one of the topics that is often seen as
distinguishing Venetian art from other art. Titan himself was very famous for his use
of colour; he was seen as a pioneer in helping to develop a new approach to painting through
the use of colour. What we see here is really a demonstration
by Titian of his exceptional skill as a painter. It’s as if he wanted to include the full
gamut of different sorts of textures and substances that he could evoke using oil paint.
We sometimes describe Titian as a sort of ‘impressionist’ painter in many ways of
a sort of precursor in the way he uses his brushwork of the Impressionists. This is really
because compared to for example; Northern European painters of this period who tended
to describe objects that they were painting in absolute minute detail, Titian rather evokes
the textures and substances that he’s painting with a much broader brush.
In Titans handling of surface materials like fabrics, flesh is one of those subjects that
people talk about; his great skill in being able to do it. Very often with Venetian works
in general but particularly with Titan is that you very, very very rarely see a completely
naked body. Very often you see this beautiful white flesh, juxtaposed, enveloped in, surrounded by,
sitting on very fine beautiful delicately coloured fabric which helps to enhance the
paleness of the skin very often but also creates this really sumptuous, sensuous atmosphere.
It’s very interesting to compare this picture with the other one because we know they were
worked on simultaneously by Titan and very much conceived of as a pair within this broader
series. In fact, if one looks at them together one sees all sorts of ways in which they balance,
echo and rhyme.
The way Titian paints, the composition is
developed on the canvas as he works along and as a result there are some areas where
you can see where he’s made a change or he’s adjusted the position of certain key
elements, for example in the architecture running up through the middle. To the left
of that you can see a shadowy form just starting to look visible through the blue sky and that’s
because the architecture was originally more to the left and as the paint has become older,
the original design is starting to show through. Similarly, behind the column of architecture
here, we see the female figure peeping through on the left hand side at some point the positioning
was slightly different and you can just see a hand just visible, now coming through the
stonework at the top of the column.
I was asked to make a mention about what I
thought, if there was a particular element that caught my imagination in these works.
Whenever you see them, there’s always something different. Today when I came in, what really
captured my eye was this small element in the centre here with the mirror and the glass
vessel. Maybe it’s the lighting today but for some reason or other they really stood
out. When you look closely they’re almost like a modern element, they have a timeless
quality about them. I think one of the most important passages
of the picture is this red drape with Actaeon coming in, he’s just discovered Diana, he’s
horrified; and all of that is happening in front of this red drape against a blue sky.
Red and blue are really interesting colours, they’re sort of complementary colours which
means that when you put them together they become quite zingy; the red becomes redder
and the blue becomes bluer because of the putting them close to each other. I think
by putting that action, that dramatic action of discovery on one of the hottest parts of
the picture colour wise, it really makes it very dramatic. So it grabs your attention
and it begins to give you an idea of what the picture is about. So when you come into
this particular gallery and you look around it’s not just the size, it’s this really
dramatic colour part of the picture grabs your attention, pulls you in, wants you to find out more.