“There is no greater name in Italian art — therefore no greater in art — than that
of Titian.” These words of the distinguished art critic, Claude Phillips, express the verdict
of more than three centuries. It is agreed that no other painter ever united
in himself so many qualities of artistic merit. Other painters may have equalled him in particular
respects, but “rounded completeness,” quoting another critic’s phrase, is “what
stamps Titian as a master.” To begin with the qualities which are apparent
even in black and white reproduction, we are impressed at once with the vitality which
informs all his figures. They are breathing human beings, of real flesh
and blood, pulsing with life. Yet it must not be supposed that Titian’s
delineation of life stopped short with the physical: he was besides a remarkable interpreter
of the inner life. Though not as profound a psychologist as Leonardo
or Lotto, he had at all times a just appreciation of character, and, on occasion, rose to a
supreme touch in its interpretation. In such studies as the Flora, where he is
interested chiefly in working out certain technical problems, he takes small pains to
make anything more of his subject than a beautiful animal.
The Man with the Glove stands at the other end of the scale.
Here we have a personality so individual, and so possessing, as it were, that the portrait
takes rank among the world’s masterpieces of psychic interpretation.
Titian - the greatest painter of sixteenth century Venice.
1, A MAN WITH A QUILTED SLEEVE.
Titian was the son of Gregorio Vecelli, the superintendent of Pieve di Cadore’s castle,
and his wife Lucia. The artist’s father managed local mines for their owners and was
also a distinguished councillor and soldier. Many of Titian’s relatives, including his
well-known grandfather, were notaries and the family of four were well-established in
an area ruled by the undisputed might of Venice. At the approximate age of twelve, Titian and
his brother Francesco were sent to an uncle in Venice to seek an apprenticeship with a
painter. The minor painter Sebastian Zuccato, whose sons became well-known mosaicists, and
who was likely a family friend, arranged for the brothers to enter the studio of the elderly
Gentile Bellini, from which they later transferred to that of his brother Giovanni Bellini. At
that time the Bellini brothers were the leading artists of Venice and Titian enjoyed working
among a group of similar minded young men his own age, including Giovanni Palma da Serinalta,
Lorenzo Lotto, Sebastiano Luciani and Giorgio da Castelfranco, who would later become famous
as the artist Giorgione. A Man with a Quilted Sleeve is one of the
artist’s earliest surviving works, painted c. 1509 and described by Giorgio Vasari in
1568 as a portrait of the celebrated poet Ludovico Ariosto, though this is now believed
to be incorrect, with the true identity of the sitter being assigned to Gerolamo Barbarigo,
a thirty-year-old nobleman, whose numerous political and literary contacts would have
helped launch the career of the aspiring young artist.
Held in London’s National Gallery, the portrait contains the letters “T. V.” on the parapet
on which the sitter is leaning, confirming Titian’s initials, although they are similar
in appearance to the mysterious “V. V.” in several works attributed to Giorgione,
such as the Giustiniani Portrait or The Gentleman with a Book.
The portrait was part of Alfonso López’s collection and possibly also belonged to van
Dyck at one point, after which it passed to an art dealer in Amsterdam in 1639. It was
famous in the seventeenth century and served as a major influence to Rembrandt, whose 1634
self-portrait similarly presents a bold male, leaning on a ledge, allowing his rich and
ornate clothing to take a prominent place in the portrait. Titian’s painting was probably
purchased by Charles I, as a portrait of Ariosto was listed in a catalogue of his goods in
1644. It was in the collection of Lord Darnley at Cobham Hall by 1824 and in 1904 it was
sold to Sir George Donaldson, who, after some negotiation, agreed to sell the piece to the
National Gallery for the same price he had paid for it.
2, PASTORAL CONCERT.
Titian joined Giorgione as an assistant and it is believed their relationship involved
a significant amount of rivalry. Distinguishing between their works at this period remains
a subject of scholarly controversy and there has been a substantial movement of attributions
from Giorgione to Titian in the twentieth century, with few alterations adjusted the
other way. For example, one of the earliest known works of Titian, Christ Carrying the
Cross in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, depicting the Ecce Homo scene was regarded as the work
of Giorgione for a long period of time. The two young masters were soon recognised
as leaders of a new school of arte moderna, characterised by paintings that were more
flexible and original, freed from symmetry and the remnants of hieratic conventions found
in the works of the older Venetian Giovanni Bellini. The 1509 canvas, The Pastoral Concert,
is a fine example of this style of painting and it has been assigned by some critics to
Titian and by others to Giorgione, though most modern critics assign it to the former,
due to the robustness of the figures, typical of Titian’s style. It has been argued that
Giorgione, whose works feature musical elements and pastoral idleness, began the work, and
then, after his untimely death in 1510, the canvas was completed by Titian.
The painting presents three young people on a lawn, playing together, while next to them
a woman pours water from a marble basin. Both the women are naked, aside from two light
vests; the two men are dressed in contemporary costumes. In the wide background is a shepherd
and, among the vegetation, a far landscape. The painting may provide an allegory of poetry
and music: the two women would be an imaginary apparition representing the ideal beauty,
stemming from the two men’s ideal. The woman with the glass vase would be the muse of tragic
poetry, while the other would represent pastoral poetry. Of the two playing men, the one with
the lute would represent the exalted lyric poetry, the other being an ordinary lyricist,
according to the distinction made by Aristotle in his Poetics. Another interpretation would
suggest that the painting is an evocation of the four elements of the natural world
(water, fire, earth and air) and their harmonic relationship.
The Pastoral Concert was owned by the Gonzaga family, perhaps inherited from Isabella d’Este,
and later sold to Charles I of England and then to the French banker Eberhard Jabach,
who in turn sold it to Louis XIV of France in 1671 and the canvas resides today in Paris’
Louvre.
3, NOLI ME TANGE.
Completed c. 1514, this biblical painting concerns an episode in St John’s Gospel.
Noli me tangere, Latin for “touch me not”, are words attributed to Christ in John 20:17,
when Mary Magdalene recognises him after the Resurrection. The Bible also explains that
Christ will soon ascend to heaven and send the Holy Spirit down to his followers, for
which reason he does not want them to cling to his physical presence. The Noli me tangere
scene became the subject of a long and continuous iconographic tradition in Christian art from
late antiquity to the present day. In Titian’s canvas, now housed in London’s
National Gallery, Christ appears to the Mary after the Resurrection to comfort her. As
she moves to touch his white shroud, he pulls the garment away, with a somewhat pained expression
on his face, which is partly obscured with shadow. The Magdalene kneels down, glancing
up at him in reverential wonder, while a deep rooted tree behind Christ mirrors her subservient
pose. In the background, the walls of Jerusalem can be seen, though they too are given a darkened
tinge. X-ray photographs have since revealed that Christ was originally painted wearing
a gardener’s hat and turning away from Mary. The landscape was also significantly altered
while the work was in progress.
4, FLORA.
Held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, this celebrated 1515 painting presents the goddess
Flora, a Sabine-derived goddess of flowers and of the season of spring, who was a popular
symbol for nature and flowers for artists. Titian depicts her as an idealised beautiful
woman, holding in her left hand a pink-shaded mantle, while she grasps a handful of flowers
and leaves in her other hand. The same model was portrayed by Titian in numerous other
works of the period, including the Woman at the Mirror, the Vanity and Salomé and Violante,
as well as some Holy Conversations. The meaning of the painting is much disputed, with some
identifying the woman as a courtesan, while others consider it to be a symbol of nuptial
love. The painting was reproduced in numerous sixteenth
century etchings, quickly increasing the fame of the image. Later, the canvas had an unclear
sequence of ownerships in Brussels and Vienna. In the seventeenth century, Flora was sold
by the Spanish ambassador at Amsterdam to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria and the
painting was cited by Rembrandt in his Saskia Dressing as Flora of London and in two portraits
in Dresden and New York. Later included in the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna, the
canvas was one of the works exchanged with the Uffizi.
5, ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN.
The largest altarpiece in Venice, the Assumption of the Virgin is located on the high altar
in the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice and was the artist’s first
major commission in the city. Breaking away from the traditional depiction of altarpieces,
Titian’s heroic character scale and trademark use of dynamic colour helped establish him
as Venice’s most in demand artist, following the completion of this monumental work in
1518. The Assumption of the Virgin is a religious event celebrated every year on August 15 and
is a defined dogma of the Catholic Church, commemorating the rising of Mary to heaven
before the decay of her body. It is a sign of her passing into eternal life and for this
reason it is a holy day of obligation. By placing the painting in a majestic marble
frame, specially designed by the artist, surrounding light was prevented from entering from the
sides, allowing the rich golden paint behind the Virgin and God to produce its own powerful
sphere of light. Reportedly, an envoy to the Emperor Charles V was present at the unveiling
ceremony and when asked by the uncertain Franciscans as to its quality, he urged them to sell the
painting to him. Their minds were then settled and they held on dearly to the work and, in
consequence, Titian’s reputation soared. It has been suggested that the golden background
is in homage to the tradition of Venetian mosaics, though Titian primarily used oil-ground
paint, which was prepared by his assistants. The heroic figures of the composition and
the grand size of the painting were uncommon at the time of the altarpiece’s completion.
With such grand dimensions, Titian was able to showpiece his work from different standpoints,
adopting the use of varying distances of viewpoints and angles to present the subject matter in
an unorthodox manner. The Assumption of the Virgin can be broken
down into three different scenes, as represented by the dividing pictorial layers. In the lowest
layer are the Apostles, shown in a variety of poses, ranging from gazing in awe, to kneeling
and reaching for the skies. Their muscular and statuesque bodies indicate the influence
of Michelangelo. In the centre, the Virgin Mary is drawn wrapped in a red robe and blue
mantle. She is raised to the heavens by a swarm of cherubim, while standing on a cloud
— this time signalling the influence of Raphael’s angels and putti. And finally
above, draped in ethereal shade, God watches over the Earth, his hair lifted gently by
the wind. Near the divinity, an angel flies, bearing a coronet with which to crown Mary,
the linking figure to all three layers. The exuberant use of Venetian colour is the influence
of Titian alone.