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Titian and the Late Renaissance in Venice

Shown from about the hips up against a sable-brown background, a pale-skinned woman stands cradling an apple with both hands at her waist in this vertical portrait painting. Her body and face are angled to our left but she looks out at us from the corners of her eyes. She has dark brown eyes under curving brows, a straight nose, smooth cheeks, and her coral-red, heart-shaped lips are closed. A crown of parchment-white and rust-orange flowers with sage-green and brown leaves sits akimbo, close to the ear we can see, over her honey-brown hair, which falls over her shoulders and down her back to her waist. Teardrop-shaped pearls hang from her ears. She wears a sea-green gown with elbow-length sleeves over an eggshell-white garment, which has voluminous sleeves edged with gold. The green garment is lined with pearls, jewels, and gold embroidery around the hem of the sleeves and down the front. The muted red apple rests in one hand, which is cupped in her other hand at her waist. The woman is lit from our left in a warm glow against the brown background.

Overview

At the dawn of the sixteenth century, the republic of Venice reigned as one of the wealthiest and most powerful city-states in Europe. With the decline of the High Renaissance and mannerist artists in central Italy, Venetian painters assumed a position of artistic supremacy in Europe by 1540 that they would occupy for the rest of the century. The preeminent artist during this period was Tiziano Vecellio, called Titian.

Born around 1490 in the town of Cadore in the Dolomite Mountains, Titian received brief training with the Venetian mosaicist Zuccato before he studied painting with both Giovanni Bellini and the innovative Giorgone. By 1510 he had established himself as an independent master. Following a succession of commissions for the courts of Ferrara, Mantua, and Urbino, Titian's fame spread internationally. His patrons included such prominent figures as the German Emperor Charles V, Philip II of Spain, Francis I of France, and Pope Paul III. After a brilliant career spanning more than sixty-six years, Titian died in 1576.

The portraits and mythological subjects on this tour exhibit the sumptuous colors and rich painterly textures that characterize Titian's style. While his influence is clearly evident in the works of his Venetian contemporaries Tintoretto, Veronese, and Bassano, Titian's work also exerted a strong impact on Rubens, Rembrandt, Velázquez, and other artists of the seventeenth century.

 

Titian, Woman Holding an Apple, c. 1550, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.292
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Shown from the waist up, an older, pale-skinned man wearing clerical robes gestures to our right with one hand and turns his head to look off to our left in this vertical portrait painting. His shoulders angle to our right, and that arm hangs by his side. His other arm is bent at the elbow, and the hand is held palm up so the fingers loosely point to our right. His gaunt face turns to our left, and he looks off with dark, deep-set eyes under heavy, curved brows. He has a high forehead, a long, thin, hooked nose, and hollow cheeks. His full, smoke-gray beard is painted with blended strokes so appears soft. His crimson-red hat comes to four rounded points over ear-length, dark gray hair. An elbow-length red cape has buttons down the front, and he wears a white garment with a red cuff around the hand we can see. The man is lit from our left in front of a brown background.

The son of a Venetian statesman, Pietro Bembo (1470–1547) is recognized as one of the most celebrated diplomats, poets, and humanist scholars of the sixteenth century. In 1513, after taking Holy Orders, he became secretary to Pope Leo X in Rome. Bembo was appointed librarian of St. Mark's Cathedral in 1530, and he became official historian for the city of Venice. Titian probably painted this official portrait to commemorate Bembo's elevation to cardinal in March 1539.

In this, his second portrait of Pietro Bembo, Titian portrayed his lifelong friend as an intelligent, dynamic individual. Bembo's dark eyes are bright and alert; his short gray beard is softly modeled. His angular features are somewhat idealized and give him the appearance of a man younger than his seventy years. Wearing the scarlet cape and biretta (hat) of his profession, Cardinal Bembo turns his head to the left while he gestures to the right. By aligning Bembo's right arm and hand with the edge of his cape, Titian gave this painted likeness the quality of a sculpted portrait bust, similar to those of Zorzi family members by Alessandro Vittoria.

 

Titian, Cardinal Pietro Bembo, 1539/1540, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.28
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An older man with a tanned skin and a white beard is shown from the waist up against a dark brown background in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our right but he turns his head to look to our left. His eyes are shadowed under heavy brows. He has a long, hooked nose, high cheekbones, and the corners of his mouth turn slightly down. His brick-red cap, which is edged with gold, is an unusual shape. It sits low over his forehead and then rises at the back almost like a gourd. The cap sits over a white cloth that comes to points over his ears, and a cord hangs from each point to his shoulders. He wears a voluminous, deep rose-pink garment beneath a billowing, heavy gold robe. The rose-colored garment is streaked with cream-white to suggest a sheen, and it is belted around his waist. The gold, brocade-patterned robe is buttoned near the high collar but then flares open over his chest. The turned-back edge along our left is painted white, perhaps to suggest fur lining. Large, round, gold buttons the size of ping pong balls line the left edge of the robe opening. He wears a gold ring on his right hand, on our left, and he clutches the fabric of the robe near his waist with that hand.

The patrician Andrea Gritti (1455–1538) was elected doge, or duke, of Venice in 1523, after having served the city as a military commander and diplomat. Renowned for his forceful personality and his promotion of the arts, Gritti remained an active civic leader until his death in 1538. Titian painted Gritti twice during his reign. He completed this posthumous portrait, which might have been commissioned as a memorial by the doge's family, around 1546–1548.

Dressed in the brocade robes and conical hat of his office, Gritti makes a grand impression. Glancing sternly to the viewer's left, he gathers up his cloak with his right hand and appears to stride forward, as if in a ceremonial procession. Titian further enhanced the monumental presence of the sitter by extending his image fully to the edges of the canvas.

With its free, expressive brushwork, this portrait well exemplifies Titian's mature painting style. Because the canvas has never been flattened by the process of lining, the varying surface textures, such as the transparent red of the robe and the heavy impasto of the white fur and gold buttons, reveal the ways Titian applied his paints.

 

Titian, Doge Andrea Gritti, c. 1546/1550, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.45
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Shown from the hips up, a young boy with pale, peachy skin wears a voluminous, black cloak that nearly falls off his shoulders over a rose-pink tunic, with a sword hanging from one hip in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled slightly to our right, and he looks off to our left with dark brown eyes under gently arched brows. He has a wide nose, and his pink lips are closed with the corners pulled slightly back. His skin is smooth and his cheeks slightly flushed. His dark brown hair is cut close and comes to a point in front of his ears. His tunic is painted with dusky pink highlights against wine-red to suggest a sheen across a vertically striped, leafy pattern. The garment has a high neck lined with a white ruffle and has a row of buttons down the front. His black coat has wide lapels that reach beyond his shoulders, and the puffy sleeves gather on his arms. The coat has a silvery-white cross over the chest to our right. The left and right arms of the cross are lost in the folds but the arms at the top and bottom are forked at the ends. The boy’s pine-green belt is edged with gold, and the hilt of the sword is angled toward us on his left hip, to our right. He holds one fawn-brown glove in his right hand, to our left, and his other arm disappears behind the folds of his coat. The background is deep olive green, almost brown. The artist signed the painting with dark paint near the right edge of the canvas near the boy’s shoulder, “TITANVS F.”

The circumstances and date of this portrait of Ranuccio Farnese (1530–1565) are known from a letter dated September 22, 1542, and written by the humanist Gian Francesco Leoni to Ranuccio's older brother, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. Commissioned as a gift for the boy's mother, this portrait of twelve-year-old Ranuccio was painted in Venice just after he had been made prior, or religious director, of San Giovanni dei Forlani, an important property belonging to the Knights of Malta. The grandson of Pope Paul III, Ranuccio was the youngest member of one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Italy. He became cardinal of Santa Lucia in Sicily at the age of fifteen, and he was granted several bishoprics before his untimely death at the age of thirty-five.

Engulfed in a black cloak emblazoned with the Maltese cross of his new office, the life-sized Ranuccio emerges from the dark background into the light. The luminous colors and shimmering highlights of his red silk doublet reveal Titian's signature technique of applying numerous layers of translucent oil glazes. In this perceptive portrait, Titian brilliantly captures the image of a sensitive young man about to embark upon a very public life.

 

Titian, Ranuccio Farnese, 1541-1542, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.11
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A partially nude woman with pale, peachy skin sits to our left looking into a mirror held up by a nearly nude, winged child to our right in this vertical painting. The woman’s body is angled to our left but she looks across her body to our right. She holds her left hand to her chest, and her right hand grips the fur-lined edge of the scarlet-red, velvet fabric that drapes over that upper arm and around her hips. Her blond hair is coiled up in rows of pearls, and she has dark eyes, a straight nose, and her pale pink lips turn up in a subtle smile. A teardrop pearl earring hangs from the ear we can see, and she wears rings and gold bracelets. The child-like figure to the right stands on a gold-striped cushion facing away from us as he holds up the rectangular, black-framed mirror. He has small silver wings and a sash of golden yellow hangs from one shoulder around the opposite hip. A second child reaches from behind the mirror to hold up a ring of laurel leaves. A forest-green curtain is gathered in the upper left corner and the beige wall beyond falls into shadow to our right.

Perhaps one of the artist's favorite works, this canvas remained in Titian's studio until his death, and it inspired numerous copies and variations. Due to the painting's superior quality, this is the only version that is universally recognized to be entirely the product of Titian's hand alone without contributions from other painters working in his studio.

Venus with a Mirror is a visual feast of rich textures and sumptuous colors. Venus gazes at her reflection in a mirror held aloft by Cupid, while a second putto reaches up to crown her with a wreath of flowers. Raising her left hand to her breast, she draws her fur-lined robe across her lap with her right hand. The deep crimson color of the velvet garment beautifully complements the warm tone of her creamy flesh. The metallic embroidery and gleaming jewels provide textural contrasts to the softness of her fabrics, skin, and hair.

The pose of Titian's goddess recalls that of the classical Venus Pudica. Titian may have seen this work of ancient statuary in Rome when he wrote that he was "learning from the marvelous ancient stones." More than depicting a mythological subject, Titian's painting celebrates the ideal beauty of the female form.

 

Titian, Venus with a Mirror, c. 1555, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.34
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A seated nude woman reaches for and embraces a partially clothed man as he begins to stride away in this horizontal painting. A winged child holds a dove near his face to our left, and two dogs stand to our right of the pair. The woman sits facing away from us, twisting to our right. Her knees are bent with one knee raised as she leans back on her seat and turns to wrap her arms around the man’s chest. Her flushed face looks up toward the man. She has pale skin, and her blond hair is braided and coiled on the back of her head. A sheer white cloth drapes from her left shoulder, along the left side of her body, and over that knee. Her seat is covered with an orchid-pink cloth. The man strides to our right with his shoulders angled in that direction. He turns his head to look at the woman under lowered lids. He has short, curly brown hair, and his pink lips are parted. He wears a steel-blue toga tied in place with a gold band over one shoulder. A horn is tied around his waist with a gold sash. He wears a shin-high, laced sandal on the leg we can see. The arm closer to the woman is held high, that hand gripping a tall staff. He holds the leashes of the two dogs with his other hand, by his side. A pink band is tied around that upper arm. One bronze-brown dog stands facing our right in profile, while the other, closer to us, has a white body and a brown head, which hangs down as it looks to our left. Both dogs have floppy ears, and their mouths are open with their pink tongues hanging out. In the shadows just beyond the woman’s back knee, the winged baby hunches his shoulders while holding the white dove to his cheek. The cherub has short, blond hair, rounded, flushed cheeks, and small white wings. The elbow closer to us rests on a ledge or tree branch. A tree grows up next to the cherub, reaching off the top edge of the painting. A hill rises to our right in the distance, and a rainbow arcs against a pale blue sky screened with parchment-white clouds. A bright white flash in the upper right corner illuminates the trees beneath it.

Titian painted the first version of Venus and Adonis as one of a series of eight mythological subjects, which he called poesie, or visual poems, created for King Philip II of Spain. More than thirty painted and engraved versions of this extremely popular theme survive today. Some canvases, such as this one, were painted by Titian himself. Others were produced by members of his workshop, and still others were the work of later copyists.

The story of Venus and Adonis derives from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Venus, infatuated with the handsome young Adonis, knew that his passion for hunting would ultimately cause his death. Here, the powerless goddess clings to her mortal lover in a futile attempt to save his life. Adonis pulls away to pursue the hunt and tragically meets his death. The closeness of the lovers' final embrace serves as an ironic reminder of their impending, and permanent, separation.

It is odd to see Venus depicted as a vulnerable figure and from a rear view. Titian wrote that by posing her from behind, he hoped to provide variety among the many nudes in King Philip's collection. By painting Venus from the back, Titian also allowed viewers to complete her beauty according to their own ideal of perfection.

 

Titian, Italian 16th Century, Venus and Adonis, c. 1540s/c. 1560-1565, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.84
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Bright light from the upper left illuminates two muscular men and a winged angel against a dim landscape in this square painting. They all have pale skin, and the two men have dark brown hair and beards. One man, Jesus, stands ankle-deep in a rippling dark blue stream in the center of the composition facing us with downcast eyes. He is nude except for a white cloth that drapes over one shoulder and is tied around his hips. The other end of the cloth drops into the water. Jesus’s hands are pressed together in prayer at chest-height closer to his right shoulder, to our left. He leans his torso in the other direction and looks down at the water. The second man stands on the riverbank to our right. His body faces our left but his left shoulder, closer to us, dips down so his broad back is angled toward us. His lower body is wrapped in a cobalt-blue garment bordered with what looks like sheepskin. His near hand swings back to clutch the trunk of a tree growing immediately behind him. In his other hand, he holds up a pewter-grey dish that dribbles water onto Jesus’s head. On the left riverbank, the copper-haired angel looks on, facing our right in profile but the body faces us. The angel wears a sleeveless, pumpkin-orange robe with a shimmering salmon-pink mantle draped over the right shoulder, to our left. Petal-pink and dark grey wings extend from the shoulders, and the lower legs and feet are bare. The shadowy landscape has a dark green field stretching back to jagged, sapphire-blue mountains along the horizon, which comes four-fifths of the way up this composition. Pale blue clouds skim across the vivid blue sky, where three chubby, winged babies float. One holds a triangle and a rod with which to strike it, and another might hold a rectangular musical instrument. Blue clouds split nearby to show a sliver of golden yellow light, and possibly more angels.

For centuries artists referred to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke for their depictions of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River by his precursor John the Baptist. With his head lowered and his hands folded in prayer, Jesus stands in the river as John pours water over his head from a shallow dish. To the left an angel waits to clothe Jesus at the conclusion of the purification ritual. In the upper left, a flood of heavenly light suggests the voice of God, who declared, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

 

Paris Bordone, The Baptism of Christ, c. 1535/1540, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.5
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From far below, we look up at an older man with standing on a cliff edge or rocky ledge with his arms raised as he turns his head to gaze up to a second man and winged, child-like angels surrounded by clouds in the sky above in this square painting. All the people have pale, peachy skin. The man on the ledge, Saint John, half crouches with knees bent so his body is angled to our right, and he turns his head back to our left to look up to the clouds. Both hands are raised with palms facing up. Saint John has a short, curly white beard and hair, and we see the bottom of his chin, nose, and eyes under heavy brows. He wears a light, rose-pink tunic with crimson drapery across his shoulders billowing around his body. Next to him on the rocky ledge is a book with a scarlet-red cover to our left and a brown eagle to our right. The eagle slightly lifts its wings and looks to our left in profile, mouth open and tongue visible. Tufts of grass and plants grow near Saint John’s feet. The aqua-colored sky fills most of the composition behind Saint John, and a bank of silvery gray clouds lit with pale yellow swirls across the top half of the painting. At the center of the clouds, the second man has a long, white beard and white hair, and wears a muted plum-purple robe. He raises his right hand, to our left, palm down with the first two fingers and thumb extended. Six winged, nude young children nestle near this second man or flutter among the clouds.

In 1544, Titian was commissioned to paint Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos for the new albergo, or board room, of the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, one of the oldest and wealthiest religious confraternities in Venice. The large canvas was originally installed as the centerpiece of a decorative painted ceiling ensemble, surrounded by panels representing cherubs, satyrs, female heads, and symbols of the four evangelists.

Secluded on the Greek island of Patmos, Saint John the Evangelist experienced his apocalyptic vision of the second coming of Christ. This painting depicts the moment when he was inspired by God to write the Book of Revelation. Seen from a low vantage point and dramatically silhouetted against the sky, the heroic figure of John is radically foreshortened. With bent knees and upthrust arms, he looks up to witness God, accompanied by angels, bursting through the clouds above his head. The brilliant hues of yellow, blue, and red draw the eye upward through the physical boundaries of the ceiling and into the heavenly realm. The emotional impact of the subject is further intensified by Titian’s broad, expressive brushstrokes.

 

Titian, Italian 16th Century, Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos, c. 1553/1555, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1957.14.6
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