Titian: 11 works

'According to the Italian artist and historiographer Giorgio Vasari's (1511-1574) biography from 1568, Titian studied under Gentile Bellini (1429-1507), whose brother - and fellow artist - is believed to be the person portrayed here. A nod to Bellini Titian divided the background into two parts -- a dark, uniform surface and a narrow glimpse of a rolling landscape with shepherds -- as a nod to his old master, for Giovanni Bellini was among the artists who introduced this particular element in Venetian portraits.'

'Giovanni Bellini and Titian's The Feast of the Gods is one of the greatest Renaissance paintings in the United States by two fathers of Venetian art.'

'More than any other Renaissance master, Titian was acclaimed--in his own lifetime and for centuries thereafter--for his expressive handling of paint and rich use of color. Like his teachers Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione, Titian set many of his religious subjects in a pastoral landscape.'

'In 1630 the painting found a famous admirer: Rubens copied Titian's work, which was then in English ownership, and later further developed the older artist's innovation in his own style. From Titian's comparatively reserved Renaissance portrait, Rubens developed an equally complex Baroque alternative in a full-length portrait of his second wife, Helena Fourment.'

'While still in London, the painting was titled 'Portrait of a Monk' at the suggestion of Sir Charles Holmes, Director of the National Gallery (where the work was displayed -- hung between two famous paintings by Titian: Bacchus and Ariadne, c.1521--23, and Noli me tangere, c.1515 -- just before being shipped to Australia).'

'At the core of Renaissance art is the revival of the classical past, and in his Venus with a Mirror, Titian revealed both his appreciation of antiquity and his remarkable modernity. During a sojourn in Rome he wrote that he was "learning from the marvelous ancient stones" that were being unearthed daily in the city.'

'Upon seeing Titian's conception of Mary Magdalene, the art historian Vasari declared that the picture "profoundly stirs the emotions of all who look at it; and, moreover, although the figure Mary Magdalene is extremely lovely it moves one to thoughts of pity rather than desire."'

'The left head resembles Titian himself in old age; the bearded central man has been thought to represent his son Orazio, while the youth may depict his cousin and heir, Marco Vecellio (born 1545).'

'This is a late work by Titian, master painter of the Italian Renaissance.'

'This very late Virgin and Child was painted when Titian was also working on his poetic mythological narratives for Philip II of Spain, such as 'The Death of Actaeon' (also in the National Gallery).'

'This painting is a scaled-down 17th-century copy after Titian's original Rape of Europa, possibly made by Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo (c.1612-1667), son-in-law of Velázquez. Mazo was a painter in the Spanish court and is known to have copied works by Titian in the Spanish Royal collection as a way of developing his own painting.'