Titian's Later Mythologies Author(S): W
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Titian's Later Mythologies Author(s): W. R. Rearick Source: Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 17, No. 33 (1996), pp. 23-67 Published by: IRSA s.c. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1483551 . Accessed: 18/09/2011 17:13 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. IRSA s.c. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Artibus et Historiae. http://www.jstor.org W.R. REARICK Titian'sLater Mythologies I Worship of Venus (Madrid,Museo del Prado) in 1518-1519 when the great Assunta (Venice, Frari)was complete and in place. This Seen together, Titian's two major cycles of paintingsof mytho- was followed directlyby the Andrians (Madrid,Museo del Prado), logical subjects stand apart as one of the most significantand sem- and, after an interval, by the Bacchus and Ariadne (London, inal creations of the ItalianRenaissance. And yet, neither his earli- National Gallery) of 1522-1523.4 The sumptuous sensuality and er cycle nor the later series is without lingering problems that dynamic pictorial energy of these pictures dominated Bellini's continue to cloud their image as projected today by scholars and restrained Feastto such a degree that Titianwas, as a last gesture, connoisseurs.1 asked to overpaintpart of its backgroundlandscape with a vision of When GiovanniBellini sent his Feast of the Gods (Washington, wild nature that was more to the modem taste.5 The camerino d'al- National Gallery of Art) to Ferrarain 1514 he clearly had no inten- abastro d Alfonso d'Este was destined to remain intact until 1598 tion of undertakinganother mythologicaltheme for Alfonso d'Este.2 when the pictures were transferredto Rome. Even after their dis- The Feast had been undertakenonly reluctantlyand had occupied persal, the d'Este mythologies would stand as an unparalleledpar- him since 1509; in the last two years of his life he would have been adigm for all artists who undertooksuch themes, most prominently only more resistantto the undertakingof such a demanding project. Poussin and Rubens. And yet, Alfonso had expected an ensemble of paintingsand sculp- So radiantis the example of Titian's Ferrara mythologies that ture intendedto rivalthat of his sister Isabella d'Este in Mantua.He one is suprised to discover that Titian only rarely underook themes decided, as indeed Isabella had decided earlierwhen Mantegna left based on classical legend during the following twenty years. The the third of his mythologies unfinished,to distributefuture commis- unique large scale canvas, the Jupiter and Antiope, called the sions among several artists. Dosso Dossi was called in to contribute Pardo Venus (Paris, Musee du Louvre)was destined for a long ges- one canvas, Fra Bartolommeo was assigned one, and even tation, its composition partly adumbrated around 1512 only to be Raphael was commissioned to add two episodes, works destined to repeatedlyrevised and reworkedup to just before 1564 when Titian remain unrealized.3It was, however,a still younger painterwho was sent it to Philip II to join the already abundant later suite of mytho- called upon to bring the studiolo to completion. Titian painted the logical pictures that will be the subject of this study.6 23 W. R. REARICK II. Juan de Benevides he reportedthat the canvas was ready for ship- ment.13 In the meantime, Philiphad made the politicallyportentious Philip II remained in his father's shadow as a patronof Titian move of contractingmarriage with Queen Mary Tudor of England. until the aging emperor's retirementto San Yuste in 1555. A few Thus it was that the destination of the Venus and Adonis was years before the artist had depicted the future king of Spain in the London and not Spain or the Netherlands.Its voyage to England in guise of an organist, who serenades the recumbantVenus (Berlin, the autumn of 1554 was not withoutmishap. Staatliche Museen, Gemaldegalerie), in a mysterious picture that On 6 December Philip wrote an angry letter to Francesco clearly never reached Spain-if, indeed, it was a royal commis- Vargas, his agent in Venice, in which he praises ("...me paresce de sion.7 Althoughit is thought that such a project was broached by la perficion...') the Venus and Adonis, apparentlyjust unpacked in Philipto Titianduring their 1551 meeting in Augsburg, it was prob- London, but adds the complaintthat the canvas had been folded ably in 1553 that Philip actually began to order mythologicalsub- horizontallyin packing ("...maltratado de un doblez que haya al jects from Titian. Even then it was evidently not with the idea that traues por medio del, el qual se deuio hazer al cogelle, verse ha el they would form a coherant cycle to be exhibitedtogether in a set- remedio que tiene los otros quadros que me haze le dad prissa che ting recallingthat of Alfonso d'Este's studiolo. Instead, at the begin- los acabe y no me los embieis sino auisadme quando estimieren ning the artist seems to have thought of each as an independent hechos para que yo os mande lo que se haura de hazer dellos."). work that might, if convienent, be hung in juxtapositionwith pre- One may reasonablyassume that the paintinghad been folded hor- ceeding mythological subjects.8 Thus, he began seriously to think izontally near its center and that this resulted in paint loss along about mythologicalpictures only with the commission for the Danae a strip that would have intersected Venus' head just above the (Madrid,Museo del Prado), a paintingalready undertakenwhen the shoulder.14The damage was such that the king's ire requiredaus- artistwrote to Philipon 23 March 1553, and which was shipped to suaging, but the common criticalassumption that the canvas now in Spain the following year.9 A variant of the Danae (Naples, the Museo del Prado in Madrid[Fig. 1] is the damaged original Capodimonte)that he had painted for OttavioFamese in Rome dur- requiresthat we conclude that Titianhimself made no move to cor- ing 1545-1546, the 1553 painting is a size (128 x 176 cm) and rect the problemand that the Prado paintingis the picturedescribed a shape (wide horizontal) that sets it apart from all the other in the king's letter.All the evidence points, however,to a more com- mythologies that would follow.10And yet, his correspondance clear- plex sequence of events, one supportedby the fact that the Madrid ly indicatesthat Titiantook careful account of how these successive edition is recordedfor the firsttime only in 1626 when Cassiano dal pictures would fit together. Pozzo's journaldescribed it as hanging next to the Perseus and The situtationwas, however, simultaneouslyin a state of flux, Andromeda in the Alcazar.15 and another mythologywas in progress that seems clearly to have Always recognizedas an epochal work in Titian's development, established the patter that would be followed in subsequent can- the Venus and Adonis has been subjected to a characteristic criti- vases. Since Titian specifically writes that the Venus and Adonis cal abstractionin which the Prado paintingis rankedhigh as Titian's was conceived as a pendant to the Danae, a composition in which originaland the numerous related pictures are graded in descend- the nude female form would be seen from the back ratherthan the ing qualitativeorder as productsof his shop or worse. Thus, a vari- front as in the preceeding canvas, it is clear that a uniform format ant [London, National Gallery.Fig. 2] now passes as entirelystudio and the possible addition of furtherpaintings was not yet a fixed work, while another [Malibu,J. Paul Getty Museum. Fig. 3] has objective.11Nor was there an integratediconographical program in recently been upgraded from workshop to the status of an auto- 1554. Instead, each successive canvas would be loosely, some- graph painting in which the shop participated.The closely related times quite freely, based on Ovid'sMetamorphoses and no interre- version [Lausanne, private collection. Fig. 4], however, has not lation except for compositional balances was ever intended12. been available for critical evaluation for seventy years and has, Nonetheless, the Venus and Adonis would soon become the start- therefore, remained largely ignored or, worse, categorized as ing pointfor what was destined to be Titian's second great cycle of a modest atelier reproductionof later date. Two smaller pictures of mythological pictures. this subject [Washington,National Gallery of Art. Fig. 5; New York, We do not know precisely when Philip commissioned the MetropolitanMuseum of Art. Fig. 6] have generally been stigma- Venus and Adonis; indeed, as was sometimes the case, Titian may tized as still later revisions in which the shop played a predominant have undertakenit on his own initiativeon the assumption that if it role. Thus, the art historical compulsion to establish an orderly were well received it would be well compensated. The artist's letter heirarchyamong the many versions of Titian's Venus and Adonis to Philipdescribes the Venus and Adonis as potentiallyto be hung seems to have been satisfied, and the records on their historymight together with the Danae that had already been dispatched, and in well have remained a closed chapter. a simultaneous letter, dated 10 September 1554, to the king's agent 24 TITIAN'SLATER MYTHOLOGIES '*'- -F .r i I - ' _=. ..l.H-zzI ..I 4 . 1) Titian. ((Venus and Adonis). Madrid, Museo del Prado.