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This edition of the Technical Bulletin has been supported National Gallery Technical Bulletin by Mrs Charles Wrightsman volume 36 Titian’s Painting Technique from 1540 Series editor: Ashok Roy Photographic credits © National Gallery Company Limited 2015 All images © The National Gallery, London, unless credited All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted otherwise below. in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including CAMBRIDGE photocopy, recording, or any storage and retrieval system, without © Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge: 51, 52. prior permission in writing from the publisher. CINCINNATI, OHIO Articles published online on the National Gallery website © Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio / Bridgeman Images: 3, 10. may be downloaded for private study only. DRESDEN Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden First published in Great Britain in 2015 by © Photo Scala, Florence/bpk, Bildagnetur für Kunst, Kultur und National Gallery Company Limited Geschichte, Berlin: 16, 17. St Vincent House, 30 Orange Street London WC2H 7HH EDINBURGH Scottish National Gallery © National Galleries of Scotland, photography by John McKenzie: 250–5. www.nationalgallery.co.uk FLORENCE British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe, Galleria degli uffizi, Florence A catalogue record is available from the British Library. © Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Fiorentino, Gabinetto Fotografico, Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali: 12. ISBN: 978 1 85709 593 7 Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence © Photo Scala, ISSN: 0140 7430 Florence – courtesy of the Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali: 45. 1040521 LONDON Apsley House © Stratfield Saye Preservation Trust: 107. Publisher: Jan Green Project Manager: Claire Young © The Trustees of The British Museum: 98. Editor: Lise Connellan MADRID Design: Libanus Press © Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid: 1, 4, 5, 53, 106. Picture Research: Suzanne Bosman Production: Jane Hyne and Penny Le Tissier NAPLES Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples © Photo Scala, Repro by Alta Image Florence – courtesy of the Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali: 2, 39, Printed in Italy by Conti Tipocolor 40, 43, 44. NEW YORK © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: 188. ST PETERSBURG FRONT COVER © With permission from The State Hermitage Museum, Titian, Diana and Actaeon (NG 6611; NGs 2839), 1556–9 (detail). St Petersburg: 8, 9, 63. TITLE PAGE VENICE TOP LEFT: Titian,The Vendramin Family, venerating a Relic of the Church of Santa Maria Assunta dei Gesuiti © Cameraphoto/Scala, Florence: 11. True Cross (NG 4452), 1540–5 (detail). TOP RIGHT: Titian,Diana and Actaeon (NG 6611; NGS 2839), VIENNA National Gallery Company 1556–9 (detail). Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna © DeAgostini Picture Library/ BOTTOM LEFT: Titian,The Death of Actaeon (NG 6420), Scala, Florence: 154; © Photo Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Scala, London c.1559–76 (detail). Florence: 60, 61. BOTTOM RIGHT: Titian,The Tribute Money (NG 224), 1567–8 (detail). Distributed by Yale University Press 01 TB36 Prelims pp1-5 OUTPUT.indd 1 04/01/2016 16:49 01 TB36 Prelims pp1-5 OUTPUT.indd 2 04/01/2016 16:34 This edition of the Technical Bulletin has been supported National Gallery Technical Bulletin by Mrs Charles Wrightsman volume 36 Titian’s Painting Technique from 1540 Series editor: Ashok Roy Photographic credits © National Gallery Company Limited 2015 All images © The National Gallery, London, unless credited All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted otherwise below. in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including CAMBRIDGE photocopy, recording, or any storage and retrieval system, without © Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge: 51, 52. prior permission in writing from the publisher. CINCINNATI, OHIO Articles published online on the National Gallery website © Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio / Bridgeman Images: 3, 10. may be downloaded for private study only. DRESDEN Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden First published in Great Britain in 2015 by © Photo Scala, Florence/bpk, Bildagnetur für Kunst, Kultur und National Gallery Company Limited Geschichte, Berlin: 16, 17. St Vincent House, 30 Orange Street London WC2H 7HH EDINBURGH Scottish National Gallery © National Galleries of Scotland, photography by John McKenzie: 250–5. www.nationalgallery.co.uk FLORENCE British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe, Galleria degli uffizi, Florence A catalogue record is available from the British Library. © Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Fiorentino, Gabinetto Fotografico, Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali: 12. ISBN: 978 1 85709 593 7 Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence © Photo Scala, ISSN: 0140 7430 Florence – courtesy of the Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali: 45. 1040521 LONDON Apsley House © Stratfield Saye Preservation Trust: 107. Publisher: Jan Green Project Manager: Claire Young © The Trustees of The British Museum: 98. Editor: Lise Connellan MADRID Design: Libanus Press © Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid: 1, 4, 5, 53, 106. Picture Research: Suzanne Bosman Production: Jane Hyne and Penny Le Tissier NAPLES Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples © Photo Scala, Repro by Alta Image Florence – courtesy of the Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali: 2, 39, Printed in Italy by Conti Tipocolor 40, 43, 44. NEW YORK © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: 188. ST PETERSBURG FRONT COVER © With permission from The State Hermitage Museum, Titian, Diana and Actaeon (NG 6611; NGs 2839), 1556–9 (detail). St Petersburg: 8, 9, 63. TITLE PAGE VENICE TOP LEFT: Titian,The Vendramin Family, venerating a Relic of the Church of Santa Maria Assunta dei Gesuiti © Cameraphoto/Scala, Florence: 11. True Cross (NG 4452), 1540–5 (detail). TOP RIGHT: Titian,Diana and Actaeon (NG 6611; NGS 2839), VIENNA National Gallery Company 1556–9 (detail). Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna © DeAgostini Picture Library/ BOTTOM LEFT: Titian,The Death of Actaeon (NG 6420), Scala, Florence: 154; © Photo Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Scala, London c.1559–76 (detail). Florence: 60, 61. BOTTOM RIGHT: Titian,The Tribute Money (NG 224), 1567–8 (detail). Distributed by Yale University Press 01 TB36 Prelims pp1-5 OUTPUT.indd 1 04/01/2016 16:49 01 TB36 Prelims pp1-5 OUTPUT.indd 2 04/01/2016 16:34 Titian after 1540: Technique and Style in his Later Works Titian after 1540:Technique and Style in his Later Works Roman Emperor, Charles V (FIG. 1), in 1529 and his Although Titian undertook fewer official assign- early production for the Habsburgs centred on his exper- ments from the Venetian state – and tended to delegate tise as a portraitist. In 1533 Titian was honoured by the much of their execution to members of his workshop jill dunkerton and marika spring, with contributions from rachel billinge, helen howard, gabriella macaro, rachel morrison, david peggie, Emperor, who tried to persuade him to come to Spain. He when he did accept such work – he still undertook major eventually joined Charles V in Augsburg in 1548 and commissions from certain patrician families in the city, ashok roy, lesley stevenson and nelly von aderkas again in 1550–1. Meanwhile he was also cultivating the among them the Vendramin, for whom he painted the patronage of Pope Paul III and his Farnese family large canvas showing the male members of the family The first of the two volumes of the National Gallery prepared during this study have been examined using (FIG. 2). He first met the Pope, also the patron of Michel- venerating a relic of the True Cross, to which they had Technical Bulletin dedicated to Titian, volume 34 pub- optical microscopy in both visible and ultraviolet light, angelo, at Bologna in 1543, which led to a spell in Rome a particular devotion (CAT. 1). It is also possible that the lished in 2013, covered all the paintings from before supplemented by energy-dispersive X-ray analysis in the in 1545–6, the only documented occasion on which he painting known as An Allegory of Prudence (CAT. 2) once about 1540 that are associated with him in the National scanning electron microscope (SEM–EDX), transmis- visited that city. Venice remained his base between these formed part of the decoration of their family palace. The Gallery collection, together with four works belonging sion FTIR analysis and attenuated total reflectance– travels, and permanently so following his return from early provenance of the intimate devotional canvas to other collections that also date from the first half of Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopic imaging Augsburg. While in Augsburg he discussed with the The Virgin suckling the Infant Christ (CAT. 7) is unknown; his career. This second volume, which follows the same (ATR–Ftir). young Crown Prince (FIG. 3), later to become Philip II Titian could have painted it for an Italian patron or format, continues with eight canvases ranging in date of Spain, the series of paintings that have come to be friend, or indeed even for himself. from the early 1540s to possibly Titian’s last days before known as the poesie, two of which, Diana and Actaeon and The paintings in the catalogue are organised in his death on 27 August 1576. They include the two New patrons and new ways of painting Diana and Callisto, are included in this study (CATS 4 approximately chronological order, but in many instances poesie sent in 1559 to Philip of Spain, Diana and Actaeon and 5). The subject of another, Venus and Adonis (Museo opinions vary widely as to the likely dates of their incep- and Diana and Callisto (CATS 4 and 5), acquired jointly by In the first half of his career Titian had worked mainly Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Inv. P00422), is represented tion and completion. As will be demonstrated, Titian’s the National Gallery and the National Galleries of Scot- for institutional and private clients in Venice and the here by a workshop version in the National Gallery materials in the second half of his career remained land in 2009 and 2012 respectively.