National Gallery Technical Bulletin volume 34 Titian’s Painting Technique before 1540 National Gallery Company London Distributed by Yale University Press NATIONAL GALLERY TECHNICAL BULLETIN VOLUME 32 | 1 This edition of the Technical Bulletin has been supported Photographic credits All photographs reproduced in this Bulletin are © The National by the American Friends of the National Gallery, London Gallery, London unless credited otherwise below. with a generous donation from Mrs Charles Wrightsman ANTWERP Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, AntwerP, Belgium © Lukas – Art in Flanders VZW/Photo: Hugo Maertens/The Bridgeman Art Library: fig. 27, P. 16. Photo: © The National Gallery, London, Courtesy of the Owner: fig. 26, P. 16. BERGAMO Comune di Bergamo - Accademia Carrara: fig. 9, P. 9. EDINBURGH © National Galleries of Scotland: fig. 158, P. 82. Photo: © The Series editor: Ashok Roy National Gallery, London, Courtesy of the Owner: fig. 157, P. 82. FRANKFURT © National Gallery Company Limited 2013 Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Graphische Sammlung All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted © U. Edelmann - Städel Museum – ARTOTHEK: figs 33, 34, P. 19. in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any storage and retrieval system, without GLASGOW prior permission in writing from the publisher. Glasgow Museums © CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection: figs 68, 70, P. 39; figs 71, 72, P. 40; figs 73, 74, P. 41; fig. 82, P. 43. Photo: Articles published online on the National Gallery website © The National Gallery, London, Courtesy of the Owner: fig. 43, may be downloaded for private study only. P. 24; fig. 69, P. 39; figs 75, 76, P. 41; figs 77, 78, 79, P. 42; figs 80, 81, P. 43. First published in Great Britain in 2013 by KINGSTON LACY National Gallery Company Limited The Bankes Collection, Kingston Lacy © National Trust Photographic St Vincent House, 30 Orange Street Library/Derrick E. Witty/The Bridgeman Art Library: fig. 16, P. 12. London WC2H 7HH OXFORD www.nationalgallery.co.uk Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. Photo: © The National Gallery, London, Courtesy of the Owner: fig. 32, P. 18; figs 37, 38, British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. P. 20; fig. 191, P. 100; fig. 192, P. 101; figs 193, 194, 195, P. 102; A catalogue record is available from the British Library. figs 196, 197, 198; 199, P. 103; figs 200, 201, 202, 203, 204; P. 104; figs 205, 206, 207, 208, P. 105; fig. 211, P. 107; figs 229, 230, 231, ISBN: 978 1 85709 552 4 P. 117; figs 232, 233, 234, P. 118; figs 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, ISSN: 0140 7430 P. 119; figs 240, 241, P. 120; fig. 243, P. 121. 1035936 PADUA Publisher: Jan Green Museo Civico, Padua © 2013. Photo Scala, Florence: fig. 2, P. 6. Project Manager: Claire Young Scuola del Santo, Padua © 2013. Photo Scala, Florence: fig. 1, P. 6. Editor: Lise Connellan Design: Libanus Press PRAGUE Picture Research: Rosalind McKever National Gallery, Prague © 2013. DeAgostini Picture Library/Scala, Florence: fig. 8, P. 9. Production: Jane Hyne and Penny Le Tissier Repro by Alta Image PRIVATE COLLECTION Printed in the United Kingdom by Butler, Tanner and Dennis Courtesy of Bonhams: fig. 234, P. 118. ST PETERSBURG © The State Hermitage Museum: fig. 51, P. 32. © The State Hermitage Museum/Vladimir Terebenin: fig. 52, P. 33; fig. 53, P. 34; fig. 57, P. 35; fig. 67, P. 37. Photo: © The National Gallery, London, Courtesy of the Owner: figs 54, 55, 56, P. 34; figs 58, 59, P. 35; figs 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, P. 36; figs 65, 66, P. 37. VENICE FRONT COVER Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice © Courtesy of the Ministero per i Beni Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne (NG 35), 1520–3 (detail). e le Attività Culturali, Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Veneziano: figs 41, 42, P. 23. Photo: © The National Gallery, London, TITLE PAGE Courtesy of the Owner: fig. 29, P. 17. TOP LEFT: Titian, The Holy Family with a Shepherd (NG 4), c.1510 WARMINSTER (detail). Reproduced by permission of the Marquess of Bath, Longleat House, TOP RIGHT: Titian, The Music Lesson (NG 3), c.1535 (detail). Warminster, Wiltshire, Great Britain: fig. 83, P. 44; fig. 84, P. 45. BOTTOM LEFT: Titian, Portrait of Gerolamo (?) Barbarigo (‘The Man with a Quilted Sleeve’) (NG 1944), c.1510 (detail). WASHINGTON DC BOTTOM RIGHT:Titian, ‘The Aldobrandini Madonna’ (NG 635), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. Photo: © The National c.1532 (detail). Gallery, London, Courtesy of the Owner: fig. 24, P. 14. 2 | NATIONAL GALLERY TECHNICAL BULLETIN VOLUME 32 Recovering Titian: The Cleaning and Restoration of Three Overlooked Canvas Paintings jill dunkerton Three of the works included in this study of Titian’s thought that Titian’s inventions would be sufficiently painting technique in the first thirty to forty years of robust to survive being veiled with old varnish, dirt and his career, the Portrait of Girolamo Fracastoro, The Music repaint, yet he is also a painter of great subtlety and Lesson and The Triumph of Love (FIGS 209–11), are little even delicacy. His intentions are easily disrupted by known and have been largely ignored in the twentieth- alterations to the format of his works, as had occurred century art-historical literature on Titian. Only The in all three instances. His rich colours and descriptions Triumph of Love was included in Harold Wethey’s of texture are lost under the discoloration of old varnish, standard English language monograph on the artist, and, above all, the opacity of badly degraded varnishes for example, and then as ‘Venetian School, c.1560’.1 can destroy any sense of volume or spatial relationship The other two have been variously attributed since they in a composition. arrived at the National Gallery, most recently as ‘After Reconstruction of the conservation histories of the Titian’ and ‘Imitator of Titian’ respectively,2 their only three canvases has been important for understanding supporter as works by Titian being Wilhelm Suida in how they came to be in such an altered condition. This 1933 and 1935.3 in turn goes some way to explaining why they were The common factor in their obscurity was the generally overlooked as possible works by Titian. Tech- deterioration of their appearance as a result of heavily niques such as X-radiography and infrared reflectogra- discoloured and degraded old restorations. It might be phy have played a significant role in their rehabilitation, as has the analysis and examination of paint samples. In addition, these methods of scientific examination have informed the cleaning and treatment that has led to the retrieval of some of the original quality of the three paintings, although inevitably they remain com- promised to varying degrees by the consequences of previous interventions. Portrait of Girolamo Fracastoro The Portrait of Girolamo Fracastoro entered the National Gallery collection in 1924 with the bequest of Ludwig Mond, who had acquired it, as a Titian, in London in 1895. It received little attention, in part perhaps because of its condition, but principally because J.-P. Richter, who advised Mond on his collection, had decided by 1910 that it was by the Veronese painter Francesco Tor- bido, who, according to Vasari, had painted a portrait of the sitter – Vasari also records that he was painted by Titian. Richter later changed his attribution to that of a copy after Titian, which, with the exception of Gronau in 1926 and Suida in 1933, is more or less how it remained FIG. 209 NG 3949, Portrait of Girolamo Fracastoro (CAT . 9), before cleaning. until a recent revival of interest in the portrait.4 106 | NATIONAL GALLERY TECHNICAL BULLETIN VOLUME 34 106-121 TB34 Recovering OUTPUT.indd 106 29/08/2013 21:41 Recovering Titian: The Cleaning and Restoration of Three Overlooked Canvas Paintings FIG. 210 NG 3, The Music Lesson (CAT . 12), before cleaning. FIG. 211 The Triumph of Love (CAT . 13), before cleaning. NATIONAL GALLERY TECHNICAL BULLETIN VOLUME 34 | 107 106-121 TB34 Recovering OUTPUT.indd 107 29/08/2013 21:41 Jill Dunkerton FIG. 212 NG 3949, detail of the printed Italian text used to secure FIG. 213 NG 3949, detail of the lower left edge showing original one of the stretcher keys. paint on the tacking margin. FIG. 214 NG 3949, X-radiograph, before cleaning and relining. FIG. 215 NG 3949, detail during removal of varnish and overpaint. When the painting arrived at the National Gallery it that the lining at least must have been carried out before was described as being in a ‘fair’ state, and ‘considerably the painting left Italy. The most likely candidate for its rubbed in the paint’. It received no treatment other than last restorer is Girolamo Romano, the ‘bravo professore’, being ‘surface polished’ in 1925 and 1937, probably in who according to a guide book to Brescia of 1826, had an attempt to revive an already blanched and deterio- restored the greater part of the Lechi collection. He rated varnish. The most likely occasion for its last full was noted as ‘eccellente nell’arte sua’.5 It must have cleaning and restoration is when it was in the Brescian been at around this date that a paper label identifying collection of Conte Teodoro Lechi, from where it was the sitter as ‘Dottore Fracastoro’ was pasted to the front sold in 1854. It is recorded in the catalogues of the of the canvas in the lower left corner (only a fragment Lechi collection in 1824, 1837 and 1852, always as the had survived by this century). portrait of the ‘celebre Fracastoro’ by Titian. The charac- If the varnishes and old restoration dated back to ter of the lining canvas, and the presence of export seals the early nineteenth century this would explain their on its reverse, together with the use of scraps of paper degraded state.