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’s Painting Technique from 1540 lower part of the picture and were extensively reconstruct- Tizian porträtiert seinen Farbenhändler Alvise “dai Notes ed in the recent restoration. See A. Roso and N. Pisano, ‘un colori” dalla Scala’ in Dresden 2010, p. 59, note 49. Restauro Difficile’ in Alba 2012, pp. 32–3. 35 T. Weddigen and G.J.M. Weber, ‘Alchemie der Farben: Titian after 1540: Technique and Style in his easily distinguished in the confusion of the X-radiograph. 23 Vienna and Venice 2007–8, pp. 238–41 (German edition Tizian porträtiert seinen Farbenhändler Alvise “dai Later Works Initially it was thought that the Saint Sebastian was only). The question as to whether Titian’s workshop made colori” dalla Scala’ in Dresden 2010, pp. 52–3. first conceived as a half-length figure and subsequently painted replicas, perhaps as ricordi, has been much debat- 36 Gould 1972, quoted in Penny 2008, p. 251. ed. Occasionally candidates for such a type of painting 37 The quantitative SEM–EDX analyses suggest that this is an 1 Penny 2008. extended (Vienna and Venice 2007–8, pp. 304–7 [English have been proposed, but they can usually be shown to be ordinary vitrum blanchum rather than the higher quality 2 For a detailed biography see Hale 2012 and for briefer edition], pp. 350–3 [German edition]). later copies. This is certainly the case with the small-scale cristallo. See Spring 2012 for further information on this accounts of Titian’s life see, for example, C. Hope, ‘titian’s 12 FTIR analysis is needed to identify the type of calcium version of Titian’s The Trinity (‘La Gloria’) in the National point. Life and times’ in London 2003, pp. 11–28, and Penny sulphate present, and a suitable sample was only available Gallery (NG 4222), which is clearly derived from Cornelis 38 For other examples of copper pigments used as a drier for 2008, pp. 201–5. for a few of the works in this study, so it is not necessarily Cort’s engraving published in 1566 but appears subse- black paint in sixteenth-century Italian works see Spring, 3 Madrid 2003, p. 226. the case that CATS 3 and 8 are alone in having anhydrite quently to have been corrected with some knowledge Grout and White 2003, p. 99. 4 The very damaged panel of the Mater Dolorosa belonging as the main component of the gesso. In addition, a mix- of the original painting (see Penny 2008, pp. 304–11). 39 Mills and White 1977, p. 58. to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, is ture of gypsum and anhydrite would be difficult to detect This and the fact that the National Gallery painting has 40 No medium analysis was carried out for An Allegory of clearly related to the paintings for Charles V and must by FTIR and may have been missed. a red-brown ground, similar to the grounds often seen on Prudence (CAT. 2) due to the difficulty in finding an appro- have been painted at around the same time. Her mantle 13 Very few of the cross-sections included the gesso ground paintings by El Greco, suggest that it may have been pro- priate area for sampling. now appears red but this colour seems likely to have been layer so it was not always possible in the other paintings to duced in Spain in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth 41 In a few samples the ratio of azelate to suberate diacids an underpainting for a blue pigment, now almost com- confirm by SEM–eDX analysis whether these impurities centuries. It is therefore not included in this study. was a little higher than expected for heat-bodied oil, most pletely lost.