Titian Tintoretto Veronese Rivals in Ren
Titian Tintoretto Veronese Rivals in Ren
Titian Tintoretto Veronese Rivals in Ren
Press release
Rivals in Renaissance Venice
A major event at the Louvre: powerful canvases by the greatest
September 17, 2009– Venetian painters of the sixteenth century are presented side by
January 4, 2010 side in Napoleon Hall in an exhibition allowing visitors to
observe the play of inspiration and admiration between these
Napoleon Hall geniuses as well as the competitive nature of their artistic
dialogue. Including eighty-five canvases, most of which have
been loaned for the occasion by prestigious museums worldwide,
the exhibition brings this noble rivalry into focus through
juxtapositions of paintings treating the same or equivalent
themes, thus demonstrating just how much these artists were
influenced by one another or instead used their paintings as
critiques or to put forward their own personal interpretations.
Although Titian, named official painter to the Republic in 1516,
dominated the Venetian art scene, the arrival of later
generations—Bassano, Tintoretto, Veronese, Palma the
Younger—and the influence of artistic developments in central
Italy, resulted in novel treatments of subjects favored by
Venetian artists in the second half of the sixteenth century.
Establishing the context of painting in Venice between 1540 and 1550, shortly before the arrival of
Veronese (1553), the exhibition’s introductory section notes the supremacy of Titian and the ascendancy of
Tintoretto. It juxtaposes works by these two artists with others by the young painter from Verona, leaving
no doubt as to the talent that attracted the patrons who had brought him to Venice. This section affords the
visitor an opportunity to arrive at an initial stylistic assessment of the Venetian school as it brings together
seminal works by these three great painters. The exhibition thus welcomes visitors with masterpieces by
Titian, at that time in the full maturity of his genius, including the Danaë and the Portrait of Pope Paul III
without a Cap (both from the Museo e Galleria Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples), accompanied by
paintings by the younger artists Tintoretto and Veronese.
II - Reflections
Intellectual elites and artists of the period were much taken with the concept of the paragone, or
comparison, which involved theoretical discussions of whether one or another of the arts was superior to all
the others. Painters were therefore very concerned with the connections between painting and the other arts.
Venetian painters offered a unique riposte to this polemic through their work on reflection, thus
endeavoring to demonstrate the superiority of their art. Whether by way of a mirror, on the metal of armor,
or on water, these artists sought to give a three-dimensional aspect to a body that the act of painting reduces
to two dimensions. Giorgione was the first to take this approach. Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Jacopo
Bassano later developed, each in his own way, the use of reflections, thus creating masterpieces of subtlety:
Venus with a Mirror by Titian (National Gallery of Art, Washington), Susanna and the Elders by Tintoretto
(Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), Saint Menna by Veronese (Galleria Estense, Modena).
Titian eroticizes the theme of the female nude with a mirror placing special emphasis on the play of gazes,
treated with extreme finesse, between the subject of the painting and the contemplating viewer. Tintoretto
makes use of this same effect to allude to elderly men driven by their lustful nature. The more sensual and
less erotic Veronese chooses instead to place his interpretation in the world of noble courtesans (Venus at
Her Toilette, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha). With the Bassanos (for example Francesco Bassano’s Forge of
Vulcan, Musée du Louvre, Paris), the treatment of reflections becomes an important element of genre
scenes.
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III - Between Sacred and Profane
The Venetian passion for pantheism led them to combine the sacred and the profane in their canvases. Subject
matters of different types (portraits, sacred scenes, genre scenes, still lifes, etc.) tended to be treated together
in a single painting. Sacred scenes never more acquired the qualities and attributes of portraiture and genre
scenes than in Venice. Among religious subjects, the holy repast is particularly representative in this regard.
Titian’s painting The Supper at Emmaüs (Musée du Louvre, Paris) was long referred to in France as La
Nappe due to the artist’s exceptional still-life treatment of the embroidered tablecloth. Venetian artists also
frequently inverted the subject matter at hand, with anecdotal elements taking precedence over the central
theme (Jacopo Bassano, The Supper at Emmaüs, private collection, United Kingdom). Veronese’s treatment
of this same subject (Musée du Louvre, Paris) constitutes the definitive realization of this approach.
This section also offers the opportunity to consider a very special aspect of Venetian painting: these artists
were the first to paint animals in their own right. Frequently included in their compositions, with dogs and
cats far outnumbering other species, animals served to reinforce or underscore the interpretation of the scenes
depicted. With his unquestionable masterpiece Two Hunting Dogs Tied to a Tree Stump (Musée du Louvre,
Paris), Jacopo Bassano produced the first known painting (1548) exclusively depicting animals. Keenly
observed dogs also feature in paintings by Titian and Veronese. Exhibiting a less naturalistic bent than Titian
(Boy with Dogs in a Landscape, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam) or Bassano, Veronese, who
did not paint from nature, nevertheless painted dogs with loving attention, clearly conveying his own feelings
toward animals and perhaps overemphasizing their beauty, his works thus contrasting with the vibrant and
detailed observations of canines painted by his rivals (Cupid with Two Dogs, Alte Pinakothek, Munich).
IV - Sacred Nights
Closely linked to the status of the Church after the Council of Trent, the themes addressed in this section of
the exhibition are marked by the spirit of the Counter-Reformation: The Baptism of Christ, The Entombment,
The Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, and Saint Jerome in the Wilderness.
Venetian painters favored the theatricalization of biblical scenes through the dramatic use and intense
depiction of light (called “luminism” by art historians), with the aim of fostering a new, stronger and more
effusive approach to religion. Their passion for light and the influence of Northern painters having visited
Venice beginning in the fifteenth century led them to develop what might be considered today as “special
effects” and this is especially true of Tintoretto (The Baptism of Christ, Chiesa di San Silvestro, Venice).
Gradually, darkness began to gain favor as a symbol of both interior solitude and the permanent threat of the
forces of evil. Jacopo Bassano’s Baptism of Christ (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), depicted as
occurring late at night and probably the last painting he completed, expresses a sorrow and a suffering that
seem to prefigure the Passion.
The influence of Titian, whose Saint Jerome in the Wilderness (Musée du Louvre, Paris) was the first
painting to depict a scene at night, is clearly felt in the works of his contemporaries, from Veronese, whose
life came to an end as his palette became more somber, at times even gloomy (The Dead Christ Supported by
the Virgin and an Angel, State Hermitage Museum, Saint-Petersburg), although this painter’s canvases
suggest an early evening rather than nocturnal atmosphere, to Jacopo Bassano.
Paolo Caliari,
called Veronese
(1528–1588),
The Supper at
Emmaüs, Oil on
canvas, 2.42 m
x 4.16 m,
Musée du
Louvre, Paris,
Inv. 146 ©
RMN / Gérard
Blot
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V - Portraits of Artists and Collectors
Apart from portraits of aristocrats, Venetian painters produced many portraits of artists and collectors. Art
collectors were dramatically represented in their element, as in Titian’s portrait of Jacopo Strada
(Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). The freedom enjoyed by Venetian patrons in awarding commissions
is illustrated by the fact that the other half of this pair of portraits depicting Ottavio Strada, the collector’s
son, was entrusted to Tintoretto (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).
The Venetian fashion for recording celebrated figures of the time through portraits prompted artists either
to depict themselves—the stunning self-portraits by Titian (Museo Nacional del Prado) and Tintoretto
(Musée du Louvre, Paris)—or to have themselves painted by their peers, such as the portrait of the great
Venetian sculptor Alessandro Vittoria by Veronese (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
VI - Decorative Miniatures
Contrasting with the large-format works presented in previous sections, here are assembled small
decorative paintings, most often intended as ornamentation for furniture and frequently illustrating
mythological scenes. None of the great Venetian masters scorned this rather precious genre, which it would
be a mistake to consider as of secondary importance, owing to the fervor it inspired among patrons.
Tintoretto (although little accustomed to the painting of minute details), Schiavone and Sustris (a Flemish
painter having established himself in Venice with considerable success) worked together on a certain
number of commissions. Three Veronese paintings in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
round out the presentation of this little-known genre.
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Related events and publications
Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese:
Rivals in Renaissance Venice
Publications
- Exhibition catalogue, co-published by Musée du Louvre
Editions and Hazan, 480 pages, about €42.
- Exhibition album, co-published by Musée du Louvre Editions
and Hazan, 48 pages, €8.
The publication of these two works is made possible thanks to
the support of ArjoWiggins.
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The Virgin with the Rabbit:
Entering Into a Work by Titian
(Interactive Experiences)