‘Titian: Love, Desire, Death’ at the National Gallery in London

‘Titian: Love, Desire, Death’ is a highly selective yet magnificent exhibition dedicated to Titian’s celebrated series ‘poesie’.

The universally acclaimed show was originally due to close on 14th June 2020. However, after the museum had to shut down in March because of the lockdown, the National Gallery announced an extension of the exhibition up to 17th January 2021. The Lot-Art team had the pleasure to visit and is delighted to share with you some insights on this terrific retrospective.

Although featuring some other magnificent works by Titian, the exhibition highlights are seven paintings that truly embody the artistic complexity and historical significance of the Renaissance master. These large-scale mythological paintings, known as ‘poesie’, were conceived by Titian as a cohesive series derived from Ovid’s poem ‘Metamorphoses’ – one of the most significant literary sources from ancient Rome which provided a great deal of inspiration for Old Masters artists.

The series was commissioned to Titian by the 21-year-old Prince Phillip of Spain and was executed between 1551 and 1562. For the first time over four hundred years, all the paintings are reunited in the same room, making this exhibition a once in a lifetime experience.

Titian was famous as an erotic painter and pioneer of the female reclining nude, at a time when religious paintings dominated the artistic scene. Philip was a famous art collector and an eager consumer of erotic art. Therefore, it does not surprise that the series is an ode to women, in all their fleshy glory.

The exhibition reunites Danaë (1551-3), Venus and Adonis (1554), Perseus and Andromeda (1554-6), Diana and Actaeon (1556-9), Diana and Callisto (1556-9), Rape of Europa (1562) and Death of Actaeon (1559-75) - a later unfinished work, also intended as part of King Philip’s series, which marks the end of the exhibition path.

Titian, Danaë (ca. 1551-1553)

Titian, Danaë (ca. 1551-1553)
Oil on canvas, Wellington Collection at Apsley House, London
The Danaë is the first painting that Titian sent to Madrid for his patron. The richly textured scene is taken up almost entirely by the nude Danaë. She is presented in the most sexually graphic pose, legs parted and lips agape, as she is impregnated by Jupiter in the form of a “golden shower”.

Left: Titian, Venus and Adonis (1554); Right: Titian, Perseus and Andromeda (ca. 1554-1556)

Titian, Venus and Adonis (1554)
Oil on canvas, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
Titian’s power as a storyteller is perhaps at its height in Venus and Adonis. Adonis was a beautiful, young royal orphan, who spent his time hunting. Venus felt in love with him by mistake after one of Cupid's arrows hit her in front of the young man. Titian presents the myth is probably the most striking momentum of the two lovers’ story. Venus is trying to restrain her lover from going off to the hunt as she knows a tragedy is about to occur. She clings to him, while Adonis’ dogs strain at their leashes, echoing the young man impatience. In the background, Cupid is sleeping as a symbol of Adonis's resistance to Venus's demands. Adonis will indeed leave his lover in despair and, as predicted, during the hunt the young man will be fatally gored by a wild boar.

Titian, Perseus and Andromeda (ca. 1554-1556)
Oil on canvas, The Wallace Collection, London
The third picture that Titian delivered to Philip of Spain tells the story of the rescue of the Ethiopian princess Andromeda by the hero Perseus. Perseus is depicted descending from the skies to kill a sea monster that was threatening the princess's life. Andromeda, stands naked, chained to a rock as a sacrifice to the monster. She is terrified, yet she is incredibly suggestive. The painting’s foreground is just as compelling - fierce cliffs give way to foreign waters agitated by the thrashing monster, while a placid blue skies beckon in the distance, giving the hint of a successful ending to Perseus’ intervention.

Left: Titian, Diana and Actaeon (1556-1559); Right: Titian, Diana and Callisto (1556-1559)

Titian, Diana and Actaeon (1556-1559)
Oil on canvas, The National Gallery, London
Diana and Actaeon is a painting about the power of seeing and being seen, it is about the glaze of both characters and viewers. The painting presents the story of another innocent who was caught up in the drama of the gods, the handsome hunter Actaeon. The young man is depicted while he has pulled aside a pink curtain and accidentally intruded on the goddess Diana and her nymphs bathing. The myth is exquisitely rendered by Titian not only in the technical quality of the textures of skin, water and cloth, but most of all in how he conveys the pathos of the scene - horror, anger and intrigue play across the peoples’ faces, in an intense psychological scene. Diana will show no mercy towards the reprobate hunter and Actaeon’s tragic end will be revealed in the last picture of the exhibition, The Death of Actaeon.

Titian, Diana and Callisto (1556-1559)
Oil on canvas, The National Gallery, London
Diana and Callisto is another dramatic, heartbreaking scene, that Titian conceived as a pair with the Diana and Actaeon. Callisto, one of Diana’s nymphs, had been raped by Jupiter in the form of the goddess Diana herself. Titian depicts the dramatic moment in which her sin was revealed. She is held still by her peers who denounce her pregnancy to the chaste goddess. The red-eyed victim, who could only be blamed for her unfortunate fate, instead of being comforted is exposed and cast out by the other nymphs. Such an atrocious act invites the modern viewer to reflect on the profound ethical themes of abuse, shame, and condemn.


Left: Titian, Rape of Europa (1562), Right: Titian, The Death of Actaeon (1559-1575)

Titian, Rape of Europa (1562)
Oil on canvas, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Infatuated with the beautiful Princess Europa, Jupiter turned into a beautiful white bull and appeared on a seashore where she was playing with her handmaids. Finding the animal tame, Europa gained confidence and played with him entwining flowers around his horns. The moment she climbed on his back playfully, Jupiter seized the opportunity and dragged the scared girl away into the sea. Titian depicts the exact moment of Europa’s abduction. Her face is covered in fear, while her beautiful youth naked body is very much on show. The bull’s freaky eyes look straight at the viewer. Europa is terrified as she senses something horrible is about to happen. This painting was very much desired by Isabella Stewart Gardner who, through her friend and art advisor Bernard Berenson, managed to acquire the masterpiece from the London-based gallery Colnaghi. Berenson said of Isabella ‘she lives at a rate and intensity, with a reality that makes other lives seem pale, thin and shadowy’, just as this striking scene does when hung along with less outspoken canvases.

Titian, The Death of Actaeon (1559-1575)
Oil on canvas, National Gallery, London
The exhibition ends with The Death of Actaeon. The unfinished work is a continuation of Diana and Actaeon’s story and shows the goddess seeking revenge on the hunter. Diana is depicted while turning him into a stag. Actaeon’s hounds, not recognising their master, are about to thorn him apart. It is a painting about justice and is the most fitting epilogue to the series of excessive, unfair scenes presented in the earlier works.

Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne (1520-1523)

Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne (1520-1523)
Oil on canvas, National Gallery, London
Although the focus of the exhibition was on the amazing ‘poesie’ described above, a few other pivotal artworks from Titian’s oeuvre were also included. One of the most notable is Bacchus and Ariadne - part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery of London. Titian was a great innovator, not only in the way he presented new, subversive subject matters but also in the technique of painting he used. He was one of the first Italian painters to experiment with the newly invented support of canvas, instead of wood. But perhaps, he is even more celebrated because of the vibrant array of colors he employs in his paintings, and which is particularly noticeable in the Bacchus and Ariadne. He painted this workaround 1520-1523 - about thirty years before he was commissioned the ‘poesie’ series by Philip of Spain. Already at the time, Titian was doing large use of Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ as an inspirational source for his paintings. Here he depicts the dramatic moment of Theseus and Ariadne's story, in which the hero abandons his lover on an island and sail away. The girl, betrayed and heartbroken, is soon met by the god Bacchus who will fall for her and cure her despair.

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