Tiziano Vecellio, known as Titian, was a Venetian painter during the Renaissance, and is considered to be the most significant artist of the 16^th century.  The Venetian school began in the 1400s under the leadership of Giovanni and Gentile Bellini who emphasized using color to create dramatic forms.  The range of Titian’s oeuvre was extensive including subjects from landscapes, portraiture, spiritual and mythological stories.  Throughout his career his style changed noticeably however is art always displayed his mastery of color and tone. He excelled in painting vigorous compositions filled with supreme richness and distinct psychological expression. As an artist Titian is generally viewed as only second in greatness and success to Michelangelo.

Titian’s commissions came from prestigious clients that included popes, royalty and other notables in Europe who recognized his exceptional artistic talent.  Among them was the influential King Philip II of Spain who in 1550 commissioned Titian to do a series of mythological paintings.   The six large works were painted between 1551 and 1562.  Known as the “poesie”, they are often referred to as painted visual poems.  The ancient Roman poet Ovid (above) inspired these works that were planned as pendant pairs.  In each mythological story Titian compressed multipart narratives of gods and mortals and their calamitous consequences.

The paintings depict epic stories about seduction, sexual violence, gender and power.  Despite the five hundred years gap between then and now, all of the themes remain pertinent today. Philip was the perfect patron who not only paid Titian premium fees but also offered him total freedom to paint whatever he preferred. King Philip equally benefited by having works from an admired artist worthy to buff his image as world-conqueror and ruler of an empire spanning much of Western Europe, as well as territories in the Americas, Africa and Southeast Asia.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; the National Gallery, London; National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh and the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid organized this rare exhibition, “Titian: Women, Myth & Power”. This exhibition reunites the six theatrical compositions for the first time in 500 years.  This was made possible by the collaboration of museums and galleries around the world.  An exceptional achievement was securing a loan from the Wallace Collection that in its 124-year history never loaned a painting.  Nevertheless, they lent “Perseus and Andromeda,” thanks to its director who persuaded his trustees to relax the rules.  Originally the 6 paintings were exhibited together in the Madrid imperial palace, though later only one remained in Spain; four moved to England; and the Boston art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner purchased the noted “The Rape of Europa (1559-1562), below, in 1896.  The Gardner is the only venue in the United States in which this exhibition is presented.

Prior to entering this small but elegant exhibition gallery, one is witness to an extensive photographic documentation of the renovation and cleaning of the “The Rape of Europa,” along with a short video.  Clearly this is the crown jewel painting of the Gardner’s collection and exhibition.  Viewers are presented with an illustrated time line of the laborious restoration process resulting in re-establishing the vibrancy of Titian’s color.

“The reclining nude, or practically unclothed female figure is the recurrent theme throughout this series of erotic paintings.”

Inside the Hostetter Gallery, the Gardner’s space for temporary loan exhibitions, eight paintings—the six “Poesies”— are hung in chronological order in pairs of two, as was Titian’s original intention.  At the entrance of the exhibit, on its smallest wall one sees a pair of portraits: one is a portrait painted by Titian of Phillip II (1549–1550), and the other of his wife Mary I, the Queen of England, by Antonis Mor. Intended as an engagement gift to the king, they were completed in 1554, the year of her marriage to Philip.  Including the two portraits was a clever addition to this display conveying a sense of the persons in their period attire and the era in which the paintings were produced.  

According to Nathaniel E. Silver, the Gardner Museum’s William and Lia Poor, Curator of the Collection, “What I wanted to do with this installation was to try to recreate the experience that Philip would have had in being surrounded by these six canvases that Titian meant to be seen together…While we couldn’t replicate or imitate the architectural experience of that room, we could recreate the immersive experience of surrounding yourself with these canvases.”  All of the paintings are hung at a comfortable viewing height that is so unlike the traditional high hanging of art at the Gardner. Additionally, the wall labels throughout the display are impressive.  In a small space each text provides a condensed amount of information offering valuable insights into the themes in each canvas in clear language accessible to visitors of all backgrounds and education.

The reclining nude, or practically unclothed female figure, is the recurrent theme throughout this series of erotic paintings. One’s exploration of the six “poesie” mounted in matching gilded frames begins with “Danaë” 1551-53 and its pendant composition “Venus and Adonis”, 1553–54. Prior to painting “Danaë”, Titian had completed the “Venus of Urbino”,1538 an erotic portrayal of a nude in an elegant setting.  Giorgione in his “Sleeping Venus” established the norm of placing the reclining female nude implicitly in a sexually alluring pose. Phillip pressed Titian to make his rendition of Danaë even more lascivious than his previous work.  Seeing the painting of Danaë” evokes Manet’s “Olympia,” (inspired by Titian’s “Venus of Urbino”), causing such controversy when it was first unveiled in Paris in 1865.  In contrast, the naked female body today is a common occurrence.

The viewer sees the voluptuous Danaë, who has been exiled to a tower by her father, the king of Argos, to protect her from lecherous men.  He’s learned from an oracle that Danaë will bear a son who would kill him and yet, despite his precaution of imprisoning his daughter, the god Jupiter managed to enter her chamber by transforming himself into a heavenly shower of sparkling gold dust that descends on Danaë’s reclining nude body.

“Venus and Adonis”, is a narrative of longing and passion, portraying the nearly naked Venus who attempts to detain Adonis, an attractive youthful human, from going on a hunt that she perceives will result in his death.  With a resolute look on her face, she grasps his muscular chest and struggles to impede Adonis despite his leave-taking gait.  In one hand he holds the reins of two hounds enthusiastic for the hunt and in the other Adonis clasps a spear.

The next pair of consists of Diana and Actaeon, and Diana and Callisto, both painted between 1556–59 in which Titian further explores the relationship between gods and mortals.   Each composition is a complex, rich arrangement demonstrating Titian’s astute ability to portray inventive drama through twisting, tilting and recoiling nude figures.  “Diana and Actaeon” is thought to be one of Titian’s supreme paintings disclosing the very second Actaeon invades the privacy of Diana’s bath along with her nymphs. The goddess is furious and shock reverberates across her face.  The other piece,  “Diana and Callisto,’ 1556-59 (above, Collection National Gallery and Scottish Natioal Gallery, London and Edinburgh), depicts the moment that Diana realizes that her favorite maid Callisto has become pregnant by Jupiter and banishes her from her chaste entourage.  Diana the virgin goddess of the hunt has no tolerance for men, and lust is forbidden in her space.

Although “Perseus and Andromeda” (1556), and “The Rape of Europa” (1562), appear as a pair, originally they were not intended to be shown together. Nevertheless the Gardner’s arrangement is an appropriate choice since both portray women in the air and are marine subjects.  Perseus rescues the beautiful Andromeda chained to a rock from a vicious sea monster and the disguised Jupiter, a white bull, carries the sparsely clothed reclining Europa on his back to Crete.  Europa is the last painting of the series and is perhaps the most significant Renaissance painting in the U.S.A.  It’s recent restoration and cleaning adds to its intense color as well as the drama of the scene filled with floating Putti, flowing drapery and radiant blue sky.

This exclusive exhibition overlaps with the 125th anniversary of Isabella Stewart Gardner’s acquisition of the “Rape of Europa,” the last of the series completed.  To some critics and visitors who uphold “woke” standards, this exhibit of large-scale naked women imagery might be seen as inappropriate in an age of the #Me Too movement and new attention to sexual abuse and sexual harassment.  Though one needs to place the subject of the nude female within its historical context.  The nude throughout Western art has been a recurring theme particularly in the Renaissance and the neoclassical period.   There is no doubt that in those periods female nudity in art was closely tied to objectification.  Who was the patron? Who was the artist?  Who was the audience?  Simply put, it was the male who had power and money who commissioned the work.  Today we live in a very different world and art is best understood within the context of its time while providing perspective in our own.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum exhibition, Titian: Women, Myth & Power is a gift to audiences.  The inclusion of female artists to respond to Titian’s work is fitting.  Barbara Kruger’s large digital graphic art titled “Body Language” is a provocative image of two overlapping bodies revealing her rearrangement of details from Titian’s Diana and Actaeon on which the title is overlaid on the image.  Hung vertically as a type of banner on the Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade, an outside wall of the museum’s main entrance, Kruger addresses the dialogue of power, sexuality, and submission and invites us to reflect on the concept of the art historical notion of the “gaze”.  

In response to Titian’s masterpiece“Rape of Europa,” the filmmakers Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley provide a modern interpretation of “Europa”.  In the Kelley film shown in the Fenway Gallery, “Europa” is portrayed in business attire and farcically addresses the audience between scenes.  The film combines painting and performance in which Mary plays a variety of historical and mythical roles.  They give voice to “Europa”, liberating her from the Renaissance submissive female role was forced to portray in the ancient myth.  Mary Kelley’ interpretation of  “The Rape of Europa” is frank and humorous: “One of our first impressions seeing the painting was that it was funny. There was a clear slapstick quality in the way that “Europa” is tumbling off the back [of the bull] and her skirts are flying up in a very Marilyn Monroe predicting way. The Cupids and the fish are kind of mimicking what she’s doing. And so it’s clearly fun. And then of course, the bull’s face, which is probably my favorite part of the painting, is just kind of looking at you like, ‘Did you get that?’ Like it was waiting for the laugh.”

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has done an excellent job of not only displaying Titian’s paintings along with their intelligent wall cards but also they offer a dialogue with contemporary artists.  Their interpretation and exchange of ideas with Titian’s work allows for the female voice of today to be heard in response to art embedded in values from five hundred years ago!

Contributing Editor: Elaine A King

Titian: Women, Myth & Power

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

25 Evans Way, Boston, Massachusetts

On View through January 2, 2022

Published here for the first time, dramatically enlarged details of the composition demonstrate Titian’s deft touch and dazzlingly technical accomplishment. These bravura passages recently revealed by the painting’s comprehensive cleaning – the first since its arrival in America – are accompanied by commentary from the conservator, Gianfranco Pocobene, who returned Europa to its original glory.

This book accompanies the Gardner Museum exhibition, Titian: Women, Myth, and Power, reuniting his poesie series in the United States for the first time. 

Edited by Nathaniel Silver
80 pages
Published by Paul Holberton Publishing, 2020
Paperback, 9.3 x 7.6”, $25.00