Titian: Love, Desire, Death


Remarkable exhibition at the National Gallery bringing together the six mythological pictures Titian painted for Philip II of Spain.

I had been so looking forward to this show but I ended up doing a rushed look round on the way back from collecting a last few things from work prior to starting to work from home for the Coronavirus so I must admit my heart wasn’t in it. I know all the paintings well from books but it was lovely to see the National Gallery’s work back alongside the companion pieces from Madrid, Boston and the Wallace Collection and a nice touch to include Apsley House’s Danae which is now thought to be the original painted for Philip.

The paintings were described well, outlining the story as well as when and where they were delivered to Philip. At the time I wasn’t sure about the colour the gallery was painted but seeing it again on videos I realised it picks out the red he uses and there is a little bit of that colour on every picture.

The curator of the exhibition, Matthias Wivel, did a wonderful live streamed guide to the show the evening it was announced that people should work from home during the crisis in which he goes through the history of the pictures and explains some of the symbolism. It is well worth a look.  

Similarly there is a super video on how the gallery made new frames for the pictures to given them a unified feel. It seems so sad that they put so much work for the exhibition to be open just a week and for even art nerds like me not to notice.

I gather the exhibition is due to move to Scotland in the Autumn and if things are back to any sort of normality I will try to get up there to see it again and this time savour it.

Closes 14 June 2020

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