Titian’s Poesie

Fantastic three week online course from Paula Nuttall on the six pictures by Titian in his Poesie series.

This was a new venture by Paula to run online courses and I thought it worked really well so bring on more! In the first week we looked at mythological painting before these works both by Titian and others. We concentrated on the works for brother and sister Isabella and Alfonso D’Este and for Isabella’s son, Federico Gonzaga in Mantua. Titian worked on the pictures for Alfonso but would certainly have also known the work going on at Palazzo Te in Mantua.

The second weekly session was spent looking in detail at the pictures themselves, currently together for the first time in centuries at the National Gallery. We discussed how Titian used Ovid’s Metamorphoses as a source for the story but thought about when he picked the particular moment in each tale.

Finally we looked at the commissioning process between Philip II of Spain and Titian and the free hand the artists was given for these works. We talked about what versions of Ovid he might have used as well as what visual sources he might have looked to for inspiration. We finished by looking at the life of the pictures after they reached Spain and why they didn’t stay together.

All in all and enjoyable and informative few hours.

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