Название: Titian
Автор: Sir Claude Phillips
Издательство: Confidential Concepts, Inc.
Жанр: Биографии и Мемуары
Серия: Xtra-Sirrocco
isbn: 978-1-78525-938-8, 978-1-84484-436-4
isbn:
But to turn now once more to the series of our master’s Holy Families and Sacred Conversations which began with La Zingarella, and was continued with the Virgin and Child with Saints Dorothy and George of Madrid. The most popular of all those belonging to this early period is the Virgin with the Cherries in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Here the painter is already completely himself. He will go much farther in breadth if not in polish, in transparency, in forcefulness, if not in attractiveness of colour; but he is now, in sacred art at any rate, practically free from outside influences. From the pensive girl-Madonna of Giorgione we now have the radiant young matron of Titian, joyous yet calm in her play with the infant Christ, while the Madonna of his master and friend was unrestful and full of tender foreboding even in seeming repose. Pretty close behind this must have followed the Virgin and Child with Saint Stephen, Saint Jerome and Saint Maurice in the Louvre, in which the rich harmonies of colour strike a somewhat deeper note. An atelier repetition of this fine original is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum; the only material variation traceable in this last-named example being that in lieu of Saint Ambrose, wearing a kind of biretta, we have Saint Jerome bareheaded.
Very near in time and style to this particular series, with which it may safely be grouped, is the beautiful and finely preserved Holy Family, erroneously attributed to Palma Vecchio. Deep glowing richness of colour and smooth perfection without slightness of finish make this picture remarkable, notwithstanding its lack of any deeper significance. Nor must there be forgotten in an enumeration of the early Holy Families, one of the loveliest of all, the Virgin and Child with a Young Saint John the Baptist and Saint Anthony the Abbot, which adorns the Venetian section of the Uffizi Gallery. Here the relationship with Giorgione is more clearly shown than in any of these Holy Families of the first period, and in so far as the painting, which cannot be placed very early among them, constitutes a partial exception in the series. The Virgin is of a more refined and pensive type than in the Virgin and Child with Saint Stephen, Saint Jerome and Saint Maurice in the Louvre, and the divine Child less robust in build and aspect. The magnificent Saint Anthony is quite Giorgionesque in the serenity tinged with sadness of his contemplative mood.
Last of all in this particular group – another work in respect of which Morelli has played the rescuer – is the Mary and Child with Four Saints in the Dresden Gallery. This is a much-injured but eminently Titianesque work, which may be said to bring this particular series to within a couple of years or so of the Assunta, that great landmark of the first period of maturity. The type of the Madonna here is still very similar to that in the Virgin with the Cherries.
Titian (Tiziano Vecellio), Polyptych of the Resurrection (Polyptych Averoldi), 1520–1522.
Oil on wood panel, centre panel: 278 × 122 cm; upper side panels each: 79 × 65 cm; lower side panels each: 170 × 65 cm. Santi Nazaro e Celso, Brescia.
Titian (Tiziano Vecellio), Tobias and the Angel, c. 1512.
Oil on wood, 170 × 146 cm. Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice.
Apart from all these sacred works, and in every respect an exceptional production, is the world-famous Tribute-Money of the Dresden Gallery. The date of this presumed early work of Titian is problematic. For once agreeing with Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Morelli is inclined to disregard the testimony of Vasari, from whose text we might infer that it was painted in or after the year 1514, and to place it as far back as 1508. Notwithstanding this weight of authority, the writer is strongly inclined, following Vasari in this instance, and trusting to certain indications furnished by the picture itself, to return to the date 1514 or thereabouts. There is no valid reason to doubt that The Tribute-Money was painted for Alfonso I of Ferrara, seeing that it so aptly illustrates the already quoted legend on his coins: Quod est Caesaris Caesari, quod est Dei Deo. According to Vasari, it was painted nella porta d’un armario – that is to say, in the door of a press or wardrobe. But this statement need not be taken in its most literal sense. If it were to be assumed from this passage that the picture was painted on the spot, its date must be advanced to 1516, since Titian did not pay his first visit to Ferrara before that year. There are no sufficient grounds, however, for assuming that he did not execute his wonderful panel in the usual fashion – that is to say, at home in Venice. The last finishing touches might, perhaps, have been given to it in situ, as they were to Bellini’s Bacchanal, also done for the Duke of Ferrara. The extraordinary finish of the painting, which is hardly to be paralleled in the life work of the artist, may have been due to his desire to “show his hand” to his new patron in a subject which touched him so closely. And then the finish is not of the quattrocento type, not such as we find, for instance, in the Leonardo Loredano of Giovanni Bellini, the finest panels of Cima, or the early Christ bearing the Cross of Giorgione. In it the exquisite polish of surface and consummate rendering of detail are combined with the utmost breadth and majesty of composition, with a now perfect freedom in the casting of the draperies. СКАЧАТЬ
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In connection with this group of works, all of them belonging to the early sixteenth century, there should also be mentioned an extraordinarily interesting and as yet little known
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