Titian and His Comtemporary Artists - Titian as Subject in Nineteenth-Century Painting

7. Titian as Subject in Nineteenth-Century Painting

7.2. Titian and His Comtemporary Artists

Titian was born in a golden age for artists to manifest their abilities and to complete with each other. The eighteenth-century French painter Nicolas Vleughels (1688–1737)¹¹⁰ was the earliest painter to depict the life episode of Titian in Michelangelo Visiting Titian (Fig. 25). The literary source of Vleughels was from Vasari‘s record. The event took place when Titian was staying in Rome between 1545 and 1546 serving the Farnese, the family of Paul III. According to Vasari‘s statement:

―One day as Michelangelo and Vasari were going to see Titian in the Belvedere, they saw in a painting he had just completed a naked woman representing Danaë with Jupiter transformed into a golden shower on her lap, and as is done in the artisan‘s presence, they gave it high praise. After leaving Titian, and discussing his method, Buonarroti strongly commended him, declaring that he liked his colouring and style very much but that it was a pity artisans in Venice did not learn to draw well from the beginning and that Venetian painters did not have a better method of study.‖¹¹¹

Despite it being debatable whether the judgment came from Michelangelo or was fabricated by Vasari, the paragraph reflects a burning dispute; the contest between Florentine disegno and Venetian colorito in the sixteenth century.

Vleughels was an admirer of the Venetian School. He translated and republished

110 ―Vleughels, Nicolas,‖ in: Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online at

http://0-www.oxfordartonline.com.opac.lib.ntnu.edu.tw/subscriber/article/grove/art/T090008?q=Nicolas +Vleughels&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit (accessed January 8, 2015); Mark Ledbury,

―Vleughels, Nicolas‖ in: Jill Berk Jiminez (ed.), Dictionary of Artists’ Models, London 2001, pp.

552-554; Philip Conisbee, Review of ―Nicolas Vleughels: Peintre et Directeur de l'Académie de France à Rome, 1668-1737 by Bernard Hercenberg,‖ in: The Burlington Magazine 118, 1976, pp. 868-869, 871.

111 Quated after Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Artists, and translated by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella, Oxford–New York 1991, p. 505. The orginal Italian text reads ―Andando un giorno Michelagnolo ed il Vasari a vedere Tiziano in Belvedere, videro in un quadro, che allora avea condotto, una femina ignuda, figurate per una Danae, che aveva in grembo Giove trasformato in pioggia d‘oro, e molto ( come si fa in presenza) gliele lodarono. Dopo partiti che furono da lui, ragionandosi del fare di Tiziano, il Buonarruoto lo comendò assai, dicendo che molto gli piaceva il colorito suo e la maniera; ma che era un peccato che a Vinezia non s‘imparasse da principio a disegnare bene, e che non avessonoque‘pittori miglior modo nello studio. Con ciò sia (diss‘egli) che se quest‘uomo fusse punto aiutato dall‘arte e dal disegno, come è dalla natura, e massimamente nel contrafare il vivo, non si potrebbe far più nè meglio, avendo egli bellissimo spirit ed una molto vaga e vivace maniera. Ed in fatti così è vero, perciochè chi non ha disegnato assai, e studiato cose scelte antiche o modern, non può fare bene di pratica da sè nè aiutare le cose che si ritranno dal vivo, dando loro quella grazia e perfezione che dà l‘arte fuori dell‘ordine della natura, la quale fa ordinariamente alcune parti che non son belle.‖

Lodovico Dolce‘s Dialogo della pittura di M. Lodovico Dolce, intitolato l’Aretino in 1735, and executed Michelangelo visiting Titian as the frontispiece for this new edition.

Vleughels‘ work was associated with the content of the Dialogo. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the background of this writing. Dolce (1508–1568) released Dialogo in 1557.¹¹² He was a Venetian based writer, and he also was the friend and support of Titian. In the Dialogo, Dolce composed an interlocution between Pietro Aretino and the Florentine grammarian Giovanfrancesco Fabrini, in which the art of Raphael and Michelangelo are discussed from three aspects: Invention, Drawing and Color. At the end of the fictitious discussion, the two colloquists reached a consensus that Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian were the most exceptional artists of the time, and Titian, in particular, excels Michelangelo.¹¹³

In Michelangelo visiting Titian, Vleughels shows Titian is interrupted by two visitors, Michelangelo and Vasari in his studio. Michelangelo raises the hands and lifts up his right leg exaggeratedly to express his astonishment, as he sees the painting Titian is creating. The other guest, Vasari, is much calmer than that his companion.

According to Vasari‘s account, the canvas depicting a reclining female nude is Titian‘s Danaë (Fig. 26). In the background, the bust of the young man resting on a pillar is that of Raphael, in order to respond to the final conclusion in the Dialogo. Vleughels attempted to arrange a confluence of the three Renaissance masters.¹¹⁴

112 Lodovico Dolce, Dialogo della pittura di M. Lodovico Dolce, intitolato l’Aretino. Nel quale si ragiona della dignità di essa Pittura, e di tutte le parti necessarie, che a persetto pittore si

acconuengono: con esempi di pittori antichi, & moderni: e nel sine si sa mentione delle uirtu e delle opere de Diuin Titiano, Florence 1735 (1^st ed. Venice 1557)

113 Mark W. Roskill, Dolce’s Aretino and Venetian Art Theory of the Cinquecento, Toronto 2000, pp.

5-26; François Quiviger, ―Dolce, Lodovico,‖ in: Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online at

http://0-www.oxfordartonline.com.opac.lib.ntnu.edu.tw/subscriber/article/opr/t118/e748?q=Lodovico+D olce+&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit (accessed January 8, 2015); Franco Bernabei, ―Dolce, Lodovico,‖ in: Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online at

http://0-www.oxfordartonline.com.opac.lib.ntnu.edu.tw/subscriber/article/grove/art/T023115?q=Dolce&

search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit (accessed January 8, 2015); Edward Wright, ―Structure and Significance in Dolce‘s L‘Aretino,‖ in: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 45, 1987, pp.

273-274, 277-279; Peter Humfrey (as note 95), pp. 10, 12.

114 Maria H. Loh, Titian Remade: Repetition and the Transformation of Early Modern Italian Art, Los

Vleughels‘s adaptation of Vasari‘s account is also worth thinking about. Vasari was a leading exponent of Florentine drawing, and Dolce took a stance defensive of the Venetian School of colors. Being an advocator of Venetian art, Vleughels could not to repeat the condemnation and scornfulness from Vasari and Michelangelo. In his pictorial rendering of the event, Michelangelo is presented as a clownish performer in contrast to Titian‘s calm demeanour, inferring that Titian‘s talent was extraordinary enough to dumbfound his opponent. Vleughels presented the core conception of Renaissance that is the paragone between Florentine disegno and Venetian colorito. As a counterattack on behalf of Titian and the Venetian School, Vleughels‘s reinterprets the text of the Tuscan art critic so that Vasari ends up slapping himself.¹¹⁵

Antonio Zona (1814–1892), the nineteenth-century Venetian painter, was interested in the intercommunication of the two sixteenth-century masters in The Meeting of Titian and Veronese on the Ponte della Paglia next to the Ducal Palace (Fig.

27). Zona was the member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice. The Meeting of Titian and Veronese was a commission from the Emperor of Austria, Franz Joseph (r.

1848–1916), and made its debut in 1862 at the International Exhibition in London.¹¹⁶ Zona shows the aged Titian and young Paolo Veronese (1528–1588) together surrounded by people. The paternalist gesture of Titian implies that he is instructing Veronese, who displays his drawing book to the master. Their discussion is too fervent to be interrupted or joined by others.¹¹⁷

Angeles 2007, pp. 27-30; Michael Levey, The Painter Depicted: painters as a subject in painting, New York 1981, p. 43.

115 Loh (as note 114), p. 28.

116 Jos. Arenstein, Austria at the International Exhibition of 1862: upon orders from the I. R. Ministry for Commerce and National Economy, Vienna 1862, p. 117. See biography of Antonio Zona in: John Denison Champlin (ed.), Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, vol. 4, New York 1887, p. 470; Corrado Ricci, Art in Northern Italy, New York 1911, p. 96.

117 See biography of Paolo Veronese in: Diana Gisolfi, ―Veronese, Paolo,‖ in: Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online:

http://0-www.oxfordartonline.com.opac.lib.ntnu.edu.tw/subscriber/article/grove/art/T089003?q=Verones e&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit (accessed January 8, 2015); Harold Osborne and Hugh Brigstocke, ―Veronese, Paolo,‖ in: Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online:

Zona borrowed Titian‘s self-portrait in Berlin (Fig. 5) in the picture. The bearded man could be Titian‘s friend the Florentine architect Jacopo Sansovino (1486–1570), and Zona adopted the representative of Lorenzo Lotto‘s Architect (Fig. 28), which has been identified as a portrait of Jacopo Sansovino.¹¹⁸ At the background, he shows the white and two-storied façade of the Libreria Marciana, which was designed by Sansovino. The building was erected between 1537 and 1588.¹¹⁹ This offers an explanation to the scaffold annexing the Libreria Marciana in the painting, which was still under construction at Titian‘s time.

Relationships between old Masters and their pupils were a popular way for nineteenth-century artists to investigate their precursors.¹²⁰ Zona may be influenced by this trend in presenting Titian and Veronese together, although the latter cannot formally be considered the former‘s apprentice.¹²¹ In order to enhance the impression of age disparity between Titian and Veronese, the younger artist is represented with a boyish appearance rather than that of a young man. By arranging Titian and Veronese side by side, Zona attempted to express the transfer of different artistic generations in

http://0-www.oxfordartonline.com.opac.lib.ntnu.edu.tw/subscriber/article/opr/t118/e2691?q=Veronese&

search=quick&pos=2&_start=1#firsthit (accessed January 8, 2015).

118 Pietro Zampetti (ed.), Mostra di Lorenzo Lotto: catalogo ufficiale, Venice 1953, p. 89. See biography of Jacopo Sansovino in: Antonia Boström, ―Sansovino, Jacopo,‖ in: Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online:

http://0-www.oxfordartonline.com.opac.lib.ntnu.edu.tw/subscriber/article/opr/t118/e2343?q=Jacopo+Sa nsovino&search=quick&pos=2&_start=1#firsthit (accessed January 8, 2015); Bruce Boucher,

―Sansovino,‖ in: Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online at

http://0-www.oxfordartonline.com.opac.lib.ntnu.edu.tw/subscriber/article/grove/art/T075803pg1?q=Jaco po+Sansovino&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit (accessed January 8, 2015).

119 Alvise Zorzi, Venetian Palaces, New York 1989, p. 76; Giandomenico Romanelli (ed.), Venice: art &

architecture, vol. 1, Cologne 1997, p. 322; Norbert Huse and Wolfgang Wolters (eds.), The Art of Renaissance Venice: architecture, sculpture, and painting, 1460–1590, Chicago 1990, pp. 43-45.

120 Haskell (as note 75), p. 70; Marc Gotlieb, ―Creation and Death in the Romantic Studio,‖ in: Michael Cole and Mary Pardo (eds), Inventions of the studio, Renaissance to Romanticism, Chapel Hill 2005, pp.

175-183.

121 Paolo Veronese was born in Verona and was approximately forty years Titian‘s junior. Aside from the fact that Titian‘s use of iridescent colors and compositional language had influenced him, Veronese had never entered Titian‘s workshop to seek formal instruction. In fact, his early training was done in his hometown and he had not arrived in Venice until 1551 to start his business. See the earlier training of Veronese in: Andreas Priever, Paolo Caliari, called Veronese: 1528–1588, Cologne 2000, pp. 12-28;

Frederick Ilchman, ―Venetian Painting in an Age of Rival,‖ in: Frederick Ilchman (ed.), Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: rivals in Renaissance Venice, Farnham 2009, pp. 21-39.

the Venetian School of the sixteenth century. Moreover, Zona was a local Venetian painter and The Meeting of Titian and Veronese could be interpreted as self-encouragement for the artist to become a nineteenth-century successor of the Venetian Renaissance masters.

Furthermore, Zone arranged the Libreria Marciana as the background in the painting intentionally. It recalls a historical event in mid-sixteenth century Venice. In 1557, Titian and Sansovino were the adjudicators in the competition for the ceiling at the Reading Room in the Libreria Marciana. Veronese produced roundel Allegory of Music, which won him a gold chain. While Veronese acquired reputation through the tondi, Tintoretto (1518–1594), another emerging rival of Titian, was excluded from the list of the employed artists of this commission. Tintoretto kept pace with Titian and Veronese in sixteenth-century Venice, and he had made his mark since the 1550s.

Titian felt the challenge from Tintoretto. It could well have been Titian‘s intention to promote Veronese to include the young man in his camp thereby weakening the influence of Tintoretto.¹²²

This period of Venetian art history recounted a subtle competitive relationship between Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese. By means of arrangement of the Libreria Marciana of the background, Zona indicated the artistic rivalry in Venetian Renaissance. Is it possible that the other young man, turning his head to look at Titian and Veronese with his left hand on his waist, is Tintoretto in Zona‘s imagination? Does this painting symbolize the meeting of the three great Venetian masters? Zona invites

122 Priever (as note 121), pp. 38, 42-43; W. R. Rearick, ―An Early Dated Veronese and Veronese‘s Early Work,‖ in: Artibus et Historiae 18, 1997, p. 111; Frederick Ilchman (as note 121), pp. 21-39, 116-121;

Tom Nichols, Tintoretto: Tradition and Identity, London 1999, p. 66. See biography of Tintoretto in:

Hugh Brigstocke, ―Tintoretto,‖ in: Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online:

http://0-www.oxfordartonline.com.opac.lib.ntnu.edu.tw/subscriber/article/opr/t118/e2593?q=Tintoretto&

search=quick&pos=2&_start=1#firsthit (accessed January 8, 2015); Thomas Nichols, ―Tintoretto,‖ in:

Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online:

http://0-www.oxfordartonline.com.opac.lib.ntnu.edu.tw/subscriber/article/grove/art/T085169pg1?q=Tint oretto&search=quick&pos=3&_start=1#firsthit (accessed January 8, 2015).

open interpretations of the painting.

Instead of representing the artistic rivalry between Titian and his competitors, nineteenth-century painters raised much concerns about the interaction of the master and his pupil Irene di Spilimbergo (1540–1559). She was born in an eminent family in Udine. Painting for pleasure, she became a disciple of Titian, and it has been said that her works were quite distinguished. Her biography, which was published in 1561, was compiled and edited by the sixteenth-century Italian writer Dionigi Atanagi. The author stated affirmatively that Titian was her master.¹²³

The tuition of Irene di Spilimbergo was depicted by the Venetian painter, Antonio Rotta (1828–1903) in Tiziano che istruisce Irene Spilimbergo nella pittura (Fig. 29) in 1853.¹²⁴ Rotta shows Irene is accepting the instruction of Titian. They look at each other and a tacit dialogue seems to exist between them. A bald man with a long beard perches on a stand to postures for the painters. Behind Titian, a huge unfinished painting depicting the Madonna and Child, in which the depiction of a man‘s head echoes to the appearance of the sitter. Three years after Rotta‘s painting, the Italian little-known artist Jacopo D‘Andrea (1819–1906) rendered the same subject Tiziano insegna pittura a Irene di Spilimbergo (Titian teaches painting to Irene di Spilimbergo) (Fig. 30) in 1856. D‘Andrea shows Irene holds a palette in her left hand, and leans forward towards the canvas in front of her. Titian stands on her right hand side. With a

123 Dionigi Atanagi, Rime di diversi nobilissimi et eccellentissimi autori: in morte della Signora Irene delle Signore di Spilimbergo, Venice 1561, s. p.: ―Questa nel primo cominciamento della pittura fu presa dalla Signora IRENE per iscorta, et maestra. Et dando poco indugio al pensiero; si pose al disegno, al qual prendendo essempio solo dalle cose piu perfette, come del Signor Titiano.‖ See biography of Irene Spilimbergo in: Michael Bryan, A Biographical and Critical Dictionary of Painters and Engravers:

from the revival of the art under Cimabue, and the alledged discovery of engraving by Finiguerra, to the present time: with the ciphers, monograms, and marks, used by each engraver; and an ample list of their principal works, vol. 2, London 1816, p. 423; Elizabeth Fries Ellet, Women Artists in all Ages and Countries, London 1859, pp. 44-45; Anne Jacobson Schutte, ―Irene di Spilimbergo: The Image of a Creative Woman in Late Renaissance Italy,‖ in: Renaissance Quarterly, p.43; ―Spilimbergo, Irene di,‖ in:

Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online at

http://0-www.oxfordartonline.com.opac.lib.ntnu.edu.tw/subscriber/article/grove/art/T080582?q=Spilimb ergo%2C+Irene+di&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit (accessed January 8, 2015).

124 See biography of Antonio Rotta in: Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker (as note 99), 29/30, vol. 29, p.

96.

brush in his hand, he points at the canvas to instruct the young lady. The collars of Irene‘s costumes in the paintings of D‘Andrea and Rotta base on the sixteenth-century fashion design in Titian‘s portrait Irene di Spilimbergo.

It is obvious that the youth and feminine beauty of Irene di Spilimbergo represent a harsh contrast to the aged Titian in both paintings. The depiction of master, disciple and studio are three essential factors adopted by both D‘Andrea and Rotta. They share an intriguing detail: the brush holder is Titian rather than Irene. The brush symbolizes art. D‘Andrea and Rotta could accentuate Titian, who holds the brush, has the authority to command the power of art. The paintings reflect the prevailing condition of nineteenth-century females in Europe and the United States. As far as women from the bourgeoisie and the upper-classes were concerned, by undertaking art training it was seen as a method to cultivate good breeding and prepare for marriage. Framed within the rules of a patriarchal society, however, women were discouraged from fulfilling their aspirations to become professional artists. Compared with the active and leading characters of men, women were expected to be passive and obedient.¹²⁵ The images of Titian and Irene in the paintings of D‘Andrea and Antonio Rotta illustrate a vivid annotation of nineteenth-century gender issues.

Moreover, Rotta touched on a different point that D‘Andrea had not developed further. In Rotta‘s composition, Titian puts his left hand on the back of Irene‘s chair, his position reinforcing a sense of control and command over the situation. The contrasting characteristics of Titian and Irene, male and female, aged and blooming, are associated with the typical erotic images in history of art, which can be found in early works, such as Ill-matched Lovers of Quentin Massys and the story of Susanna with the elders. The

125 Nancy Proctor, ―4. Italy ,‖ in: Delia Gaze (ed), Dictionary of Women Artists, vol. 2, London–Chicago 1997, pp. 106-108; Anne Higonnet, ―Secluded Vision: Images of feminine experience in

nineteenth-century Europe,‖ in: Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard (eds.), The Expanding Discourse:

feminism and art history, New York 1992, pp. 170-185.

eye contact and the close distance between the master and the young girl, which Rotta depicts, create an intimate space, suggesting a subtle connection between Titan and Irene. Under the surface, Rotta invested the sexual connotation in the intercommunication of the master and his female pupil.

Eugenio Moretti Larese (1823–1874), the Venetian painter skilled at decorative art,¹²⁶ represented Tiziano e Irene di Spilimbergo (Fig. 31) in 1856. Titian and Irene are situated in an outdoor setting. Titian shows his back to viewers, and his gesture implies he is giving a lecture for Irene. Our heroine however turns her head to face away from Titian. She gazes at something out of our vision, as if her mind is drifting to a distant place and straying from the master‘s lesson. They are accompanied by a boy and a dog.

The focus of Larese is diverted towards Irene, and Titian instead acts as a foil. It is striking that the axis is settled on the feminine beauty of young Irene and her brooding countenance rather than Titian‘s lecture. If ignoring the title, it becomes difficult to recognise the figures as Titian and Irene. The painting looks more like a general genre painting. Furthermore, Larese‘s rough strokes and lively coloring, the outdoor setting, the characters, and the fountain entwined with foliage evoke the Rococo atmosphere of an eighteenth-century genre, Fête Galantes, which usually depicted couples or friends flirting, enjoying music and having fun in a flourishing garden or other open space.¹²⁷ The intention of Larese is equivalent to D‘Andrea and Rotta that their real point is on the traditional sensuous drama of old man and young

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