Venus and An Organist and a Little Dog by Titian, 1550
Happy Valentine’s Day!
I never loved Titian so much as when I started noticing his dogs. See more of his dog art masterpieces here and here and here and here.
Tag: titian
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Is Titian’s Diana and Actaeon (with Two Dogs) Worth Saving?
Diana and Actaeon, 1956-59Tom Lubbock of The Independent thinks ginning up public support to spend £50 million to keep Titian's Diana and Acteaon in Britain has been, "a magnificent act of aesthetic blackmail."OK, I think the painting is a bit of a fleshy mess, too. But, Lubbock really hates it…
The picture doesn't establish a decisive action. The central
confrontation of Actaeon and Diana is hamstrung between his daft
gesticulations and her flamenco flourish. It doesn't establish a
defined space either. The setting is an inarticulate add-up of arch,
trees, column, bodies. The sloping fountain, the ground area, make no
clear sense.It's cobbled together from bits and pieces in
search of a structure. If ever a picture hadn't been worked out yet,
it's this one. So, interesting perhaps as an example of a Titian in
progress, but the opposite of miraculous. (read full article, it gets worse.)And then sticks it to the Getty…
It would be no tragedy if we lost it. It has scholarly value. It's just
the kind of thing that belongs in the Getty Museum in California. But
what we've now bought for our £50m is not only the painting itself, but
the perpetual obligation to believe it's a work of supreme genius.
Bingo!Ouch!
Related Links:
OMG: Another Titian Dog Art Masterpiece!
Titian's Dog Art Returns to the Joslyn Art Museum
Titian the Dog Artist
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OMG! Another Titian Dog Art Masterpiece!
Venus with Cupid, Dog and Partridge by Titian, 1550
Right now, Athenians have a rare opportunity to see Titian’s Venus with Cupid, Dog and Partridge on loan from the Uffizi at the Museum of Cycladic Art’s current exhibition From Titian to Pietro de Cortona: Myth, Poetry and the Sacred
The show, mounted with Italian Embassy in Greece, is being held honor of official visit to Greece of the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano. It features 24 Italian 16th and 17th century paintings, including 7 by Titian.
I am in awe of this “new” dog art masterpiece. I must have seen it when I lived in Florence 20 years ago and visited the Uffizi often. But that was before I was a dog person, and before I knew a little dog named Minnie (my parents’ dog) who looks very much like the precocious pup starring this remarkable Venus.
Titian’s dog
My parents’ dog, Minnie
Speaking of Titian’s Venus paintings, did you know about the controversy regarding the *other* Venus at the Uffizi.
The Venus of Urbino by Titian, 1538
Mark Twain, writing in A Tramp Abroad in 1880, was completely horrified by this painting (he thought she was masturbating). But he was even more angry about the double standard he saw in what was permissible in art versus what was permissible in writing:
“You enter, and proceed to that most-visited little gallery that exists in the world–the Tribune–and there, against the wall, without obstructing rag or leaf, you may look your fill upon the foulest, the vilest, the obscenest picture the world possesses–Titian’s Venus. It isn’t that she is naked and stretched out on a bed–no, it is the attitude of one of her arms and hand. If I ventured to describe that attitude, there would be a fine howl–but there the Venus lies, for anybody to gloat over that wants to–and there she has a right to lie, for she is a work of art, and Art has its privileges.I saw young girls stealing furtive glances at her; I saw young men gaze long and absorbedly at her; I saw aged, infirm men hang upon her charms with a pathetic interest. How I should like to describe her–just to see what a holy indignation I could stir up in the world–just to hear the unreflecting average man deliver himself about my grossness and coarseness, and all that. The world says that no worded description of a moving spectacle is a hundredth part as moving as the same spectacle seen with one’s own eyes–yet the world is willing to let its son and its daughter and itself look at Titian’s beast, but won’t stand a description of it in words. Which shows that the world is not as consistent as it might be.”
But, you’ll note, that Mark Twain writes rather salaciously about what he is not allowed to right about. Clever, as always.
18th century dignitaries and art connoisseurs didn’t seem particularly offended by the other Venus, as evidenced by Johann Zoffany’s La Tribuna degli Uffizi (1772).
La Tibuna delgli Uffizi by Johann Zoffany, 1772
See, there’s nothing to get all riled up about. Just ask Picasso…
The Dream by Pablo Picasso, 1932
Related links:
Titian the Dog Artist
Titian’s Dog Art Returns to the Joslyn Art Museum -
Titian’s Dog Art Returns to the Joslyn Art Museum
Giorgio Cornaro with a Falcon by Titian, 1537
Tittian's Giorgio Cornaro with a Falcon, 1537, has been part of Omaha's Joslyn Art Museum's permanent collection since 1942. But 475 years of neglect and tinkering rendered it a drab, shadowy artwork known more for its Renaissance provenance than its mass appeal.
Then, in 2006, Joslyn's head curator, John Wilson, contacted the J. Paul Getty Museum's senior conservator of paintings, Mark Leonard, and asked if there was any hope for the aging masterpiece. Leonard took a look and felt that, "[he] had absolutely no doubt that it could look better, that what remained of the great power and force of the portrait could be recovered."
X-rays showed that Titian changed the position of the dog's head many times to get it just right.
After months of painstaking work, based on x-rays, science, and gut instinct, Leonard brought the Titian back to its full glory. It was recently returned to the Joslyn where it now claims a place of honor as one to the true gems of their collection.
Read Dane Stickney's Omaha World-Herald article to learn more about the painting's long journey back to art stardom. It's a great story.
P.S. Titian is one of my all time favorite dog artists. See more of his dog art works here.
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Brava Firenze! Dogs Allowed (almost) Everywhere Now!
Two Dogs by Jacopo Bassano, 1517-1592, Uffizi GalleryPack your bags, Darby. We’re going to Florence. Well, actually, we’ll wait until June when a new law goes into effect that allows owners to take their dogs with them into art galleries, theaters, restaurants, cinemas, post offices, museums and beaches. In fact, the only place, dogs (and all pets) will be banned from is The Teatro del Maggio Musicale, the Florence opera house.
The law, passed in order to "break down barriers that separate Man from his best friends," accomplishes what to me seemed impossible; it makes Florence, one of the most magical cities in the world, that much more spectacular!
Here are a few dog art works that I thought Darby might enjoy on his Grand Tour. I also know where to get the best four-cheese pizza and pistachio gelato he will go nuts for.
Bull Mastiff, 1st century A.D., Uffizi Gallery
Adoration of the Magi by Gentile da Fabriano, 1423, Uffizi Gallery
Venus of Urbino by Titian, 1538, Uffizi GalleryDogs, art, food, and beauty, Florence better be prepared for another Renaissance, the re-birth of dog lovers falling in love with their city again alongside their beloved pets.
Read more about this brilliant legislation in Richard Owen’s TimesOnline.com article.
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Titian The Dog Artist
I swear, when I first saw this Titian “Danae” on Tyler Green’s endlessly engaging Modern Art Notes blog, I thought is was an “old master” with a Photoshopped dog plastered onto it.
I have seen numerous Titians in art history class and in Italy, and I have no recollection of his dogs. Perhaps I was simply not perceptually ready, since I didn’t own a dog yet. Perhaps I just wasn’t paying attention, since some further research shows Titian included them often (possibly to symbolize fidelity or lust.)
Here is a lovely tribute to Lila, a dog whose owners believe was a descendant of Titian’s Venus of Urbino’s pup. (pictured below)
I concur…
To read more about Titian, his dogs, and his Spanish “Danae” (pictured below) read Yogchick’s excellent post on the subject at orange5000.
