Latest news with #Titian
Times
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Times
From the archive: Anybody want to buy a ‘Titian'?
From The Times: June 24, 1925 We understand that Sir Joseph Duveen, after negotiations extending over 18 months, has purchased Titian's portrait of Tomaso Contarini (1547-1604) from the Giovanelli Palace in Venice, and that the portrait is now on its way to England. The portrait was on the list of pictures which could not be exported without the express permission of the Italian Government. Signor Mussolini's Cabinet is apparently more tractable in these matters than some of its predecessors, and it is realized that the sale of old masters has its material compensation in bringing large sums of money into the country. The purchase price of this Titian portrait is put at £45,000, from which a duty to the Government has to be paid. In addition to this, the vendor handed over to the Italian Government three pictures for public museums — one by Bellini, one by Cima da Conegliano, and one by Catena. The portrait of Tomaso Contarini, dressed in armour, his right hand holding a baton, his left resting on a casque, has apparently been in the Giovanelli Palace for countless years. Possibly the two families were related. The picture is fully described in Lafenestre and Richtenberger's 'Venise', in the series of volumes dealing with the pictures in various Continental galleries, published in Paris about 1890. It is also catalogued in Mr Berenson's book on Venetian painters. Tomaso Contarini belonged to one of the greatest and most ancient of Venetian families, some eight of whom held the office of Doge from 1043 to 1684, while others have distinguished themselves as soldiers and statesmen, and one was a cardinal. Tomaso was among the few patricians who travelled, and who, as Molmenti puts it, shook off 'the prevalent sloth'. In 1597 he pronounced a funeral 'oration' on Francesco and congratulated the latter's brother, Ferdinando, Grand Duke of Tuscany, on his election to the ducal seat. In 1588 he was in Spain with Philip II, and later took a prominent part in suppressing the pirates who infested the Republic of Venice. Abandoning a secular career, he entered the Church, and held high offices. He drew up an account of Germany which appeared two years after his death. Explore 200 years of history as it appeared in the pages of The Times, from 1785 to 1985:
Evening Standard
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Evening Standard
Jenny Saville at the National Portrait Gallery: 'mythic art of the flesh'
In a room of mother works, in charcoal and pastel as well as paint, Saville becomes interested in women's bodies transforming dramatically in motherhood, where the bellies and boobs and thighs are crawled over – again the fleshscapes – by babies with their thick chubby thighs and fingers. Any parent, but most especially mums, will testify that those early months is mostly having your body existing as a massive playpark for your baby, who wants to pinch, cuddle, suck, grab and if you're unlucky, bite, any bit that comes close. Mother's bodies are their early worlds. In The Mothers, the cherubs of Titian's Assumption of the Virgin – which Saville saw as a young artist in Venice - are brought down to earth. And they're not being easy to deal with either. I loved the way she captured the movement of little kiddies, these children are not serene, sweet little thing, they are arching their back to escape a grip, wriggling around annoyingly, screaming blue. This is the reality of human life, bodies piling up, interlocking, shoving, trying to go back in. These mums are totems of fertility, not anti-feminist, just bare-naked reality about the wonderful crap you have to deal with.
The National
30-05-2025
- Business
- The National
Glasgow museums' Italian collections to tour China
Objects which are expected to give an 'exquisite and culturally-rich view' of the visual arts in Italy from 1400 to 1800 could be loaned out to form an exhibition titled "Prosperous Symphony – Italian Treasures from Glasgow Museums". The plan is for the first venue, in Shenzhen, to display the items from September this year before they are shown 'in five or six other cities'. READ MORE: Winners announced for oldest book prize in the UK They would return to Glasgow in 2028 and could then be displayed in Kelvingrove Museum. The council's city administration committee will be asked to approve the plan on Thursday. 'With a new international strategy, regular trade missions, links between the city's universities, businesses and China and the targeting of a direct air route into the city, the timing to use an exhibition as cultural exchange and the backdrop for other initiatives is now,' a council report states. The report, which is set to be presented by Bailie Annette Christie, SNP, the city convener for culture, sport and international relations, adds the tour will 'leverage more visibility for the city, its businesses, visitor economy, cultural significance and academic institutions'. This could result in 'more awareness of Glasgow in a number of cities across China', it states. Glasgow Life, the council's culture and leisure arm, which Bailie Christie chairs, plans to work with partners across the city to 'take advantage' of the exhibition. The report states Glasgow Airport is targeting a direct China to Glasgow air route to complement two direct flights per week — four in summer — between Edinburgh and Beijing. Titian's Christ and the Adulteress is another famed Italian painting currently residing in Glasgow that could be headed on the road (Image: Glasgow Museums) Ideas to promote the tour include using the University of Glasgow's networks, as it has 9,000 Chinese students as well as alumni who now work in China. Connections through Glasgow's chamber of commerce, which aims to attract inward investment from businesses in Beijing and Shanghai, will also be explored. It is hoped that the exhibition will mean Glasgow contributes to the Scottish Government's drive to 'deepen economic, social and cultural ties with China'. Research by the UK tourist board, VisitBritain, has found Chinese people associate Britain highly with museums, opera and films, the council's report adds. Alongside 33 paintings, the collection includes examples of ceramics, glass, marble sculpture, textile, arms and armour. To promote Glasgow, there would be information about the city within the exhibition. An exhibition of the city's Italian art went on tour to the United States in 2013 and all but one of the paintings and objects have been in storage since. READ MORE: Met Police silent after unlawful seizure of pro-Palestine journalist's property Paintings which were shown in America included Titian's 'Christ and the Adulteress' and Sandro Botticelli's 'The Annunciation', which once hung in the Church of St Barnabas in Florence. A minimum of three tour venues are needed for the exhibition to be economically viable. Glasgow Life would be working with NOMAD Exhibitions on the tour, which has estimated around 100,000 visitors per venue. A three-way agreement with NOMAD and Sun Pavilion Culture and Technology Co, which helps develop exhibitions, would be signed, outlining the responsibilities of each partner. Glasgow Life is expected to receive a fee from each of the host museums in China. In 2023, China was Scotland's fifth largest long-haul international market by number of visits, and fourth by number of nights and expenditure.
Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Stories in Colour review — the National Gallery's podcast is delightfully prim
I feel proprietorial about the National Gallery. In my early years in London it served as a kind of foster parent to me. Aimless and lonely with the long, dark hours of a November Saturday afternoon stretching away ahead of me like so many aeons, I could always slip through its portals and waste my time in its cavernous halls, drifting from Titian to Rembrandt to Rubens to Ingres to Goya to Van Eyck. As foster parents go, the National Gallery was admittedly rather grand and remote — a bit like a guardian in a Victorian novel — but I developed a sentimental attachment nevertheless. Something about it evidently attracts this kind of anthropomorphising fondness — when an extension was proposed to be built onto
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The National Gallery rehang review: 'London is blessed to have it'
The National Gallery's present to the nation for its bicentenary is a re-opening of its Sainsbury wing and a new display of its collection. Goodness, what a birthday treat that is. There are about a thousand pictures on display and this re-presentation of them is startling. It makes you look at familiar pictures in a different way and see pictures you've breezed by in the past as if for the first time. My own reaction as I was being taken round was roughly that of Mole in the Wind in the Willows when he was unpacking Rattie's picnic hamper: O my, O my! And besides the rehanging of the pictures, there's been an architectural reordering. The first thing that strikes you as you enter the Sainsbury Wing is the sheer space. The floor above the atrium, previously taken up by the restaurant, has been opened up with clear glazing and the effect is of light and space. When it's empty, it's cavernous, but most of the time it'll be filled with school tours and tourists; they won't feel cramped now. And, don't worry, the important things have been attended to: shops and places to eat. In the entrance there's a chi-chi coffee bar and a shop where children can buy felt arty toys and adults can get a tote bag with Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne on it. On the floor above, there's Locatelli's restaurant for classy pasta and another shop with art books and arty presents. As you go up the stairs, the first thing you see is an enormous grey orb on the wall; Richard Long's Mud Sun. Hmm. But once inside the collection, the breathtaking starts, for your first encounter is with Leonardo's the Madonna of the Rocks and just by it the grisaille folds of a beautiful triptych. At a distance from them is the Wilton Dyptich - Richard II being presented to the Virgin - which here seems very much in context. And this brings us to the most brilliant element of the idea of devotional space. Most of the art of the Renaissance and earlier was religious and there's nothing sadder than seeing paintings intended for people to pray with turned into rarified art objects, divorced from their function. Well here you get the genius idea of placing the paintings intended for private devotional use in smaller, darker rooms, reminiscent of side chapels, while the great long space that unites them is like the nave of a church between one altarpiece and another. That big basilical space displays works that were intended for churches, for public space. There's a great hanging cross by Segna di Bonaventura suspended from the ceiling as it would have done in the fourteenth century, recalling a rood screen, before the San Piero Maggiore Altarpiece at the end. This great work is presented as complete as possible, in a recreation of the original frame. A little distance before it is a panel from the base of another altarpiece. The effect, seen from a distance, is of being in church. This transforms the context for the pictures, putting them into a setting that's reminiscent of what they were intended for. A century divides the altarpieces at either end … and in between you can see the Renaissance unfold. The framing of the San Piero Maggiore altarpiece brings together its various parts, which enables you to see how they fit together. The National Gallery staff got the chance to help the frame-makers with the gilding; lucky things. It's a reminder of the formidable skills that the Gallery has at its disposal. Putting pictures in their real settings (even if they're modern recreations) makes them live – but it's funny how rarely it's done. Another effective touch is to put altarpieces on pediments, thus showing them as they would have been seen originally. Off the main nave, if you can call it that, are rooms for specific artists or regions or themes; the Cranachs are together … just beautiful – and so are the Piero della Francesca pictures. There's a room that's pretty well given over to pictures embellished in gold and it's heavenly. But the designers had an eye to the long view: right across the gallery you can see from a Rensaissance crucifix in the Sainsbury wing through all the intervening rooms to the magnificent Stubbs horse at the other end. That gives a horizontal perspective. The same device is used to highlight the Bronzino Venus and Cupid: seen from a distance, Venus's glowing white skin pulls you towards her. Other parts of the collection have been re-hung. The Titians - the Gallery. has a wonderful collection - come into their own in a dark green space, and what a good backdrop colour it is. The three paintings made for the King of Spain's bedroom are next to each other - now that's a marvellous wall. On opposite sides of the room you can see his earliest Madonna and his last...a whole artistic life, in one space. The only mild disappointment in this succession of wonders is the final room, where there are remarkable Monets (you didn't think of the National Gallery as a Monet place, did you?) including a painting of beautiful irises but they're let down by drab white walls. After the clever settings elsewhere, it's anticlimactic. But no matter. The National Gallery for its 200th birthday has done itself and the nation proud. There are splendid new acquisitions and what the gallery has, it has presented afresh, to remind us what a remarkable collection this is. London is blessed to have it. Go and remind yourself how lucky we are.
