Pietà (Titian)

Pietà

Artist	Titian
Year	1575–1576
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	389 cm × 351 cm (153 in × 138 in)
Location	Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

The Pietà is one of the last paintings by the Italian master Titian, and in its final, extended state was left incomplete at his death in 1576, to be completed by Palma Giovane. Titian had intended it to hang over his grave, and the two stages of painting were to make it fit in two different churches. It is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.

The painting is among Titian's last, one of several left unfinished at his death. An inscription in the lower part of the painting records that it was finished by Palma Giovane, whose interventions seem to have been kept to the minimum necessary, and doing his best to match Titian's own style.^[1] A minimalist view of the areas he worked on is that it "was limited to the angel with the torch and to touching up the tympanum of the stone shrine",^[2] but the statue of Saint Helena and Jerome's cloak have also been suspected of showing his hand, and he may have touched up the architecture more generally.^[3]

The painting is one of a group in Titian's distinctive late style, which begins fully about 1570, though continuing trends seen in earlier works as far back as the mid-1550s. He often kept paintings in the studio for a long period, with several probably unfinished at his death in 1576. His brushwork becomes bold, but imprecise and impressionistic, and worked over many times, as recorded in a famous description by Palma Giovane.^[4] The distinction between forms and the space between them almost disappears, and "The forms emerge like wraiths out of the circumambient darkness, and mass is reduced to a flickering pattern of colour and light. In his last years only these elements had reality for Titian."^[5]

There is a long-running argument about which of the works of the 1570s have been completed, and by whom. In this case, the main group of the Pietà, in its first form, is known to have been delivered by Titian as finished, and the full expanded composition to have been finished by Palma Giovane. Other important paintings of the 1570s are Tarquin and Lucretia, which was delivered in 1571, the Saint Jerome delivered in 1575, and the Flaying of Marsyas, The Death of Actaeon, the Hermitage Museum's Saint Sebastian and the Crowning with Thorns in Munich, all of which were probably in his studio at his death.^[6]

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Transcription

(lighthearted music) Male Voiceover: We're in the Accademia in Venice, standing in front of a very late Titian. In fact, a painting so late in his life, that not only did he intend it for his own tomb, but it was unfinished at this death. Female Voiceover: Parts of it were finished by another artist after Titian's death. Male Voiceover: We have some evidence that the angel holding the large candle may have been added by that later artist. Female Voiceover: The painting was intended for his tomb in the church of the Frari here in Venice, that Titian painted two other great paintings for; his Assunta, or the Assumption of the Virgin, and also his Pesaro Madonna. So, this was a church that he was very familiar with, that he had a relationship with. Male Voiceover: And where he is buried; although, there was a dispute, so this painting was not added. This is a Pieta, which was a rare subject for Titian, and we think that it would have been on the right wall, so you would have approached it at an angle; and it helps to explain the composition. Female Voiceover: That's true, generally, for Titian's work, that he was very aware of the approach of the viewer toward the painting in the way in which the figures depicted related to the viewer. Male Voiceover: Well, look at the composition of this painting. You have a very stable architectural form in the middle, and that might well create a sense of stability; but in Titian's hands, it doesn't, because he's got this wonderful diagonal that moves up from the lower right corner through the figure that is draped in red that some art historians think may be St. Jerome, through the shoulders of Christ, to Mary, wearing blue, finally to Mary Magdalene, who stands, and then that line is stopped by her right hand. Female Voiceover: She strides forward towards us, although she looks away from us. Some art historians think that the figure St. Jerome, who's kneeling and grasping the hand of Christ, looking up at Christ and Mary, may be a portrait of Titian himself; and Titian does appear, we think, in the Pieta, in a painting within the painting that we see on the lower right. There's a small image of two figures praying toward a Pieta. Male Voiceover: That's stacked right over the family crest, which you can see just below that canvas. Female Voiceover: That identification with Titian and his son is pretty certain; so this is personal image for the artist. It's clear that Titian often worked on paintings for long periods of time, returning to them again and again, which is something you can do with oil paint; but, to me, it makes sense that you might not finish a painting that's destined for your own tomb. Male Voiceover: The forms that frame the central figures are enormous and powerful. On the left, you see Moses holding the laws, holding the staff that he'll strike a rock with to create a spring miraculously. On the right, you see a sculpture of a pagan holding a cross. Female Voiceover: So, Moses, from the Old Testament, the Sibyl figure from classical antiquity, who prophesied the coming of Christ, and so therefore, she holds a cross, and these two figures represented a sculpture because they are from the older pagan and Jewish traditions. Male Voiceover: But, Titian also refers to his own history much more directly in this painting. In the center, it is this massive piece of architecture, this apse. We can see this rusticated masonry, and a broken pediment at the top, but inside you see this concave space with a mosaic at its top that reminds us of the mosaics in San Marco in Venice, that were referred to [unintelligible] of Giovanni Bellini, the great Venetian artist that came before Titian. These were formative paintings for Titian's own early career, and here, in his last years, he refers back to this history. Female Voiceover: Although the painting is unfinished, we do get a sense of how oil paint allowed Titian and other Venetian artists to work on paintings over a long period of time to be expressive with their brushwork, to have a sense of immediacy and individuality in that brushwork, to create forms that were open, that lack a kind of finality. Male Voiceover: That's right, this painting feels mutable. It feels as if Titian might have continued to push the paint, and that form might resolve, or in some places, continue to dissolve. Part of the power of this painting has to do with the fact that it is represented at night, but it allows Titian to have these figures, these forms, emerge out of darkness. Female Voiceover: The light almost seems to emerge from Christ. There is that interest in spiritual light, that is something we see in the work of Titian going back to his other paintings in the Frari, like the Assumption. The figures are life-size, the painting itself, is probably about 10 feet high. This is still, though, a very intimate and personal image. (lighthearted music)

Description

An original, much smaller, composition just showing the basic two figures of the standard Pietà subject in Christian art, which consists of Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Christ, was expanded after being completed and delivered (see below).^[7]

Behind the central figures there is now a large rusticated Mannerist aedicule or niche, flanked by statues standing on plinths carved with giant lion heads. Along the top of the broken pediment six flaming lamps give a dull light, with another half-hidden in the centre, with vegetation around them, perhaps "the fig leaves of the Fall of Man".^[8] A patch of dark sky can be seen at top left. Three massive keystone-like blocks in the centre drop below even the bottom of the pediment, a feature typical of the Mannerist architecture of Giulio Romano and his followers. These three blocks have been said to represent the Holy Trinity,^[9] or "Christ as foundation of the faith".^[10]

A figure who is either the Nicodemus of the gospels or, as usually thought today, Saint Jerome, approaches Christ on his knees, and reaches out to touch his hand.^[11] This is generally agreed to be a self-portrait of Titian.^[12] On the left, standing and completing a right-angled triangle of the human figures,^[13] is Mary Magdalene, who unlike the other figures seems to be in motion. Whether she has just arrived on the scene, or is rushing away in horror is unclear.^[14]

The two statues at the sides of the grand niche in the background are Moses on the left and the Hellespontine Sibyl on the right, both identified by inscriptions on their pedestals. The Sibyl was thought to have prophesied the coming of Christ and his crucifixion and she usually is represented holding a book. Some references will identify the figure of the woman as Saint Helena who is associated with finding the true cross, but they are not the same woman.^[15] Differences between the imagery and the inscription have led to different identifications.

A putto-angel with a flaming torch illuminates the scene, which is dark and evidently set at night. In particular his torch reveals the gold mosaic in the semi-dome of the niche, where in the centre a pelican feeds its young by pecking its own breast to draw blood, a phenomenon believed since classical times in traditional zoology, which had become a common visual symbol of the Passion of Christ and its redemptive effects for man.^[16]

In the bottom right corner a small ex voto picture is propped up against the base of the right-hand statue. It shows two men kneeling in prayer to a Pietà in the air. These are agreed to represent Titian and his son Orazio, probably praying to be spared from the plague that in fact killed them both,^[17] a full year after it arrived in Venice.^[18] Behind the picture, and partly concealed by it, is a small shield with Titian's coat of arms.^[19] In the bottom left corner another young angel is picking up an urn, perhaps the Magdalene's attribute of a jar of ointment.

History

Titian had always intended to be buried in the church in Pieve di Cadore where he was baptized.^[20] He frequently visited the village, on the edge of Venetian territory in the mountains some 110 km almost due north of the city, although he had left the village for Venice more than 75 years before his death in 1576.^[21] Around 1572 a series of quarrels with the local authorities there and his relations led him to change his mind and plan a burial in the large Franciscan church of the Frari in Venice, which contained two of his important early masterpieces, the Assunta on the main altar and the Pesaro Altarpiece on a side wall,^[22] nearly opposite the intended site.^[23]

He chose a spot in a chapel with a famous crucifix in it and made the Pietà for it, presenting it to the church. He thought he had an agreement with the friars, but it emerged that they would not move the crucifix, and hung the painting in another chapel. Titian was furious, and eventually got the papal nuncio in Venice to instruct the friars to return the painting to him, in a decree of 1 March 1575. Titian now planned once again to be buried in the church in Pieve di Cadore, with the painting over the high altar, and once the painting was back in his studio he extended it to fit the space there.^[24]

In 1576 Titian died in the middle of a major epidemic of plague, followed a few days later by his son Orazio, and it was impossible to arrange for the transportation of the body to Cadore. He was at least not buried in one of the mass-graves used for most of the dead, but quietly carried to the Frari and buried there. The painting would probably have been taken to Cadore if Orazio had survived the plague, but with his death the ownership of Titian's estate was disputed between various heirs, and it remained in Venice.^[25]

The painting was finished by Palma Giovane; it seems he only received it some years after Titian's death, and then had it in his studio for some years. He added an inscription recording his contribution below Christ. Only after Palma's death in 1628 did it finally hang in a church, but this was St Angelo in Venice, which was closed in 1810, and demolished in 1837.^[26] It entered the Gallerie dell'Accademia in 1814.^[27] The painting has achieved a presence in the Frari as it is one of the five religious paintings by Titian represented in marble reliefs on the large monument to him put up in the church in the 19th century, in the chapel where the painting was intended to hang.^[28]

Matching the location

In the Frari the painting was intended to hang in the Cappella di Crocefisso ("Chapel of the Crucifix"), where Titian was buried, and where his monument now stands. Like his much earlier masterpiece, the Pesaro Altarpiece, which was diagonally across the church, the painting was designed to be viewed in passing by people moving through the huge church, as well as those stopping in front of it. Those entering at the back and moving forward would pass the painting on the second altar on their right, seeing the triangle of figures rising to a termination in Mary Magdalene. Indeed, she looks and gestures roughly in the direction of the Pesaro Altarpiece, further up the church on the other side, while the statues, both looking to the left at a sharper angle, have been seen as indicating the way to the Assunta on the high altar.^[29]

The expansion of the painting to fit the space in Cadore (see below) affected each edge of the painting. To the original two strips of canvas, sewn together, five more were added: one across the whole top, two at the sides, a thinner strip at the bottom, and a small piece at the bottom right corner.^[30]

Analysis

For Tom Nichols, "Titian's dramatization of the conflicting emotions of those who witness Christ's death lends his painting its bleakly expressive power. His focus effectively breaks up the usual formal unity expected of a pietà, isolating its protagonists from each other to undermine more abstract possibilities of aesthetic harmony or more resolved theological meaning."^[31]

The Pietà was an unusual subject in Venice, and Titian's choice of it probably relates to Michelangelo's Florentine Pietà, also originally intended to decorate the artist's tomb, with a self-portrait as Nicodemus.^[32] Throughout Titian's career he had reflected the paragone, or argument over superiority in art, with works asserting the superiority of painting over sculpture, within painting of Venice over Florence, and "it is not difficult to read the radically pictorial quality of his Virgin and Child as a last attempt to defeat his great rival."^[33] Erwin Panofsky prefers to see it as "A lifelong rivalry, compounded of mutual respect as well as opposition, ended in a tribute paid by the survivor to his defunct antagonist — and doing honor to both".^[34]

There are also elements looking back to Titian's master Giovanni Bellini, for example the mosaic semi-dome, seen in Bellini's San Giobbe Altarpiece of c. 1487, now also in the Accademia.^[35]

According to Sydney J. Freedberg, it "is less a painting about Christian death and tragedy than a splendid and impassioned affirmation of both art and life. Its true protagonist is the Magdalene, salient in a radiance of green against a gold-shot background, who walks out of the picture into the real world, shouting, palpable, magnificent, and one with us in life. She illustrates a cry of grief, but makes the effect of pronouncement of victory.^[36]

Notes

^ Jaffé, 153; Rosand, 59
^ Accademia, 180
^ Jaffé, 153; Rosand, 58–59
^ Steer, 138–144
^ Steer, 144 quoted; Jaffé, 59
^ Steer, 144; Jaffé, 27–28, 151–153, 164, 166, 172, 178
^ Jaffé, 153; Hale, 704–705, 720–721
^ Hale, 721
^ Hale, 721
^ Nichols, 8. In reality, they would seem to be more hindrance than help to the structural strength of the niche. Titian's playing fast and loose with the classical architectural vocabulary is shown by the set of guttae beneath the central stone, a breach of architectural etiquette otherwise not encountered until the 19th century.
^ Nichols, 7; Joseph of Arimathea has been proposed, but he is described as wealthy in the gospels, which does not fit his dress here. Rosand, 60
^ Jaffé, 158; Hale, 722; Nichols, 8; Rosand, 60–61
^ Rosand, 61
^ Nichols, 7 thinks the latter
^ Rosand, 60; Hale, 721–722; Accademia, 180. Jaffé, 153 identifies the figure as Saint Helena, which because of the cross present in the image would be plausible, if there were not an inscription referring to the sibyl.
^ Rosand, 60; Hale, 721 (not very accurately)
^ Hale, 722; Rosand, 60
^ Hale, 708–723; Nichols, 8
^ Hale, 722
^ Hale, 704
^ Hale, 3, 14–15
^ Hale, 691–693, 705
^ Rosand, 61
^ Hale, 705; Rosand, 57
^ Hale, 722–723
^ Nichols, 11; Late Titian and the sensuality of painting, 310 for church dates.
^ Accademia, 180
^ photo; the Pietà copy at top left.
^ Rosand, 60–61; Nichols, 10–11
^ Hale, 721
^ Nichols, 7
^ Nichols, 9; Rosand, 60
^ Nichols, 9 quoted; Rosand, 60–61
^ Quoted by Rosand, 60
^ Rosand, 59; Nichols, 7–8; Accademia, 89 for the painting
^ Freedberg, 518

References

"Accademia": Nepi Sciré, Giovanna & Valcanover, Francesco, Accademia Galleries of Venice, Electa, Milan, 1985, ISBN 8843519301
Freedberg, Sydney J. Painting in Italy, 1500–1600, 3rd edn. 1993, Yale, ISBN 0300055870
Hale, Sheila, Titian, His Life, 2012, Harper Press, ISBN 978-0-00717582-6
Jaffé, David (ed), Titian, The National Gallery Company/Yale, London 2003, ISBN 1 857099036
Nichols, Tom, Titian and the End of the Venetian Renaissance, 2013, Reaktion Books, ISBN 1780232276, 9781780232270, google books
Rosand, David, Painting in Sixteenth-Century Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, 2nd ed 1997, Cambridge UP ISBN 0521565685
Steer, John, Venetian painting: A concise history, 1970, London: Thames and Hudson (World of Art), ISBN 0500201013

External links

Media related to Accademia - Pietà by Titian at Wikimedia Commons
Khan Academy video on the painting

v t e Titian
List of works
Portraits	Jacopo Pesaro being presented by Pope Alexander VI to Saint Peter (1503–1506) A Man with a Quilted Sleeve (c. 1509) La Schiavona (1510–1512) A Man New York, c. 1512) (Indianapolis, c. 1515 Shepherd with a Flute (c. 1510–1515) A Man in a Red Cap (c. 1510–1515) A Sick Man (1515) Jacopo Sannazaro (c. 1514–1518) Gian Giacomo Bartolotti da Parma (c. 1515) A Knight of Malta (c. 1515) Vincenzo Mosti (c. 1520) Young Woman in a Black Dress (c. 1520) Man with a Glove (c. 1520) Laura Dianti (c. 1520–1525) Alfonso I d'Este (1523) A Lady (c. 1525–1565) Federico II Gonzaga (c. 1529) Giacomo di Andrea Dolfin (c. 1531–1532) Alfonso d'Avalos with a Page (1533) Charles V with a Dog (1533) Ippolito de' Medici (1532–1533) Giacomo Doria (1533–1535) Charles V (1533–1535) Isabella d'Este (1534–1536) La Bella (1536) Girl in a Fur (1536–1538) Count Antonio Porcia and Brugnera (c. 1535–1540) A Man with a Falcon (c. 1537) Eleonora Gonzaga della Rovere (1538) Francesco Maria della Rovere (1538) Cardinal Pietro Bembo (1539–1540) Benedetto Varchi (c. 1540) Pope Sixtus IV (c. 1540) A Young Englishman (1540–1545) Ranuccio Farnese (c. 1542) Clarissa Strozzi (1542) The Vendramin Family (1543–1547) Pietro Aretino (1545) Lavinia Vecellio (c. 1545) Pope Paul III (1545–1546) Pope Paul III Wearing a Camauro (1545–1546) Pope Paul III and His Grandsons (1545–1546) Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (c. 1545–1546) Pier Luigi Farnese (1546) Andrea Gritti (c. 1546–1550) Charles V (on horseback) (1548) Charles V (seated) (1548) Isabella of Portugal (1548) John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony (c. 1550–1551) A General (c. 1550) Philip II in Armour (1551) Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo (1552) Philip II (1554) Woman Holding an Apple (c. 1550–1555) Christina of Denmark (1555–1556) Girl with a Platter of Fruit (c. 1555–1558) Fabrizio Salvaresio (1558) An Unknown Lady (c. 1550–1560 – also attributed to Titian's workshop) Jacopo Strada (1567–1568) A Lady in White (c. 1561)
Self portraits	Self-Portrait (1546–1547) Self-Portrait (c. 1560)
Secular	Detroit Trio (c. 1500 – also attributed to Giorgione and others) The Birth of Adonis (c. 1506–1508) The Legend of Polydoros (c. 1506–1508) Justice (c. 1508) Pastoral Concert (c. 1509 – also attributed to Giorgione) Dresden Venus (with Giorgione, c. 1510) The Lovers (c. 1510 – attributed) The Three Ages of Man (c. 1512–1514) Sacred and Profane Love (c. 1514) The Feast of the Gods (1514) Venus and Cupid (1510–1515) Lucretia and her Husband (1515) The Bravo (c. 1515) Flora (c. 1515) Vanity (c. 1515) Violante (c. 1515) Woman with a Mirror (c. 1515) The Worship of Venus (1518–19) Venus Anadyomene (c. 1520) Bacchus and Ariadne (1520–1523) The Bacchanal of the Andrians (1523–1526) Allegory of Marriage (c. 1530–1535) Eleven Caesars (1536–1540) Venus of Urbino (1538) Alfonso d'Avalos Addressing his Troops (1540) Venus and Musician (several versions, 1540s–1570s) Tityus (1549) Sisyphus (1549) Danaë (several versions; 1543–1565) Venus and Adonis (several versions) Mars, Venus and Amor (c. 1550) Pardo Venus (1551) Venus with a Mirror (1555) Perseus and Andromeda (1554–1556) Diana and Actaeon (1556–1559) Diana and Callisto (1556–1559) The Death of Actaeon (c. 1559–1575) The Rape of Europa (c. 1560–1562) The Concert (c. 1543–1564) Venus Blindfolding Cupid (c. 1565) Allegory of Prudence (c. 1565–1570) Nymph and Shepherd (c. 1570) Tarquin and Lucretia (comp. 1571) Flaying of Marsyas (1570–1576)
Religious	Christ Carrying the Cross (c. 1505 – also attributed to Giorgione) Bache Madonna (c. 1508) Flight into Egypt (c. 1508) Lochis Madonna (1508–1510) St. Mark Enthroned (c. 1510) The Gypsy Madonna (c. 1510) Holy Family with a Shepherd (c. 1510) Christ and the Adulteress Glasgow, c. 1510) (Vienna, c. 1520 Madonna and Child with St Anthony of Padua and St Roch (c. 1511) The Resurrected Christ (c. 1511–12) Bapitsm of Christ (c. 1512) Virgin and Child with Saint Stephen, Saint Jerome and Saint Maurice (c. 1510–1525) Miracle of the Jealous Husband (1511) Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c. 1512) Balbi Holy Conversation (c. 1513) Noli me tangere (c. 1514) The Archangel Raphael and Tobias (c. 1512–1514; c. 1540–1545) Salome Rome, c. 1515) (Madrid, c. 1550) (Private, c. 1570 Madonna of the Cherries (1515) The Tribute Money (c. 1516) Assumption of the Virgin (1516–1518) The Virgin and Child with Saint George and Saint Dorothy (1516–1518) Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and an Unidentified Saint (c. 1515–1520) Madonna and Child with Four Saints (c. 1516–1520) Pesaro Madonna (1519–1526) Madonna and Child with Three Saints (c. 1519) Gozzi Altarpiece (1520) Mary with Child and Saints Stephen, Jerome and Mauritius (c. 1520) Malchiostro Annunciation (c. 1520) The Entombment of Christ (c. 1520) Averoldi Polyptych (1520–1522) Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata (1525) The Assassination of Saint Peter Martyr (1529) Aldobrandini Madonna (1530) Madonna of the Rabbit (1530) Madonna of the Roses (c. 1530) Penitent Magdalene (1531) Saint Jerome in Penitence (1531) Pilgrims at Emmaus (c. 1533–1534) Supper at Emmaus (c. 1534; c. 1545) The Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple (1534–1538) Saint John the Baptist (1540) Sciarra Madonna (c. 1540) The Crowning with Thorns (1542–43) Ecce Homo Vienna, 1543 David and Goliath (c. 1542–1544) Abraham and Isaac (c. 1543–1544) Cain and Abel (c. 1543–1545) Serravalle Altarpiece (1548) Castello Roganzuolo Altarpiece (1549) The Fall of Man (c. 1550) Penitent Magdalene (c. 1550) Saint Jerome in Penitence (1552) The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence (c. 1548–1559) La Gloria (1554) Christ Appearing to his Mother after his Resurrection (1554) Mater Dolorosa (c. 1555) Saint Jerome in Penitence (1575) Crucifixion (1558) The Entombment (1559) St Margaret and the Dragon (c. 1559) Annunciation (1559–1564) Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria (c. 1560) Penitent Magdalene (1565) Saint Dominic (c. 1565) Judith with the Head of Holofernes (c. 1570) Religion saved by Spain (1572–1575) Saint Sebastian (c. 1575) The Crowning with Thorns (1576) Pietà (1576)
Related	Orazio Vecellio (son) Francesco Vecellio (brother)

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