Tiziano Vecellio

* ITALIAN SCHOOL, 17TH CENTURY The Assumption of Mary. Brown pen, black crayon. Old inscription verso on back panel: Beau dessin de Titien 34.5 x 21 cm. Framed. Provenance: - J.G.H.Winkler (b. 1822), Hamburg and London, Lugt 2702 - unidentified collector's stamp verso CHF 1 000.- / 1 500.- € 830.- / 1 250.- * ITALIENISCH, 17. JAHRHUNDERT Die Himmelfahrt Mariens. Feder in Braun, schwarzer Stift. Verso auf der Rückwand alt bezeichnet: Beau dessin de Titien 34,5 x 21 cm. Gerahmt. Provenienz: - J.G.H.Winkler (geb. 1822), Hamburg u. London, Lugt 2702 - nicht identifizierter Sammlerstempel verso CHF 1 000.- / 1 500.- € 830.- / 1 250.-

LOT 156 THE PROPERTY OF THE HEINZ KISTERS FOUNDATION TIZIANO VECELLIO, CALLED TITIAN PIEVE DI CADORE CIRCA 1485/90 (?) - 1576 VENICE A SACRA CONVERSAZIONE: THE MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS LUKE ANDCATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA oil on canvas 15,000,000—20,000,000 USD 127.8 by 169.7 cm.; 50 1/4 by 66 3/4 in. Traditionally said to have been painted for 'Titian's friend theChevalier Orologi of Padua' and thence by descent in the Dondidell'Orologio family, Padua (according to Sir Richard Worsley's1797 inventory, the 1816 catalogue and Buchanan, under Literature,1824);From whom acquired by Sir Richard Worsley (1751-1805) during histime in Venice 1793-7 for 200 sequins and bound for England on aship which was captured and taken to Malaga;There acquired by Guillaume Guillon-Lethière on behalf of LucienBonaparte;Lucien Bonaparte, Principe di Canino (1775-1840), Rome, by 1804 andstill there in 1808 and 1812 (see Bozzani, Carloni and Guattaniunder Literature below);His sale, London (29 St. James's Street), Mr. Stanley, 16 May 1816,lot 176 (unsold);Sir John Rae Reid, 2nd Bt. (1781-1867), before 1829 (by whom lentto the British Institution in that year);Charles Pascoe Grenfell (1790-1867), Taplow Court, Buckinghamshire,by 1857 (by whom exhibited in Manchester in that year);Thence to his grandson, William Henry Grenfell (1855-1945), 1st andlast Baron Desborough, Taplow Court, Buckinghamshire, andPanshanger, Hertfordshire;Thence to his widow, Ethel (Ettie) Fane (1867-1952), niece of theseventh Earl Cowper, whom he had married in 1887, Taplow Court andPanshanger;Lord Desborough collection sale, London, Christie's, 9 April 1954,lot 77, for 600 guineas to Skelton;With Rosenberg & Stiebel, Inc., New York, 1956, from whichacquired by the late husband of the present owner. London (60 Pall Mall), The New Gallery (Mr. Buchanan's), 6February (and following days) 1815, no. 123;London, British Institution, Catalogue of pictures by Italian,Spanish, Flemish, Dutch and English masters, 1829, no. 129 ('HolyFamily, with St. Catherine), lent by Sir J. Rae Reid;Manchester, Manchester City Art Gallery, Catalogue of the ArtTreasures of the United Kingdom, 1857, no. 278 ('Marriage of St.Catherine'), lent by C.P. Grenfell;London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of Works by Old Masters. WinterExhibition, 1878, no. 141 ('Marriage of St. Catherine'), lent byW.H. Grenfell;Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, Venetian Tradition, 9 November1956 - 1 January 1957, no. 53;Stockholm, National Museum, Konstens Venedigs: utställning anordnadmed anledning av Konung Gustaf VI Adolfs åttioarsdag, 20 October1962 - 10 February 1963, no. 91;Baden-Baden, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Von Bembo bis Guardi, 3 July -14 September 1975, no. 80;Pfäffikon SZ, Seedamm-Kulturzentrum, & Geneva, Musée d'Art etd'Histoire, Art vénitien en Suisse et au Liechtenstein, (Pfäffikon)18 June - 27 August 1978 & (Geneva) 13 September - 5 November1978, no. 74. Sir Richard Worsley, Inventory of Moveables taken at Venice,1797, Worsely MSS 42;C. Bozzani, Galleria Bonaparte, MS dated Rome, 13 June 1804,Archivio di Stato, Rome, Camerale II, Antichità e Belle Arti 7,fasciolo 204, fo 3, Room 3, no. 15;G.A. Guattani, Galleria del Senatore Luciano Bonaparte , Rome1808, vol. II, p. 105, no. 115;Choix de gravures à l'eau forte, d'après les peintures originaleset les marbres de la Galerie de Lucien Bonaparte, London 1812, p.4, no. 70, reproduced (as an engraving) plate 115 ('Mariage de Ste.Catherine, grandeur de nature, sur toile - Le Titien');Catalogue of the splendid collection of pictures belonging toPrince Lucien Bonaparte, which will be exhibited for sale byprivate contract, on Monday the sixth day of February, 1815, andfollowing days, exhibition catalogue, London, The New Gallery,1815, p. 34, no. 123 (a value of 3,000 guineas marked in the c Traditionally said to have been painted for 'Titian's friend theChevalier Orologi of Padua' and thence by descent in the Dondidell'Orologio family, Padua (according to Sir Richard Worsley's1797 inventory, the 1816 catalogue and Buchanan, under Literature,1824);From whom acquired by Sir Richard Worsley (1751-1805) during histime in Venice 1793-7 for 200 sequins and bound for England on aship which was captured and taken to Malaga;There acquired by Guillaume Guillon-Lethière on behalf of LucienBonaparte;Lucien Bonaparte, Principe di Canino (1775-1840), Rome, by 1804 andstill there in 1808 and 1812 (see Bozzani, Carloni and Guattaniunder Literature below);His sale, London (29 St. James's Street), Mr. Stanley, 16 May 1816,lot 176 (unsold);Sir John Rae Reid, 2nd Bt. (1781-1867), before 1829 (by whom lentto the British Institution in that year);Charles Pascoe Grenfell (1790-1867), Taplow Court, Buckinghamshire,by 1857 (by whom exhibited in Manchester in that year);Thence to his grandson, William Henry Grenfell (1855-1945), 1st andlast Baron Desborough, Taplow Court, Buckinghamshire, andPanshanger, Hertfordshire;Thence to his widow, Ethel (Ettie) Fane (1867-1952), niece of theseventh Earl Cowper, whom he had married in 1887, Taplow Court andPanshanger;Lord Desborough collection sale, London, Christie's, 9 April 1954,lot 77, for 600 guineas to Skelton;With Rosenberg & Stiebel, Inc., New York, 1956, from whichacquired by the late husband of the present owner. London (60 Pall Mall), The New Gallery (Mr. Buchanan's), 6February (and following days) 1815, no. 123;London, British Institution, Catalogue of pictures by Italian,Spanish, Flemish, Dutch and English masters, 1829, no. 129 ('HolyFamily, with St. Catherine), lent by Sir J. Rae Reid;Manchester, Manchester City Art Gallery, Catalogue of the ArtTreasures of the United Kingdom, 1857, no. 278 ('Marriage of St.Catherine'), lent by C.P. Grenfell;London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of Works by Old Masters. WinterExhibition, 1878, no. 141 ('Marriage of St. Catherine'), lent byW.H. Grenfell;Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, Venetian Tradition, 9 November1956 - 1 January 1957, no. 53;Stockholm, National Museum, Konstens Venedigs: utställning anordnadmed anledning av Konung Gustaf VI Adolfs åttioarsdag, 20 October1962 - 10 February 1963, no. 91;Baden-Baden, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Von Bembo bis Guardi, 3 July -14 September 1975, no. 80;Pfäffikon SZ, Seedamm-Kulturzentrum, & Geneva, Musée d'Art etd'Histoire, Art vénitien en Suisse et au Liechtenstein, (Pfäffikon)18 June - 27 August 1978 & (Geneva) 13 September - 5 November1978, no. 74. Sir Richard Worsley, Inventory of Moveables taken at Venice,1797, Worsely MSS 42;C. Bozzani, Galleria Bonaparte, MS dated Rome, 13 June 1804,Archivio di Stato, Rome, Camerale II, Antichità e Belle Arti 7,fasciolo 204, fo 3, Room 3, no. 15;G.A. Guattani, Galleria del Senatore Luciano Bonaparte , Rome1808, vol. II, p. 105, no. 115;Choix de gravures à l'eau forte, d'après les peintures originaleset les marbres de la Galerie de Lucien Bonaparte, London 1812, p.4, no. 70, reproduced (as an engraving) plate 115 ('Mariage de Ste.Catherine, grandeur de nature, sur toile - Le Titien');Catalogue of the splendid collection of pictures belonging toPrince Lucien Bonaparte, which will be exhibited for sale byprivate contract, on Monday the sixth day of February, 1815, andfollowing days, exhibition catalogue, London, The New Gallery,1815, p. 34, no. 123 (a value of 3,000 guineas marked in thecatalogue held at the National Art Library, V&A Museum,London);L. Bonaparte, Collection de gravures choisis d'après les Peintureset Sculptures de la Galerie de Lucien Bonaparte, Prince de Canino,Rome 1822, p. VIII;W. Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting, London 1824, vol. II, p. 278, no.113, and p. 291, no. 119 (as Titian 'The Marriage of St.Catharine');Sir J.A. Crowe & G.B, Cavalcaselle, Life and Times of Titian,London 1877, vol. II, p. 466 (as near Polidoro Lanzani);A. Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions, 1813-1912, vol. III,London 1914, pp. 1317, 1320 and 1322;H.S.Francis, Venetian Tradition, exhibition catalogue, Cleveland,Cleveland Museum of Art, 9 November 1956 - 1 January 1957, cat. no.53, reproduced plate XIV (as Titian);B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School,London 1957, vol. I, p. 187 (as 'in great part autograph');W. Suida, "Miscellanea Tizianesca, IV", in Arte Veneta, vol. 13-14,1959-60, pp. 65-66, reproduced fig. 81 (as Titian and dated tocirca 1540, tentatively identifying the male saint as Luke);P. Grate ed., Konstens Venedigs: utställning anordnad med anledningav Konung Gustaf VI Adolfs åttioarsdag, exhibition catalogue,Stockholm, National Museum, 20 October 1962 - 10 February 1963, p.93, cat. no. 91 (as by Titian);R. Pallucchini, Tiziano, Florence 1969, p. 287 (as by Titian, datedto late 1540s, shortly after Titian's return from Rome);F. Valcanover, Tiziano, Milan 1969, p. 110, no. 207 (as byTitian);H.E. Wethey, The Complete Paintings of Titian. I. The ReligiousPaintings, London 1969, p. 107, cat. no. 62, reproduced plate 53(as by Titian, dated to circa 1560; erroneously identified as'Madonna and Child with SS. Catherine and Luke');S. Béguin & Valcanover, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Titien, Paris1970, p. 111, no. 207;G. Germann ed., Art vénitien en Suisse et au Liechtenstein,exhibition catalogue, Pfäffikon SZ, Seedamm-Kulturzentrum, 18 June- 27 August 1978, & Geneva, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, 13September - 5 November 1978, pp. 114-115, cat. no. 75,reproduced;D. Martinez de la Peña y Gonzales, "Sobre la collection de pinturasde Luciano Bonaparte, (documentos del avril-5)", in Miscelanea deArte, 1982, pp. 252;J. Shearman, The Early Italian Pictures in the Collection of HerMajesty the Queen, Cambridge 1983, p. 175, under cat. no. 176 (asattributed to Titian 'but it does not seem... that this attributionis beyond question');P.L. Fantelli & M. Lucco, Catalogo della Pinacoteca dellaAccademia dei Concordi di Ravigo, Venice 1985, p. 41;B. Edelein-Badie, La Collection de Tableaux de Lucien Bonaparte,Prince de Canino , Paris 1997, pp. 278-79, no. 262, reproducedon p. 279 (as Titian);M. Gregori, in M. Natoli ed., Luciano Bonaparte: le suecollezioni d'arte, le sua residenze a Roma, nel Lazio, in Italia,1804-1840 , Rome 1995, p. 288, no. 73, reproduced (as anengraving) p. 292;R. Carloni, in M. Natoli ed., idem, p. 41, under Terzo Salone, no.15 ('Il Matrimonio di S. Caterina, di Tiziano, gran quadro');R. Bartoli Contini, in M. Natoli ed., idem, p. 330, no. 73;F. Pedrocco, Titian. The Complete Paintings, London & New York2001, p. 205, cat. no. 152 (as by Titian, dated between Titian'sreturn from Rome in June 1547 and his first trip to Augsburg inJanuary 1548; erroneously identified as 'The Mystic Marriage of St.Catherine, with St. Luke');M. Jaffé, The Devonshire Collection of North European Drawings,vol. I, Turin 2002, p. 80, under no. 1008 12 b (as 'Virgin andChild with Sts Catherine and Luke');P. Humfrey, Titian. The Complete Paintings, London 2007, p. 242,cat. no. 177, reproduced in colour (as by Titian, dated circa1549-54);G. Tagliaferro et al., eds., Le Botteghe di Tiziano, Florence 2009,pp. 97, 100, reproduced (as by Titian, dated circa 1550-1555). ENGRAVED:By Pietro Fontana (Galerie de Lucien Bonaparte catalogue, 1812& 1822). "A perfect work of the Venetian school".1 This painting is one of the most important multi-figuralcompositions by the artist remaining in private hands and is thefinest work by the artist to come onto the open market for twodecades. It is a mature work, painted circa 1560, whenTitian was at the height of his powers and had established hisreputation as the leading artist in Europe. It is a compositionthat is at once monumental but also extremely tender and asTitian's last known Sacra Conversazione it is theculmination of his lifelong exploration of this theme in Venetianart. The painting also has a remarkable provenance: during thealmost half millennium since it was painted it has only changedhands six times, moving from one illustrious private Europeancollection to another and rarely appearing in public at exhibitionor at auction. Titian wasa master of the compositional type that is known as the SacraConversazione ; literally, a 'holy conversation' between theMadonna and Child and saints. In Venice the SacraConversazione format was devised by artists in the latefifteenth century as a device for structuring large altarpieces. Inits earliest manifestation it was a highly formal way of depictingthe Saviour based around a rigid hierarchy which saw the Madonnaand Child enthroned at the top of the composition with saintsranged along either side of the throne. Artists such as GiovanniBellini in his Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints and aDonor, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Fig. 1), excelled inthis format but by the turn of the century the formality of thesecompositions was starting to break down.2 A youngergeneration of artists such as Palma Vecchio abandoned the rigidsettings and static figures that had gone before and by placing theVirgin and Child in a pastoral landscape strove towards thecreation of a more informal and thus more accessible image. Thisprocess was to culminate in Titian's exploration of the theme ofthe Sacra Conversazione and ultimately find its apotheosisin his late examples such as the present work. Here Titian hasbuilt up the composition using pictorial space, medium, colour,gaze and gesture to ensure the focus of the painting is the centralfigure group and particularly the gesture from the Christ Child toSaint Catherine. The date of execution of the present painting has been thesubject of much debate: dating has spanned a twenty-year period,from between 1540 to 1560. Suida's dating of circa 1540 wasnot accepted by Wethey, who argued that the large imposing figuresare comparable to those in other paintings by Titian which he datedcirca 1560; such as the signed Annunciation in thechurch of San Salvatore, Venice and the Madonna and Child inthe Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice.3 Subsequentscholarship has tended towards a dating in the late 1540s, afterTitian's return to Venice from Rome.4 Pedrocco followsthis line and argued that the motif of strongly-defined figures setagainst a luminous background landscape is typical of works datingfrom the period between Titian's return from Rome in June 1547 andhis first trip to Augsburg in January 1548.5 Humfreylent support to a date in the late 1540s but has also suggestedthat a later dating is equally plausible.6 In the lastsix months the exciting opportunity for scholars to examine thepainting at firsthand has led to a general consensus that thepainting must date from circa 1560, rather than earlier aspreviously thought. Titian started painting Sacre Conversazioni early in hiscareer, experimenting with a variety of different formats. His mosttraditional interpretation of the type, inherited from Bellini, wasthe half length frieze of standing figures close to the pictorialplane, typified in the Virgin and Child with Saints Dorothy andGeorge, in the Prado, Madrid (Fig. 2).7 However,even early on in his career Titian was pioneering a new format ofSacra Conversazione , clearly influenced by the older PalmaVecchio's pastoral settings but combined with a new physiologicaltreatment of the Madonna and Child which was to revolutionise thegenre. His first experiment with this format came circa 1513-14 with his Virgin and Child with Saints Catherine andDominic and a Donor, in the Fondazione Magnani Rocca, Parma(Fig. 3).8 The Madonna and Child are seated in a rusticsetting with saints and a donor in attendance. Whilst this informalsetting was not entirely new, Titian was to explore it with asingle minded intensity that set him apart from his predecessors.Titian's most important innovation was his relaxed presentation ofmother and baby and the informal way in which the group of figurescommune. This Sacra Conversazione is not a stiff,hierarchical depiction of Mother of God and Saviour flanked byadoring saints but a real conversation between tangible, humanfigures. Throughout the second and third decades of the century Titiancontinued to develop this innovative idea of the SacraConversazione as a depiction of human interaction within aninformal setting. In his Holy Family with Saint John theBaptist dated circa 1517-20 on loan to the NationalGallery of Scotland, Edinburgh from the Duke of Sutherland (Fig. 4)one can see how far these ideas had developed over just a fewyears. The seated Madonna and Child are depicted as a loving motherwith her wriggling, lively baby. Even Joseph and Saint John aredepicted as truly human in the way the former reaches out to theplayful Christ Child and the latter sits peacefully stroking hissheep. Titian painted Sacra Conversazione compositionsthroughout his career and continued to explore new ways to increasethe accessibility and emotional impact of his images through thehumanity of his protagonists at the same time as retaining thereligious significance of the genre. The present paintingdemonstrates how his understanding of the genre continued toevolve; as Titian's last known example of this type, it can beconsidered the culmination of his exploration of this theme. It hasmany of the same characteristics as the earlier SacreConversazioni but here, more profoundly than in any previouswork, Titian has ensured that the focus of the painting is the'conversation' taking place between Christ and Saint Catherine.Christ, as in the Sutherland picture, is depicted as a playfulbaby, slightly off-balance as He tips forward with armsoutstretched towards Catherine. Christ is held securely by Hismother as she looks down tenderly stabilising Him, preventing Himfrom toppling forward with a hand under His chest. The main focushere is the central group of the Madonna and Child and SaintCatherine and as Christ reaches out to Catherine so she reachesback to Him with a gentle gesture and a gaze that is at once boththat of a young woman playing with a small child and that of aSaint gazing in awe at her God incarnate. The sensitivity andhumanity with which these figures are depicted is a naturalevolution from Titian's earlier Sacre Conversazioni and theresultant image is both emotional and accessible. Titian has alsoincreased the size of the figures relative to the backgroundlandscape in a way not found in his earlier work. He still uses acurtain on the right to balance the image but the central group hasbeen brought much closer to the pictorial plane. In the backgroundhe paints a far distant landscape in which the looming clouds anddeep colours of the sky create an intense atmosphere not present inhis previous compositions. Titian uses the same technique ofdepicting large figures close to the pictorial plane set against amysterious far distant background in other works from this periodsuch as the Annunciation in the church of San Salvador,Venice, dated to the early 1560s (Fig. 5). In both compositionsTitian's intent is to use the enlarged figures and recededbackgrounds to create an intense focus on the individuals. Theshifting shapes of the background cannot hold one's attention forlong so the gaze is repeatedly drawn back to Titian's centralfigure group. By the time the present paintingwas executed Titian's career was at its height: he was over 70years of age; he had reached a remarkable point in his career; andhis international reputation was unparalleled. As a result of thisin circa 1551 he had entered into an agreement with PhilipII of Spain which allowed him to live and work in Venice whilstproducing commissions for the Spanish heir and later king. Thisgave him a certain amount of financial independence and left himrelatively free to choose his own subject matter whilst alsoallowing him to continue to accept other foreign and domesticcommissions. It was rare that patrons allowed artists so muchliberty of person or subject as Philip granted Titian and it was amark of his unique creative status. The paintings Titian producedfor Philip dominated these years and thus it is important tounderstand the present work in this context. During the 1550s Titian embarked on a series of large, multifigured poesies or mythological scenes for Philip whichincluded the Diana and Actaeon (Fig. 6) belonging to the NationalGallery of Scotland, Edinburgh and the National Gallery, London andthe Diana and Callisto on loan to the National Gallery ofScotland, Edinburgh from the Duke of Sutherland.9 Thisseries is widely regarded as amongst the greatest achievements ofTitian's late career and the two aforementioned paintings werecompleted and ready to be shipped by September 1559. Despite thisTitian did continue to take other commissions in these years, suchas the present painting, and this escalating volume of work meantTitian increasingly relied on his studio for help in completing hispaintings. Throughout his career Titian employed a large and highlysophisticated studio in which a number of assistants, oftentalented painters in their own right, helped him to varying degreeswith his work. Identifiable hands within Titian's studio includehis son Orazio Vecellio, relations Cesare and Marco Vecellio andGirolamo Denti.10 There has been much scholarly debateon the increasing extent of studio participation in Titian's lateworks from the 1550s until his death although actual interventionseems to have varied between individual compositions and was oftendependent on Titian's perception of the importance of thepatron.11 It is however clear that in the great majority of his laterworks from the 1550s onwards Titian employed his trusted assistantsto work on peripheral areas of his compositions. Given that theseassistants were taught to emulate their master's style and that thehand of Titian himself is often so inextricably interwoven withtheirs, it is often extremely difficult to determine where one endsand the other begins. Titian's hand is most strikingly in evidencein the present picture in the figures of the Virgin and Child andin the atmospheric sky and background. He clearly experimented withthe position of the figure of Saint Catherine but whether hehimself worked up the figure to its final level of finish mustremain a matter of debate. Whilst the positioning and design of thefigure of Saint Luke and the curtain must be Titian's, it seemsmore likely that these peripheral areas were completed by anassistant working under his supervision, in accordance with hisusual practice at this time. During these years to avoid overwork Titian was careful toaccept other commissions only if they came from important religiousor civic institutions or from important personages. The presentpainting is a rare exception. The Dondi dell'Orologio family werean important noble family in Padua but their influence did notextend throughout Italy. According to a tradition recorded by SirRichard Worsley and later published by William Buchanan the presentwork was commissioned by 'Titian's friend the Chevalier Orologo ofPadua'. 12 Although this individual member of the Dondidall'Orologio family has not been traced and there is no furtherevidence of this recorded friendship one can hypothesise that itwas the personal connection between the artist and the 'ChevalierOrologo' which lead Titian to accept the commission and to executeso much of the canvas himself rather than handing it over to hisstudio. The fullest account of theartist's technique comes from Marco Boschini who recorded Palma ilGiovane's observations on Titian's working method:"[he] blocked in his pictures with a mass of colours, which servedas a bed or foundation for what he wished to express, and uponwhich he would then build. I myself have seen such underpainting,vigorously applied with a loaded brush, of pure red ochre, whichwould then serve as a middle ground; then with a stroke of whitelead, with the same brush then dipped in red, black or yellow, hecreated the light and dark areas of the relief effect. And in thisway with four strokes of the brush he was able to suggest amagnificent figure... After having thus established this crucialfoundation, he turned the pictures to the wall and left them there,without looking at them for several months. When he later returnedto them, he scrutinized them as though they were his mortalenemies, in order to discover any faults; and if he did findanything that did not accord with his intentions, like a surgeontreating a patient, he would remove some swelling or excess flesh,set an arm if the bone were out of joint, or adjust a foot if itwere misshapen, without the slightest pity for the victim. By thusoperating on and re-forming these figures, he brought them to thehighest degree of perfection . . . and then, while that picture wasdrying, he turned to another. And he gradually covered with livingflesh those bare bones, going over them repeatedly until all theylacked was breath itself.... For the final touches he would blendthe transitions from highlights to halftones with his fingers,blending one tint with another, or with a smear of his finger hewould apply a dark accent in some corner to strengthen it, or witha dab of red, like a drop of blood, he would enliven some surface—in this way bringing his animated figures to completion. . . . Inthe final stages he painted more with his fingers than with thebrush".13 By this point in his career Titian had entirely mastered themedium of oil paint and perfected his subtle manipulation ofcolour. During the 1550s one can detect a notable change in hiswork as he moves towards a more painterly, freer way of expressinghimself. When Vasari's described Titian's late style he spoke ofthe artist building up his canvases through a series ofmacchie (blots), touch and 'bold strokes...dashed off with abroad and even coarse sweep of the brush'.14 The present work was executed during this exciting phase inTitian's career when he was developing his late style and movingaway from the carefully delineated canvases of his youth. Here, aswith many paintings from this decade, one can see Titian exploitingthe versatility of his medium and moving towards a much looserapplication of paint. The macchie and blended halftonesBoschini writes of are used by Titian in the present workparticularly to build up the landscape and sky in the centre andleft distance. He breaks down the outlines and in a series ofbrief, spontaneous brushstrokes creates an impression of form inthe indistinct and tremulous shapes (see detail opposite). Titianexperimented with this breaking down of the paint surface in hisworks of the 1550s and beyond. In backgrounds of the Diana andCallisto and Diana and Actaeon one can find the samemysterious far distances, urgent colours and fragmentaryshapes. In the present work this summary use of paint and freeing up inapplication was used by Titian in a graduated fashion to organisethe pictorial plane. The figures of the Madonna and Child and SaintCatherine are carefully defined through sculpturally modelledcontours and precise highlights and thus clearly occupy theimmediate foreground. The figure of Saint Luke and the curtain areexecuted with softer lines and a slight blurring of form thatplaces them a register behind the front figures and the loose paintapplication and breakdown of lines in the landscape and sky puts itfirmly in the far distance. Throughout the 60s and 70s, until his death in 1576, Titiancontinued to explore the possibilities inherent in his new freerapplication of paint and by the end of his career his works werebecoming increasingly sketchy and abstract not just in thebackgrounds but also in the foreground figures. This has ledcritics to argue that some of his final works such as theFlaying of Marsyas, Archbishop's Palace, Kroměříž (Fig. 7)of circa 1570-6 are incomplete.15 However, the presenceof his signature on the Kroměříž painting seems to suggest thatTitian regarded it as finished and thus the sketchy quality of thework should be seen as the culmination of the breakdown of form andemphasis on the painted surface such as one starts to see in thebackground of the present work. It is clear that Titian used both composition and medium todefine the space within the present canvas however his use ofcolour also played an important part. Colour had always been ofprimary importance to Titian and throughout his career hecontinually experimented with different juxtapositions, shades andhues. One of the defining characteristics of his late style, andparticularly evident in the present work, is the way he started touse colour no longer simply to animate the composition but ratheras the defining agent to guide one through the narrative. Gone arethe blockish brighter colours of his youthful works and in theirplace Titian has used a deeper, more muted palette in which closelyinterrelated hues of pink, orange, red and brown predominate. Boththe deep pinkish mauve of the Virgin's dress and the peach likepink of Catherine's dress are echoed in the darker tones of SaintLuke garments. These different shades of pink are picked up in theindividual skin tones and whilst the Madonna's cheeks are a coolerpink Saint Catherine's skin tones originate in a warmer, ruddierbase. These tones are used in an extremely sophisticated way todefine the composition and focus attention on the central figure ofthe Christ Child, who is wrapped in a white cloth with pearlypinkish white skin. In the sky all these different tones of pink,peach, mauve and white are synthesised to create a series ofshimmering iridescent lines above the horizon. Titian's subtledifferentiation between the skin tones of his protagonist means thenearly naked Christ naturally draws the eye and if one's gazewanders upwards into the sky the looming clouds above with theirpink highlights force the eye back down through the landscape tofocus on Christ once more. This movement throughout the compositionis not dependant on colour alone but is enforced by Titian'scarefully constructed network of gaze and gesture: as Mary gazes atChrist so He reaches towards Catherine who by her kneeling positionand outstretched arm firmly returns to focus to Christ. Saint Lukeacts as a framing device on the left, as the curtain does on theright. X-radiographs of the painting reveal numerous changes andpentimenti to the composition, notably in an area on andaround Saint Catherine in the centre of the painting (Figs. 8 and9). Catherine's positioning appears to have shifted upwardsslightly and a profile is faintly visible beneath her gently turnedface. Considerable pentimenti and scuffling can be seen inthe X-ray and there appear to be some unresolved areas to the leftand right of Catherine's raised hand, visible to the naked eye. Itis clear that Titian was experimenting with different solutions forthis 'conversation' between Catherine and Christ, intended as thefocal point of the picture .The male saint to the left seems tohave been painted before Saint Catherine; his sleeve clearly passesthrough her head in the X-ray. The identity of this figure has beenthe subject of much debate: he has been variously identified asSaint Paul, Saint Luke and Joseph. The X-rays reveal the head of abull in the lower left corner; a symbol normally associated withSaint Luke. However, by the time the painting entered thecollection of Sir Richard Worsley the bull was not longer evident.It was however clearly intended to be visible in the16th century for a near-contemporary variant of thecomposition possibly originating in Titian's studio, in the RoyalCollection at Hampton Court includes the same bull'shead.16 The figure of Saint Catherine has been replacedwith that of a male donor in the Hampton Court picture and it isquite possible that the present work was also originally intendedto include a donor portrait, which was changed to Catherine at alate stage. The painting has always been described as 'The MysticMarriage of Saint Catherine' but as the Christ Child does not holda ring and if the male figure is indeed Saint Luke the painting'ssubject lies within the more traditional representation of aSacra Conversazione . Colour, gesture, gaze, composition, paint application andmanipulation of pictorial space were all used by Titian to ensurethe central focus of the painting remained the gesture betweenChrist and Saint Catherine, and on a wider level the central groupof the Madonna and Child and Saint. This particularly distinctivecentral group caught the eye of Sir Anthony van Dyck who saw thepainting during his travels through Italy in the 1620s and made asketch of it in his 'Italian Sketchbook' formerly at Chatsworth andtoday in the British Museum, London (Fig. 10).17 Thesketchbook was compiled between the autumn of 1622 and that of 1627and is a 'precious, scarcely matched record of Van Dyck's travelsin his 20s, as well as of intimations of lost works in painting ordrawing, highlighting his tastes and the range of his interestsdeveloped South of the Alps'.18 He left Antwerp andtravelled first to Genoa, where he stayed with the Flemish artistbrothers Lucas and Cornelis de Wael, making a second stop in Padua,where he is likely to have seen the present picture. He alsotravelled to Venice, Rome, Florence, Bologna and Palermo, notingsketches, ricordi , annotating names of artists as well aslists of owners and locations, many of which were from the Veneto.Indeed the sketchbook testifies to Van Dyck's predilection for16th-century Venetian art and, in particular, for Titianwhose name appears almost sixty times alongside varioussketches.19 The drawings in the sketchbook are notsequential so reconstructing Van Dyck's route through Italy basedon the whereabouts at that time of the works he copied is extremelyproblematic. The present painting was almost certainly in Paduawhen Van Dyck saw and copied it but the figure of Saint John theBaptist in the Wilderness that appears further up on the samesheet, taken from Titian's painting in the National Gallery,London, was copied when that picture hung in the Aldobrandinicollection in Rome (where it was from 1603). The figure of SaintJohn was clearly drawn first, not only because of its positioningfurther up on the page but more importantly because SaintCatherine's head is drawn around John's right foot ratherthan beneath or over it. This would suggest that Van Dyck travelledfirst to Rome and then to Padua but this is not thought to be thecase. In any event, the interaction between the three figures inTitian's painting inspired Van Dyck enough for him to make a copyafter it in his precious sketchbook. According to tradition, as specified byits former owners Sir Richard Worsely, Lucien Bonaparte and laterreported by William Buchanan in the early 19th century (1824), thispicture was painted for 'Titian's friend the Chevalier Orologi ofPadua'; that is the Dondi dell'Orologio family. The paintingpresumably passed by inheritance through the generations until thelast decade of the 18th century when it was acquireddirectly from the family by Worsley.20 The Dondidell'Orologio family were important members of the Paduan nobilitydating back to at least the fourteenth century when a GiovanniDondi dell'Orologio, professor at Padua's world-renowneduniversity, created one of Italy's first astrological clocks;something which led to him and his descendants being called'dell'Orologio'.21 A full-length statue of GiovanniDondi by the Paduan sculptor Francesco Rizzi was erected in Pratodella Valle in 1778, upon the instigation of the Marchesi Giovanni,Antonio and Francesco Dondi dell'Orologio. Dondi is shownfull-length, in 14th-century costume, holding a compass in hisright hand and a sphere with signs of the zodiac in his left (anobvious reference to his astrological clock). Although it had previously been thought that the painting wasprobably acquired directly from the Dondi dell'Orologio family byNapoleon's brother, Lucien Bonaparte, in whose collection it was by1804, recent research by Mr Jonathan Yarker has proven otherwiseand we are grateful to Mr Yarker for sharing his, as yet,unpublished research with us.22 Mr. Yarker has shownthat the painting was actually acquired from the Dondidell'Orologio family by the English politician, diplomat andantiquary Sir Richard Worsley (1751-1805) during his time in Veniceas the last British Resident (Fig. 11). After the very publicbreakdown of his marriage in England, Worsley withdrew frompolitical life and travelled extensively during the 1780's throughEurope and the Levant visiting Greece, Egypt, Turkey, and theCrimea. He amassed a fine collection of ancient Greek sculpture,ancient Roman marbles and other antiquities for his houseAppuldurcombe on the Isle of White.23 On his return toEngland in 1790 he re-entered politics and in 1793 was appointedBritish Resident of Venice, a position he held until Venice'sannexation by France in 1797. During his time in Venice he was anavid collector of paintings and took advantage of the unstablepolitical situation to acquire some magnificent works at depressedwartime prices.24 The 1797 inventory of 'movables' hemade on his departure includes works by Paris Bordone, Tintoretto,Veronese, Palma Giovane, Giovanni Bellini and Canaletto and well assix Titians.25 In the same inventory Worsley waseffusive in his praise of Titian:"The works of this sublime master are so numerous and many of themso beautiful that no Panegyric whatsoever can give them additionalmerit. When Titian chose to show the greatest of his genius and thewonderful perfection of his art he painted half figures, generallychusing Religious subjects".26The present painting is listed as having been purchased directlyfrom the family of the "Cavalear Dondi d'Oralogio of Padua" for 200sequins (almost double the price paid for any other painting in theentire list).27 Worlsey also acquired Titian's Supperat Emmaus (Fig. 12) during his period in Venice and it still inthe hand of his descendants, the Earls of Yarbrough.28However The Supper at Emmaus must have been shipped back toEngland separately as it does not feature on the list of 'movables'and we know it was safely hanging in Worlsey's London house by1803. When Worsley returned to England in 1797 he left theinventoried items, including the present painting, behind in Veniceto be shipped at a later date. However in September 1801 Worsleyreceived word from an Edward Bedingfeld in Malaga lamenting thefact that "as a fatal consequence of the present war" a Frenchprivateer had captured the ship transporting the rest of hiscollection to England and had brought it into port where he had putthe contents up for sale.29 The entire collection,including the present painting, was purchased "on very moderateterms" by the painter Guillaume Guillon-Lethière on behalf ofLucien Bonaparte and Worlsey was only able to reclaim theantiquities by paying the French bounty on them. Lucien Bonaparte (Fig. 13) was an avid collector and his centralinvolvement in the political upheavals of the Peninsular Warsafforded him ample opportunity to build up one of the mostprestigious collections of the 19th century. He wasMinister for the Arts under the Napoleonic regime, priding himselfon his connoisseurship, and in 1800 he was appointed Ambassador toMadrid. There he began to form a collection, with the help ofGuillon Lethière, and famously acquired Velázquez's Lady withthe Fan (now in the Wallace Collection, London). He patronisedcontemporary French artists, owning works by Jean-Baptiste Greuze,François-Xavier Fabre, Antonio Canova, Jacques-Louis David,Jean-Dominique Ingres and Pierre-Narcisse Guérin among others.There were numerous Italian paintings in his collection includingworks by Lorenzo Lotto (Portrait of Giovanni della Volta and hisFamily in the National Gallery, London); Raphael (TheMadonna of the Candelabra in the Walters Art Gallery,Baltimore); Annibale Carracci (The Three Maries at the Tomb in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg); Bronzino (thought at the time tobe by Sebastiano del Piombo) and Bernardo Luini (thought at thetime to be by Leonardo da Vinci). Titian, however, seems to havebeen a particular favourite of the Prince's for he owned no fewerthan nine paintings attributed to the artist, including the presentwork.30 Titian's Madonna and Child with SaintsCatherine and Luke (known at the time as The Mystic Marriageof Saint Catherine ) was considered a masterpiece andundoubtedly one of the highlights of his collection: in 1812 and1822 Lucien published an engraving of the painting by PietroFontana.31 By 1804 the Prince was living in self-imposedexile in Rome and the painting is listed in an inventory of hiscollection drawn up in June of the same year.32 He wasliving in the Palazzo Lancellotti at via dei Coronari, a guest ofhis maternal uncle Cardinal Joseph Fesch; also an avid collector.Fesch was always criticised by his nephew for buying largequantities of pictures – disparagingly referred to by Bonaparte ashis 'tableaumanie ' – whilst the latter prided himself onbeing more selective than his uncle. In 1806 Bonaparte bought thePalazzo Nuñez at via Bocca di Leone and moved there with his familyand collection. It was largely between 1804 and 1810 that Bonaparteput his collection together in Rome with the help of VincenzoPacetti, an artist-dealer-restorer who acted as mediator for himduring this period. He acquired paintings from private aristocraticcollections and was able to purchase masterpieces from PrinceVincenzo Giustiniani: among them Poussin's Massacre of theInnocents (Musée Condé, Chantilly), Sofonisba Anguissola'sGame of Chess (Museum Narodowe, Poznán) and Gerrit vanHonthorst's Christ before the High Priest (National Gallery,London), all of which are mentioned in a letter from James Irvineto William Buchanan, dated 30 June 1804.33 In 1810 Bonaparte was exiled to England where he remained foranother four years, before returning to France and Italy. Aroundthis time he started to face growing financial difficulties and in1814, 198 pictures from his collection, including the presentpainting, were sent to London to be exhibited and sold privately byWilliam Buchanan.34 The exhibition took place atBuchanan's gallery, The New Gallery, at 60 Pall Mall, with acatalogue published to accompany it in which the Titian wasdescribed in glowing terms: "This chef-d'œuvre of fine colouringwas painted for his friend the Chevalier Orologi of Padua. In it isto be found all that can be desired of the master, while it seemsto possess not only those qualities inherent in Titian, but alsothose which are attributable to the best works of Correggio. – As aperfect work of the Venetian School, it demands the most attentiveexamination". The exhibition was apparently greeted withdisappointment by connoisseurs and public alike; something Buchananhimself attributed to Bonaparte's having withdrawn twenty of themost famous paintings from his collection. A book on Bonaparte'scollection, published in 1812 in London, was clearly produced topublicise his collection prior to the exhibition: this is furtherconfirmed by the fact that the book was for sale at Buchanan'sexhibition for the price of 6 guineas. When the exhibition provedunsuccessful the group of pictures was offered at auction thefollowing year at Mr. Stanley's, 29 St. James's Street. The Titianwas the final lot (lot 176) and was the most highly-valued item inthe three-day sale (750 guineas), being valued at three times morethan Titian's The Allegory of Prudence in the NationalGallery, London, and 50 guineas more than Raphael's Madonna ofthe Candelabra in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. It wasdescribed as: "The Marriage of St. Catharine... The landscape,forming the Back-ground, is in perfect unison both for Design andEffect, and is illuminated by splendid Clouds, that serve toconnect all the Lights into one grand and powerful mass... Thisinestimable Chef-d'œuvre was painted expressly for theArtist's friend, Chevalier Orologi, and is a superb Specimen of thepowers of the Prince of the Venetian School: on Canvass, 4 feet 10by 5 feet 6." The painting is next recorded in the collection of theConservative politician and financier Sir John Rae Reid(1781-1867). Reid was the son of Elizabeth Goodfellow and SirThomas Reid of Ewell Grove, Surrey, whom he succeeded in thebaronetcy in 1824. Reid was the MP for Dover, Kent, from 1830 to1831 and again from 1832 to 1847. He later became a Director andGovernor of the Bank of England. Though it is not known how or whenhe acquired the picture it was certainly in his possession by 1829;the year in which he lent it to the British Institution (Fig.14). The painting subsequently entered the illustrious Desboroughcollection, having been acquired by Charles Pascoe Grenfell sometime before 1857; the year in which he lent it to an exhibition inManchester (see under Exhibited ). Charles Pascoe boughtTaplow Court in 1852 and commissioned the architect William Burn toremodel it in its present early-Tudor style. The estate, dominatedby the red-brick Victorian mansion, is located on the river Thamesnear Maidenhead and has been home to a lay Buddhist society since1988 (Fig. 15). In 1867 the estate was inherited by CharlesPascoe's grandson William Henry, whose father Charles William haddied in 1861. William Henry Grenfell was raised to peerage as thefirst (and last) Baron Desborough in 1905; the same year in whichhis wife Ethel (Ettie) née Fane was bequeathed the PanshangerEstate in Hertfordshire from her childless uncle, the seventh andlast Earl Cowper. The seventh (and last) Earl Cowper, Francis Thomas de Grey's(1834-1905) marriage to Katrine Cecilia (1845-1913) was happy butchildless and so they virtually adopted the Earl's niece, Ethel(Ettie) Fane, following the death of his sister and brother-in-lawin 1870. It was to Ettie to whom he left Panshanger and itsmagnificent collections. The main gallery at Panshanger, as itstood in 1936, was hung with some of the notable pictures from thecollection: masterpieces by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Van Dyck,Panini, Velázquez, Fra Bartolommeo, Carlo Dolci, Stubbs and Zoffanywere among them.35 However Baron and Lady Desboroughcontinued to live at Taplow Court and only visited Panshanger twoor three times a year. Ettie Desborough was the most famous societyhostess of her age. She frequently hosted meetings of thecelebrated aristocratic, political and literary figures known as"The Souls" at the Desborough residence of Taplow Court, withvisitors including Henry Irving, Vita Sackville-West, Edward VII,H.G. Wells, Edith Wharton and Oscar Wilde. Lady Desborough hadthree sons and a daughter and although the succession and survivalof Taplow Court and Panshanger with their grand collection of artseemed secure, it was not to be: two of her sons were killed in theFirst World War and the third in a car accident in 1926, leaving noobvious heir to the estate. The sale of Lady Desborough's estatesfollowed shortly after her death in May 1952. Taplow Court wasbought by Plessey Electronics and Panshanger was sold, along with89 acres of the park, to a demolition contractor for £17,750 andwas subsequently destroyed in 1953-54. A portion of the artcollection passed to Lady Desborough's daughter, Alexandra ImogenClair Grenfell (known as Lady Imogen), who married the 6th ViscountGage in 1931 and lived at his seat, Firle Place in Sussex. Hershare of the art, consisting mainly of French furniture andimportant Dutch and English pictures, arrived in 1954 and the restof Panshanger's contents were sold at Christie's in the same year(see provenance ). Copies after the composition in the collection of the Duke ofNorthumberland, Syon House, Brentford, and with a Mr. Hope arerecorded, by Collins Baker as after the Hampton Court picture, andby Wethey as after the present painting. Other versions of theHampton Court picture include that sold, London, Christie's, 3 July1953, lot 26 (125 by 168 cm.), and another in the Museum of FineArts, Dallas (129.5 by 170 cm.). A copy of the Hampton Courtpainting by Peter Oliver, signed and dated 1639, is in the RoyalLibrary at Windsor. 1. W. Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting, London 1824, vol. II, pp.278, 291 in reference the present work.2. R. Goffen, Giovanni Bellini, London 1989, p. 174,reproduced fig. 131.3. W. Suida, "Miscellanea Tizianesca, IV", in Arte Veneta, vol.13-14, 1959-60, pp. 65-66, H.E. Wethey, The Complete Paintings ofTitian. I. The Religious Paintings, London 1969, p. 107. Bothpaintings have more recently been dated to slightly later in the1560s by Peter Humfrey: see P. Humfrey, Titian. The CompletePaintings, London 2007, p. 319, cat. no. 248, and p. 332, cat.no. 259, both reproduced in colour. The Madonna and Child isnot unanimously accepted as an autograph work though Humfrey doesinclude it in his recent catalogue raisonné.4. R. Pallucchini, Tiziano, Florence 1969, p. 287.5. F. Pedrocco, Titian. The Complete Paintings, London & NewYork 2001, p. 205, cat. no. 152.6. Humfrey, op. cit., p. 242.7. Ibid., p. 95, no. 54 reproduced.8. Ibid., p. 76, no. 36 reproduced.9. See W.R. Rearick, 'Titian's Later Mythologies', in Artibus etHistoriae, vol. 17, 1996, pp. 23-67.10. G. Tagliaferro et al., Le Botteghe di Tiziano, Florence2009, pp. 73-109.11. Ibid., p. 128 reproduced fig. 65.12. W. Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting, London 1824, vol. II, p. 278,no. 113, and p. 291, no. 119.13. Trans D. Rosand in 'Titian and the Critical Tradition' inTitian: His World and His Legacy, D. Rosand ed., New York1982, p. 24.14. Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Painters, Sculptors andArchitects, trans. G. du C. de Vere, vol. II, London 1996, p.794.15. Humfrey, op. cit., p. 363, no. 289 reproduced.16. Inv. 1271, 121.5 by 171 cm.; see The Early Italian Pictures inthe Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Cambridge 1983, p. 175,under cat. no. 176, reproduced plate 156, as 'Attributed to PalmaGiovane', following a suggestion by Philip Pouncey. Acquired byCharles I in 1637 as a Titian and recorded by Van der Doort in theSquare Table Room at Whitehall as such; Van der Doort, 1639, Millared., 1960, p. 21, no. 8. The picture was previously considered byBerenson as a product of Titian's workshop (though he had initiallythought it might be a ruined but autograph picture), and by Suidaas an autograph work by Titian dating from circa 1550, abouta decade after the present painting.17. Inv. no. BM 1957-12-14-207, fol. 12 recto ; 205 by 165mm., pen and brown ink on vellum. See G. Adriani, Anton vanDyck. Italienisches Skizzenbuch , Vienna 1965, p. 13, reproducedplate 12 (where the sketch is described as after a 'lost' paintingby Titian). The drawing was more recently published in M. Jaffé,The Devonshire Collection of North European Drawings, vol. I, Turin2002, p. 80, under no. 1008 12 b.18. Ibid. , p. 71.19. Van Dyck labelled his sketch after the present painting'titian', as he did the figure of St. John the Baptist on the samesheet.20. See Buchanan, op. cit., vol. II, p. 278, no. 113, and p.291, no. 119. A painting of similar subject is listed in theinventory of the Paduan residence of Galeazzo Dondi dell'Orologio,drawn up on 2 January 1750 ("quadro Sposalizio della Madonna,sive S. Cattarina, soaza pero nera "; see C.A. Levi ed., LeCollezioni Veneziane d'Arte e d'Antichità dal secolo XIV ai NostriGiorni , Venice 1900, p. 221) but the omission of any mention ofSaint Luke or Titian makes an identification with the presentpainting unlikely.21. A full-length effigy of Giovanni Dondi is among the 78 statuesin the square of Prato della Valle in Padua. The clock wasdestroyed by fire in 1344 and a reconstruction of it now dominatesthe Piazza dei Signori in Padua.22. Mr. Yarker will be publishing his research in an articleentitled 'The last Resident: Richard Worsley, Lucien Bonaparte andhis collection of Venetian Paintings' in the Burlington Magazinenext year.23. J. Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellersin Italy 1701-1800, London 1997, p. 1019.24. L. Borean, 'Richard Worsley' in L. Borean and S. Mason, Ilcollezionismo d'arte a Venezia. Il Settecento , Vencie 2009, p.315.25. Worsley MSS. 42.26. Worsley MSS. 42, p. 40.27. Worsley MSS. 42, p. 40.28. H.E. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian, vol. I, London1969, pp. 160-1, no. 142, plate 87.29. Worsley MSS. 55/18. 30. Also in LucienBonaparte's collection was the enigmatic Allegory ofPrudence today in the National Gallery, London.31. See M. Natoli ed., Luciano Bonaparte: le sue collezionid'arte, le sua residenze a Roma, nel Lazio, in Italia,1804-1840 , Rome 1995, p. 288, no. 73, reproduced.32. R. Carloni, in M. Natoli ed., ibid, p. 41, who cites a documentin the Archivio di Stato di Roma, 1804, Camerale II, Antichità eBelle Arti, busta 7, fasc. 204.33. See F. Haskell, Rediscoveries in art: some aspects of taste,fashion and collecting in England and France , London 1978, p.33.34. The growing financial pressure led Lucien Bonaparte to disposeof Villa Rufinella at Frascati in 1820 (he had acquired it in 1804)and Palazzo Nuñez in 1823.35. Amongst the paintings visible in the photograph: Van Dyck'sPortrait of Count Johannes of Nassau-Siegen and his family passed to Lady Desborough's daughter, Lady Imogen, and today hangsat Firle Place in Sussex (see E. Larsen, The Paintings ofAnthony van Dyck, Düsseldorf, 1988, p. 339, cat. no. 915); GianPaolo Panini's Interior of St. Peter's in Rome was sold atChristie's, London, 2 December 1977, lot 89 (see F. Arisi, GianPaolo Panini , Rome 1986, p. 339, cat. no. 217, reproduced incolour plate 113); Fra Bartolommeo's Rest on the Flight intoEgypt with St. John the Baptist is in the J. Paul Getty Museum,Los Angeles; Carlo Dolci's Saint Joseph and the Christ Child was sold and was with Whitfield Gallery Ltd., London, in 1995 (seeF. Baldassari, Carlo Dolci , Turin 1995, p. 59, cat. no. 27,reproduced in color plate IX).

362. Tizian Italy 1485-1576 Efter Bacchus and Ariadne. Relined canvas 119 x 133,5 cm. Originalet utförde Tizian 1523 som en del av en serie målningar med backanaler för Alfonso, hertigen av Ferrara (1533-1597). Numera i samlingarna på National gallery, London (Inv 35).

Sale W220 Lot 6472 - 25 March 2009 14:00 English translation is not available for Koller West auctions. TIZIAN eigentlich TIZIANO VECELLIO (Pieve de Cadore 1488/89 - 1576 Venedig), zugeschrieben Portrait einer edlen Dame. Öl auf Leinwand. 51 x 43 cm. CHF 1 000.- / 1 500.- € 660.- / 990.-

DESCRIPTION oil on canvas PROVENANCE Probably Prince Trivulzio, Milan;Bonomi collection (inv. no. 106), Milan, until 1933;Thence by descent in Monte Carlo until sold to a collector in the1960s;Thence by descent to his son, by whom sold, London, Sotheby's, 3July 1997, lot 63, for £1.1m, where acquired by the presentowner. EXHIBITED New York, Salander O'Reilly Gallery, Rembrandt and the VenetianInfluence, 3 October - 18 November 2000, no. 6. LITERATURE AND REFERENCES W. Suida, Tizian, 1933, pp. 83, 166 and 187, reproduced plateCLXXb;G. Adriani, Anton van Dyck: Italienisches Skizzenbuch, 1940, p. 28,under no. 107;R. Fisher, Titian's Assistants During the Later Years, HarvardPh.D. 1958, London and New York 1977, pp. 103-4, reproduced fig. 93(as possibly by Palma Giovane, though knowing the painting onlyfrom Suida's published photograph);F. Ilchman, in Rembrandt and the Venetian Influence, New York,Salander O'Reilly Gallery, 3 October - 18 November 2000, pp. 22-27,and p. 70, cat. no. 6, reproduced in colour. CATALOGUE NOTE Although published by Suida in 1933 as a late portrait byTitian, this painting was entirely ignored by the more recentliterature on the artist. At the time of the painting's lastappearance at auction the identity of the sitter still remained amystery. Suida resorted to a generic identification - that of a"Venetian Admiral" - whilst Tietze and Tietze-Conrat suggested thename of Sebastiano Venier1, as did Fischel beforethem2, which is equally unsatisfactory.3 The sitter's identity was unknown at the time of the painting'slast appearance at auction in 1997 but Frederick Ilchman has sinceconvincingly argued that the admiral can be identified as FrancescoDuodo (1518-1592). This identification is based on a portrait by afollower of Tintoretto in the Museo Storico Navale,Venice,4 where Duodo is shown older in years and wearingthe robes of a Procurator; a position he held from 1587 until hisdeath five years later (see Fig. 1). That portrait bears the Duodocoat-of-arms and the intiials 'F.D.', thereby confirming theidentity of the sitter. There is also a portrait bust of Duodo byAlessandro Vittoria in the Ca' d'Oro, Venice (see Fig. 2). Duodoenjoyed great fame as a military commander, and not just in Venice.He was a key figure at the Battle of Lepanto, leading the Venetiangalleons to victory on 7 October 1571: contemporary paintings andprints of the battle show Duodo at the centre of the action. If thesitter is indeed to be identified with Duodo, this portrait wasprobably commissioned from Titian after Duodo's return to Venice in1573. Duodo was a collector of ancient coins and he is known tohave commissioned an altarpiece from Tintoretto for the church ofSanta Maria Zobenigo (also known as the church of Santa Maria delGiglio), where he is buried. As was first pointed out by PaolaRossi, the figure of San Francesco di Paola in that altarpiecebears some resemblance to Francesco Duodo himself (though somewhatidealised); an opinion later re-iterated by FrederickIlchman.5 As well as playing an active part in theBattle of Lepanto, Duodo held a number of important government andmilitary posts from the 1560s onwards, such as Provveditore aCorfu; that is, Supervisor of the Eastern Mediterranean fleet ofthe Venetian navy. He was appointed governor of a number of citiesin the Venetian terra firma, such as Udine and Bergamo, and wasalso chosen as Patrono all'Arsenale; that is, the superintendent ofnaval construction and supplies at the Arsenal. Whilst serving histerm running the Venetian shipyards, Duodo experimented with newmethods of equipping and maneuvering heavy galleons. Suchinnovations led to the Christians' victory over the Turks at theBattle of Lepanto; a victory that led to celebration both in Veniceand throughout Europe. Duodo was subsequently elected to theCouncil of Ten and during the plague of 1576, during which Titiandied, he was appointed Minister of Health. Late Titian portraits are extremely rare; none are known to havebeen painted after 1570 (the approximate date of the TriplePortrait in the National Gallery, London). In style and techniquethis painting is remarkably close to Titian's late mythologicalpaintings; in particular those dating from the 1570s. As in thecase of his Diana and Actaeon in the National Gallery, London, theX-radiograph of this portrait reveals numerous and importantpentimenti (see Fig. 3). The head has been shifted to the right,the hand's position changed, and the outline of his left shoulderredefined; all of which demonstrate that Titian made changes to thecomposition directly onto the canvas. The artist reserved the spacewhere the moustache would eventually be painted but the entiremetal gorget at the sitter's neck was painted before later coveringit with the beard. The hilt of the sword was originally higher andslightly to the left of its present position, and the pattern offolds on the cloak were altered at a late stage in the portrait'sexecution. The contour of the cloak was reduced at the shoulder andthis correction is now partly visible to the naked eye as apentimento. In addition, Fig. 3 reveals numerous small marks, laiddown repeatedly, above and around the head of the sitter. These hadbeen assumed to be Titian's own thumbprints, supporting the storyrelayed by Boschini in the 17th century about Titian's latepainting technique: "E il Palma mi attestava per verità che neifinimenti dipingeva più con le dita che non pennelli."6Closer study of the painting during and after its restoration in1997-98, however, revealed that these marks were almost certainlymade with a square-edged brush and were possibly the results of anearlier restoration. A drawing relating to this picture, in black chalk and whiteheightening on faded blue paper, is in the British Museum,London.7 This drawing appears to have been done afterthe painting, despite a minor shift in the position of the head,and was attributed to Palma il Giovane in the past.8Although not by Palma himself, the use of black chalk and the styleof the drawing would indicate a Venetian artist in the circle ofPalma and this would further suggest that the painting was still inVenice towards the end of the 16th century. Another drawing after Titian's portrait, in pen and ink wash(Fig. 4), by Sir Anthony van Dyck is in his Italian sketchbook,formerly at Chatsworth and now in the British Museum.9The portrait appears in the sketchbook alongside other drawingsafter paintings by Titian and Raphael. Van Dyck inscribed thedrawing with an attribution to "Titian" and the copy is faithful tothis painting, though the sitter's right arm has been slightlylengthened and his shoulders broadened. The sketchbook was compiledduring Van Dyck's trip to Italy (1621-1627), and his route may betraced through the provenances of the paintings he copied. The copyafter Raphael's Portrait of Leo X and his Nephews on the same pageas the present portrait drawing was in Florence, Uffizi, by 1589and must have been seen there by Van Dyck. Given that Van Dyckvisited Florence in 1623, after his Venetian sojourn (August toNovember 1622), it is possible that the Titian portrait was nolonger in Venice at this time. On folio 108, the facing page in thesketchbook, there is a drawing after Titian's famous Portrait ofRanuccio Farnese which remained in the Farnese collection in Romeuntil an unknown date (it was still in Palazzo Farnese in Rome in1644 but is recorded in Parma in an inventory of 1680). Since it isknown that Van Dyck travelled to Florence in January 1623 and inthe same year to Rome, until October or November whereupon heproceeded to Genoa,10 the drawing after the presentpainting probably dates from 1623, and it is therefore likely thatthe present picture was either in Florence or Rome at that time,possibly in a private collection to which Van Dyck had access. The later provenance of Titian's portrait remains a mystery.According to family tradition the painting belonged to the nobleTrivulzio family of Milan. Much of the Trivulzio collection,including the celebrated library and paintings by Mantegna, Titianand others, was left to the city of Milan in 1927 whilst a numberof paintings were transferred at around the same time to otherprivate collections; one such example is Titian's Portrait ofthe Doge Francesco Venier now in the Fondación ColecciónThyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. The present portrait was in thecollection of Gino Bonomi by 1933, when the painting was firstpublished by Suida, having been transferred to Bonomi's Monte Carlohome in 1931. It was sold from this collection at an unknowndate. We are grateful to Prof. Paul Joannides for confirming that,after recent firsthand inspection of the painting, he believes theportrait to be by the elderly Titian, possibly completed by amember of his studio. 1. See H. Tietze and E. Tietze-Conrat, The Drawings of the VenetianPainters in the 15th and 16th Centuries, New York 1944, 1970 ed.,p. 207, who discuss a related drawing (see below).2. O. Fischel, Tizian, Stuttgart 1904, under plate 25, whilstdiscussing a related drawing (see below).3. Portraits of Sebastiano Venier by Tintoretto demonstrate thathis facial features are strikingly different from those of thesitter represented here: Venier had hair on the top of his head,his eyes were more widely set, his ears were larger, his moustacheand eyebrows more horizontal, and his forehead flatter (compare,for example, the portraits in P. Rossi, Jacopo Tintoretto: IRitratti , Milan 1994, pp. 142-45, cat. nos. 32 and 33).4. Inv. no. 952; 107.5 by 86 cm. A detail is reproduced by F.Ilchman, under Literature, p. 25, fig. 18.5. See Rossi, in R. Pallucchini and P. Rossi, Tintoretto. Le operesacre e profane, Milan 1982, vol. I, p. 254, cat. no. A113,reproduced vol. II, fig. 735, where Rossi dates the altarpiece to1581-82 and attributes it to Domenico rather than Jacopo Tintorettoon stylistic grounds. Borghini (1584) had described the altarpieceas a work by Jacopo; an attribution later adopted by Ridolfi(1648).6. M. Boschini, Le ricche minere della pittura veneziana,1674.7. Inv. no. 5211,61.8. Tietze and Tietze-Conrat, op. cit., p. 207, no. 989, as byPalma.9. See Fischel, op. cit., reproduced plate 25, as after a lostTitian; and G. Adriani, under Literature, folio 107v, reproduced,as after the present painting.10. For the chronology see C. Brown, Van Dyck Drawings, London1991, p. 13.