The National Gallery – three Titians
I enjoyed a free lecture at the National Gallery a couple of days ago.
If you read the arts columns in the papers you might know that the National Gallery, together with the National Gallery of Scotland, is appealing for money to buy a rather lovely Titian – Diana and Actaeon. To support the campaign, the gallery has organised a number of little mini-lectures that show you Titian’s paintings.
The Diana and Actaeon is displayed in Room 1 of the gallery, just off the main staircase, together with another Titian painting which already belongs to the gallery, painted later in the artist’s life. They both show different episodes from the story of Actaeon, the Greek hunter who saw the goddess Diana bathing naked in the forest, and was turned into a deer and hunted down by his own dogs for this blasphemy.
The first painting is a real piece of Renaissance porn – all the nymphs are bathing naked, splashing around in the fountain or trying to hide as they spot the interloper. But Titian has done more than just show naked ladies - this is also a lovely nature painting, showing the forest in high summer.
There are wonderful little clues to the story everywhere, too. A deer’s skull, with antlers, hangs in the background – we’re meant to read the hunter’s fate into it.
The second painting shows Actaeon’s death, and it’s an autumnal scene, glowing with russets, browns, reds. Actaeon, his head already branching forth antlers, is pulled down by his own dogs. It’s a powerful painting – perhaps more so than the earlier one.
What’s particularly significant about these two paintings is the relationship between spring and summer, life and death. It’s as if Titian was trying to paint the life of the artist; he looks at beauty, but in the end he dies. There’s a lovely logic to the narrative.
The exhibition continues till December 14th, and if you’re anywhere near the National Gallery I’d urge you to go and see it. You might not get the chance again.
By the way, I was intrigued to find that the competition no longer comes from American museums and galleries – they can’t afford over £50m for a painting. If the galleries can’t raise the money, the painting is most likely to be bought by one of the wealthy Russian art collectors who have started to move the market. And so it’s unlikely to be on public display – here or elsewhere.
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