Milan, a Christmas gift arrives from Naples: Titian's Annunciation

For the Christmas holidays, theAnnunciation by Titian Vecellio (Pieve di Cadore, 1490 - Venice, 1576) arrives from Naples to Milan, the Masterpiece for Milan 2021, an initiative now in its 13th edition. The large canvas (it is 280 x 193 cm), a work of the full maturity of the Venetian master, arrives on loan from the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte in Naples (where it is kept on deposit from the church of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples, heritage of the Fondo Edifici di Culto administered by the Ministry of the Interior) to the Museo Diocesano “Carlo Maria Martini” in Milan, where it will be exhibited, as a traditional... Christmas gift, from November 6, 2021 to February 6, 2022.

Executed around 1558, the painting was made by Titian for the Pinelli family, bankers and merchants of Genoese origin who had moved to Naples, for their chapel dedicated by Cosimo Pinelli to the Virgin Annunciata in 1575, which was located in the transept of the Neapolitan church of San Domenico Maggiore, the only one in the world to have preserved paintings by Raphael, Titian and Caravaggio together.

Signed “Titianus f” on the kneeler, the work constitutes one of the cornerstones of the artist’s maturity and represents a rare episode of Venetian painting in 16th-century Naples. Executed in the late 1950s, the canvas reveals the highest achievements of the mature Titian evident in the extraordinary luministic effects, particularly in the shimmering robes in the angel, in pink and silver damask, woven with gold threads, in the rendering of the glow that intrudes on the pictorial material and in the freedom of the composition. The space is dominated by a single architectural presence, the imposing column behind the Virgin, while in the background, to the left, is a glimpse with an autumnal landscape, with brown and red tones standing out against the blue of the sky. The figures in the foreground present a color scheme played on tones of red and gold: the Virgin humbly gathers with her arms crossed over her chest, while the angel reaches out to her with a dynamic gesture and a beam of light descends from the sky surrounded by a swirl of angels.

“Art is an intellectual expression,” says Sylvain Bellenger, director of the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, “and as such it must travel, just as ideas and men travel. This is why Capodimonte is happy to be present in Milan with one of Titian’s masterpieces of magical writing. Painting and the arts have the ability to make us feel and reveal worlds that escape the limits of words; Titian’s Annunciation is more than an Annunciation it is an illumination.”

The exhibition, realized with the support of Fondazione Bracco, is one of the initiatives celebrating the Diocesan Museum’s first 20 years of life and activity, which includes, among others, ICONS A participatory mural for the Diocesan Museum, created by Orticanoodles with the support of Fondazione di Comunità Milano onlus, and the exhibition from November 25, 2021 to February 6, 2022 of Francesco Londonio’s 18th-century nativity scene, which became part of the Diocesan Museum’s collection in 2018 and was recently restored as part of Intesa Sanpaolo’s Restituzioni project. The exhibition is accompanied by a SilvanaEditoriale catalog. A Masterpiece for Milan enjoys the patronage of the Lombardy Region, the City of Milan, and the Archdiocese of Milan. Main sponsor: Fondazione Bracco. The museum thanks Fondazione Cariplo. Sponsor: GiGroup; supporters: Mediolanum, Rocca Foundation, Studio SZA; lighting partner: ERCO, media partner: IGPDecaux; travel partner: Trenord.

Milan, a Christmas gift arrives from Naples: Titian's Annunciation

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