Titian's Charles V and Uffizi workshop exhibited for a year in Teglio

As part of the project 100 works come home, the large Portrait of Emperor Charles V attributed to Titian and his workshop arrives today, April 5, at Palazzo Besta in Teglio (Sondrio), where it will be placed in comparison with the portrait of the same emperor frescoed in the Palace’s Hall of Honor.

“It will be a stimulating comparison,” said the regional director Musei Lombardia, Emanuela Daffra. “The Charles V frescoed in Palazzo Besta is a peacemaking emperor, his effigy is not in arms but crowned with a laurel wreath, his gaze turned to the sky, serene in his full regal function. It is the robe in which he proposed himself in Lombardy after defeating Francis I of France, who also gazes at us from the walls of the Salone. In contrast, the Charles V painted by Titian and his pupils is a somber man, later in years, in battle gear, fully protected by armor. The two faces of power in short. This presence, moreover, will force us to focus more on the iconography of this cycle, still elusive, a perfect example of the culture of a frontier area in a turbulent age.”

“The Uffizi Galleries are pleased to participate with such a meaningful work in the project of spreading art in the territory promoted by the Minister of Culture,” said Uffizi Galleries Director Eike Schmidt. "The museum has an extraordinary heritage of works by major artists from the Veneto area. This painting, in particular, was sent, as Giorgio Vasari also testifies, personally by Titian to Cosimo I de’ Medici around 1553: it remained on display in the Palazzo Vecchio until the end of the 17th century, when Grand Prince Ferdinand had it moved across the Arno, wanting it for his personal quarters in the palace of Palazzo Pitti."

Palazzo Besta Museum director Giuseppina Di Gangi has planned for the Florentine portrait to be displayed in the Salone d’Onore. The exhibition, which will be open to the public from April 6, 2022, is articulated in a path marked by panels that illustrate the figure of the emperor and also allow its framing with the other characters-Ariosto, Aretino, Erasmus of Rotterdam, and the hosts themselves, Azzo II Besta and his wife Agnese Quadrio. The painting will remain on display here for a year.

Image: Titian Vecellio and workshop, Portrait of Charles V full-length armed (c. 1550; oil on canvas, 196 x 100.5 cm; Florence, Palatine Gallery)

Titian's Charles V and Uffizi workshop exhibited for a year in Teglio

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