Reunited at the National Gallery in London the entire cycle of Titian's most sensual works. For the first time since 1704

Until January 17, 2021, the National Gallery in London presents the exhibitionTitian: Love ,Desire, Death. Indeed, the exhibition is a journey through Titian’s most sensual works that interpret themes from classical mythology such as love, temptation, and punishment.

In 1551, Prince Philip of Spain, the future King Philip II, commissioned Titian, among the most famous painters in ’Europe at the time, to paint a series of paintings depicting classical myths taken in particular from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

For the first time in four centuries, the exhibition brings together all six paintings in the series from Boston, Madrid and London. These include Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto, both of which are housed at the National Gallery in London but also belong to the National Galleries of Scotland. The six works were made in ten years from about 1551 to 1562 and depict Danae, Venus and Adonis, Perseus and Andromeda, Diana and Actaeon, Diana and Callisto, and the Rape of Europa.

The mythological scenes capture moments of high theatricality: a fateful encounter, a shameful discovery, a quick abduction. The deities express human feelings, such as guilt, surprise, shame, despair, sorrow.

Titian called these works his"poems" because he considered them true visual expressions of poetry. And thanks to this exhibition there is an opportunity to see them all brought together, an event that has not happened since 1704.

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery, the National Galleries of Scotland, the Prado Museum and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

Image: Titian, Rape of Europa (1560-62; oil on canvas, 178 x 205; Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum)

Reunited at the National Gallery in London the entire cycle of Titian's most sensual works. For the first time since 1704

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