The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna celebrates its 130th anniversary with a major exhibition on Titian

On the occasion of its 130th anniversary, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna is devoting an exhibition until January 16, 2022 to Titian (Pieve di Cadore, 1488/1490 - Venice, 1576), among the most important artists of the Venetian school. Titian’s Vision of Women, this is the title, aims to illustrate to the public, through some sixty paintings from the collections of the Viennese museum and from major museums around the world, how the celebrated Venetian artist who lived at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries depicted women throughout his output. Among the loans are masterpieces from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Louvre in Paris, the Prado in Madrid, the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice. Also, from the Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, the National Gallery in London, the Ashomolean Museum in Oxford, the Gallerai Borghese in Rome, the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte and the Museo Archeologico in Naples, the Alte Pinacothek in Munich, and the Kunstmuseum in Basel.

Titian’s paintings are flanked by works by his contemporaries, such as Palma the Elder, Lorenzo Lotto, Paris Bordone, Jacopo Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese, who were inspired by the love poems and literature of the time, so as to create splendid poetic and sensual works of art starring women.

The exhibition aims to present the appearance of Venetian women of the time as well as the social and cultural context of the 16th century. Titian’s paintings depicting women thus celebrate both women and the life, love and art of the 16th century. The exhibition aims to show the many facets of this theme with a close look at gestures, looks, and details. Starting with idealized versions inspired by poetry and literature, the exhibition illustrates how the themes of love and desire are introduced in historical, mythological, and allegorical paintings. Realistic and idealized portraits are also useful for an analysis of the fashion, hairstyles, and jewelry of the period.

Titian’s masterpieces in the exhibition include Woman in the Mirror kept at the Louvre, Vanitas housed at the Alte Pinacothek in Munich, Portrait of a Young Woman in Blue (La Bella) and Flora from the Palazzo Pitti, Isabella d’Este from the collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Clarissa Strozzi from the Staatliche Museen in Berlin, and Venus and Cupid with an Organist from the Prado Museum. They are joined by Paolo Veronese’s Judith and Lucretia and Jacopo Tintoretto’s Susanna at the Bath from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Paris Bordone’s Lovers from the Pinacoteca di Brera, Bartolomeo Veneto’s Flora from the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, and Giovanni Bellini ’s Young Woman in the Mirror from the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

The exhibition is curated by Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, Francesca Del Torre Scheuch and Wencke Deiters, from an idea by Sylvia Ferino-Pagden.

Following the exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the show will be mounted at the Palazzo Reale in Milan.

More information about the exhibition and program of events can be found at https://tiziansfrauenbild.khm.at/en/

Image: Titian, Young Woman in the Mirror, detail (c. 1515; oil on canvas, 99 x 76 cm; Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Peintures) © RMN-Grand Palais / Franck Raux

The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna celebrates its 130th anniversary with a major exhibition on Titian

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