Titian returns to his birthplace through his portraits: two little-known and one lost

From July 28 to September 29, 2019, two portraits by Titian Vecellio, belonging to the collections of the Uffizi Galleries but where they were not on public display, will be on view in the painter’s 15th-century home in Pieve di Cadore, thanks to a loan from the Magnifica Comunità di Cadore.

An initiative on the occasion of the exhibition Titian. The Enigma of the Self-Portrait, which aims to bring Titian’s spirit back to his hometown through the portraits that present the artist’s appearance as it is most recognized and by taking visitors to the house where he was born and frequented all his life.

The two Titian portraits, an oil on paper pasted on panel and an oil on canvas, are little-known works, but they are interesting because they restore animage of the artist that is classic and recognizable by all (filiations of the famous Self-Portrait housed at the Staatliche Museum in Berlin) and because they evoke a third work, namely the Cadore portrait, owned by the painter’s cousin. And it is precisely to this last work, of which only historical evidence remains, that the title of the exhibition project refers: rediscovered by Lionello Puppi in 2007, it still remains shrouded in mystery and will not be visible because traces of it have been lost. From the end of the sixteenth century it was present in Pieve in the house of his cousin Vecello, to whom the artist had handed it over, and then passed from generation to generation to his descendants: first of all to his son, the famous Tiziano Vecellio known as L’oratore, in whose will a trace of it is found (“three paintings with the portraits from nature of qq.m Signori nostro Avo, Padre et del celeberrimo Signor Tiziano Vecellio Pittore”).

The two portraits in the exhibition are of high quality and were restored, one in 2007 and the other in 2016; regarding the oil on canvas, critics until the nineteenth century had considered the painting to be by Titian’s hand while later, also due to the poor condition of preservation, had raised many doubts about it. However, the work depicting Titian with palette in hand remains important for its immediate understanding.

Also exhibited are original historical documents preserved in theAntique Archives and the Titian Library through which an attempt is made to reconstruct the history of the three works depicting the master.

“The Magnificent Community of Cadore, starting in 2017, has embarked on a path to carry out a series of in-depth focus on the events of Titian Vecellio and his workshop, directly connected to his homeland, the Cadore Dolomite territory, now also a World Heritage Site. This important new initiative is also part of the project to enhance the value of lesser-known works closely related to the Master and the Cadore context, placed in the family home, a historic place, intensely experienced, over the centuries, by the protagonists of the famous household,” said Renzo Bortolot, president of the institution.

“It is undeniable that the question of the Titianesque self-portraits, a thorny and complex matter, will not be unraveled with this exhibition, but it will certainly be able to represent a strong evocation of the bond that the most important personage of Cadore kept towards his land and of his presence that, throughout his long existence, never failed. On the other hand, from an artistic point of view, the reconstruction of the history of the two paintings can confirm the practice according to which the pictorial and graphic derivations were executed in the workshop and retained in the Maestro’s studio while he was still alive,” said Matteo Da Deppo, head of Museums of the Magnifica Comunità di Cadore.

The project, promoted by the Magnifica Comunità di Cadore, is part of the redevelopment and enhancement of Tiziano Vecellio’s birthplace and is supported by the Cariverona Foundation as part of the project Itinerari in rete: for the development of cultural tourism in Cadore. The project is dedicated to the memory of Lionello Puppi, author of many historical-artistic studies and, in particular, of Titian’s Epistolary.

Image: Portrait of Titian (oil on paper)

Titian returns to his birthplace through his portraits: two little-known and one lost

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