Titian: Flesh - Venetian Art Documentary

Introduction to Titian's 'painterly' style, with 'its melting touch and suave effect', which he invented at the beginning of the 16th century. For the next 70 years in his studio in Venice, surrounded by poets and dukes and art historians, the occasional foreign king, and his female models - who mostly came from brothels - Titian developed this look. After his death his hazy, merging colours and rich, broken surfaces remained a touchstone of greatness in painting for 400 years.

Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (1488/1490 -- 1576) known in English as Titian was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno (in Veneto), in the Republic of Venice. During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore, taken from the place of his birth.

---

Closed Caption:

we don't have a system of beliefs and
skills in place to be able to turn out
this kind of painting anymore
I don't think it's horrifying to admit
that they're not connected enough to it
to be able to do it ourselves but we are
connected enough to it to be moved by it
tonight's artist is tuition
that's a painting by their petition is a
late Renaissance painter the renaissance
is already set up by his time the
center's are Florence and Rome
the style is tight clear and flat in the
early part of the 16th century in Venice
where Titian lives a new style starts up
kind of freeing up there in a sense the
style of Venetian painting which is
loose and free and has tuition as its
main figure
so are historically petition is the guy
who most of the artist whose paintings
are in this room
Ruben's Velasquez Rembrandt among them
are all looking at over the shoulder
when they're working in the studio's
they see the rich melting touch of
Venetian painting
it's suave effect
Perseus rescues Andromeda from a sea
monster because we're only human
we're interested in her flesh and that's
the stuff petition can really get across
a non-flash symmetry is connected to the
flesh imagery
it's all united and that broken patchy
green brown texture that makes up the
whole image and ramen his parents have
to sacrifice her to save the city where
they live painting hardly bothered with
all that it's real meaning something
else
its impact comes from the touch of the
brush and the play of the color ever
painted in a different way
it wouldn't have that feeling that's not
a mythological subject that makes it
what it is it's the hazy swirly mergi
color that comes from petitions
thankfully treatment that treatment
doesn't come from nowhere
the mottled ski surface machine on the
flesh and the clothes the constant fear
of things changing and reforming city of
Venice itself
it's a kind of nurture ground for that
yeah
the defining features of Venetian
painting or a bit like those of Venice
itself especially different types of
life reflected lights and the lagoons
and canals which is strong and bright
contrasted with soft disperse life
what you're seeing in the architecture
and stuff that surrounds it the water in
the sky is the boundaries between the
man-made and the organic always blurring
nature always changing and the man-made
being deliberately designed to respond
to those changes the stuff of this
exchange between all those elements
light and color
well it's streaming flowing facades
breaking up of bright surfaces with
patent loadings reflections everywhere
Venice was all about littering
shimmering decoration
condition arrived here as a teenager
this rich look of the city was still
survives today is even more exaggerated
we see Charlie distress stone a lot of
the canal face buildings have been
covered with brightly colored pictures
done directly on the wall
siano virgilio known to english-speaking
audiences as petition was born in the
town of khador day a little bit outside
of Venice sometime between the mid or
late for teenagers and 4019 no one knows
exactly when but we do know that
by the early fifteen hundreds when he
was a teenager was in Venice working as
the pupil and assistance of giovanni
bellini much older artists and that by
1507 was part of the venice art world it
less believe this studio was nothing
about with the painter Joanie was about
10 years older than Titian Titian and
absorb believe this style was now
copying the jonas style sometimes
collaborating with in on painters
yeah
yeah
while painting was invented in venice
venice was where the medium was pushed
the most
Joanie petition in the first generation
of artists to train using oil
the most did frescoes at first
water-based painting some directly into
plaster on the wall but soon abandoned
that oil on canvas
that building you can just see looming
up now on the other side of the rialto
bridge is where some frescoes used to be
by Titian and Giorgio knee
the fonda code des - des key
now it's a post office in the 16th
century was the headquarters of a load
of German merchants joe jonas frescoes
were visible on the canal side this side
all along the building their positions
were visible on the other side street
side now all the frescoes are long gone
destroyed by the weather
the style of petitions frescoes was a
mixture of joni and bellini his first
teachers
this is bellini soft gentle
the painting is a tender subject you can
imagine the madonna and child and yet
there's no false sentimentalism sugar
eNOS whatsoever
the Madonna is a collection of blue
triangles
sky is a variation on that blue
child connects with the color of the
background landscape
that landscape has a dream - it's like a
separate mood on its own and that mood
is what the lead his people
Giorgianni goes in for
this is joe jonas style this is painting
the tempest from about 15 10
there is no story only include the
people and I the biblical normal logical
they're not anybody but I'm stand for
anything you think she's the Virgin Mary
actually the Virgin Mary would never be
nude
in Jones paintings as with petitions
x-rays show there's a lot of changes the
soldier for example started out as a
nude woman
previously in relation to hearts you
worked everything out in advance before
you start painting in this new type of
art ideas and themes change all the time
the painting has been put together the
scene gradually shuffles into place on
the canvas
this is the earliest known painting that
is definitely a dietician and that has
survived in a good State
it's from 1510 the same time is joe
jonas The Tempest
it's not only family and the shepherd in
London's National Gallery
I now tition is advancing his oil
painting technique has he seen George
only doing it
it's based on improvising he moves paint
around until he comes up with shapes
that feel right so this white stuff of
the Virgin Mary's clothes and Jesus is
closed appears to find something like a
perfect balance in the white clothes of
that Shepherd over there
it's not something that petition could
have calculated and in fact is a
complete fiction anyway the Shepherd
would never have white clothes is a farm
laborer
so it's something that the painting
needs and that petition is found in the
paint
the painting is full of anatomical
wrongness the head of that guy's much
too big
the mood of the painting sweetness and
loveliness seems absolutely right and
it's to do with this balance of shapes
here and here and that's something that
petition has arrived at by trial and
error
so this is tuition learning to be
efficient
fifty years later this is Titian Titian
to the max
the painting is a homo which means
behold the man Jesus is about to die and
is being shown to the people by Pontius
Pilate story entirely dramatized through
the physical stuff
the paint is a repulsive fatness about
the white of the comments on the emotion
of that face the world demand pilot
right there
the edge of Christ coat is misty and
intangible
it's a comment on the purity of the
spiritual man Jesus
Christ humility opposed to pilots
corrupt glossiness this is a powerful
rendering of a story with painterly
handling taking the story on a whole new
level of meaning in the paint
it's in the White the shimmery broken up
Patchi look of it throughout the
painting
now let's look at someone else doing
religion of the Roman the next time
instead of Phoenician
these are Michelangelo's decorations for
the Sistine Chapel
this is all religious storytelling -
it's very different edition
the art of Michelangelo is all in the
contours of the figures in the modeling
of the muscles within the contours in
the way
everything seems to inhabit this space
some rightly and nicely without the
space ever appearing to be crowded but
none of that is really painterly
colors are separated from each other by
lying
is very high decorative charm to the way
colors balanced out the essential
element is still drawing and not with
tuition is Michelangelo's opposite the
action of the brush
Michelangelo just thought the petition
didn't concentrate enough on drawing
petition was a good colorist and a good
dramatized ur of the scene but basically
it be a lot better if you just put more
effort into drawing
yeah
the difference is that with Michelangelo
you feel figures can be peeled off and
put somewhere else
with tuition and the feeling is that
figures and objects a body here on a
cheek some silk sheets mins of a knife
the fold of a curtain are conjured up
out of a lot of loose paint
they are the paint mission is a painter
engineer he gets paint of the feel of a
lot of different surfaces in the world
these surfaces which he fabricates are
always set off by one in particular
which he renders with an incredible
range of handling and that's the surface
of flesh
so here we are at the heart of what is
that petition does it flashes something
titian paints very well it's because he
sees it as one of the trappings of
luxury
the world edition paints the Phoenician
world of power and money is all about
who's got more and who's got less
flashy paints a very opulent it goes
with oils richness
while is the way to get glitter and the
luster and the luxury stuff is powerful
clients want to surround themselves with
erudition is self portrait 1510 when
you're still in his twenties thinking a
powerful guys I've got what you want
welcome back
in essence people saw themselves and
editions art their world and captured
existence but also amplified it you can
see this mixture of the believable and
the real with the otherworldly always
intention but also in the art of the
Venetian painters who followed his style
his work is still all over Venice
politicians output is mostly now all
broken up and seen outside of its
original context
this is Venetian painting on mass
paintings by very noisy and sin Toretto
we were both about 25 years younger than
Titian they carry on petitions influence
there like that
kitchenettes scenes here religious
mythological and portraits style is all
about visual subtle tea
along with southern contrast drama
along with richness
the kind of thing that was in churches
and government buildings of Venice as
well as the private homes of Venetians
had made money from trading Venice was
really ruled by mansions
this is what it looks like here in a
museum
yeah
and this is how it looked in the kind of
places it was originally done for these
are paintings by a lot of different
artists on the ceiling of the doges
palace
venice that one up there by very easy
shows the goddess Juno showering gold
coins on Venice
all around the palace sister visual orgy
everywhere you see marble light and
luxury
luxury in the Doge's Palace is about
celebrating Venice's prestige to the
citizens of Venice to rival italian
cities especially Rome and foreign
powers
it's all about non-stop visual
confidence
luxury is kind of parceled out in
different ways it has different modes
let's look at venetian style luxury in
the service of poverty
these are Tintoretto's decorations for
the school in San Rocco in Venice
remember
tintoretto is one of petitions venetian
influence ease
every inch of the walls and the feeling
is lined with paintings showing scenes
from the Bible
this is a charitable hospice where the
poor and the sick attended by a
brotherhood of Christian carers tennis
was always being afflicted by the plague
and plague victims came here to die
so the venetian style can be adapted to
a setting where death and suffering is
the thing that is very striking
everywhere here how outrageous
show off confidence is also the thing
you see how intense retros crucifixion
scene is made vivid by the organization
of color and by the nature of the color
atmospheric
full of rich darkness everything is
geared to that white lips
the crucifixion rising up in the middle
of the groups of swaggering guys and the
luxury outfits either side
one's an armored there
it happens there
color in Venetian painting isn't just
bright color which is what people
usually think color in our means its
color working so it has feeling as
emotion that transition from blue grade
hazy pink - great white in the sky
think wow so this is art this is what it
can do all this is what Titian presides
over these artists and these settings
for the art are all part of a kind of
culture of Titian the culture wasn't
mapped out in the way we see it now
intuitions time no one had ever heard of
museums his audience bought his
paintings to put in their own places of
special power their palaces and chapels
and stuff
we're not the same as them they were
educated Erik Kratz there are very few
of them millions of us
we're a mixture of different levels of
education expertise familiarity with the
inside of museums
we don't have the same shared symbolic
world that relations people had today's
tourist experience of art is a lot of
random loveliness
one minute you're in art galleries and
chapels in Florence then back on the
canal in venice where I'm heading now
I think it's surprising how expertise on
the old masters also seems a bit random
few facts here and they're mixed with
imagination
that's imagination at work
it's just been summoned to a Dukes
palace somewhere in Italy to do a
painting
he's doing in Venice instead because of
the models here all come from brothels
The Dukes agent is explaining to the
Duke but there's a shortage of ruffles
in the Duke city other agents around to
the studio to arrange other commissions
condition paint a portrait of the Doge
of Venice or the Pope in Rome the
Emperor of Spain humanists are lounging
and posing about the studio humanists
are poets and intellectuals and scholars
you know about symbolism in painting
coaches from other cities are hanging on
petitions every word myths arising of
his greatness
the improved Spain bends over to pick up
a brush the petitioners just
accidentally dropped notation
allow me this comes from giorgio vasari
the first art historian who's around at
the studio writing petitions biography
petitions assistants are grinding up his
paints have invented tubes yet there's
just piles of pigments on tables with
pestles and mortars and jars of linseed
oil petitions friend
Pietro charity know the author of
subnets which anyone who's anyone reads
is now in the studio composing versus
two petitions painterly genius
the light that falls on the edge of the
venetian palazzo is like a breaststroke
and one of the paintings of tiana
this would be the kind of thing that
went on in distance to do more or less
if not all on the same day
an old building now stonemasons in the
city grande here at the north end of
Venice is likely to be the exact
location where distance to do actually
was
let's have a look now what you might
have been working on this is a scene of
the god Bacchus about to make love to
the mortal Ariadne
it's got something to tell us about how
an old master painting works for modern
audience one of a group of paintings
commissioned by the Duke of Ferrara to
go in a smallest room in the palace with
the Duke and retire at the end of the
day of doing do cool things and show off
his paintings to his friends
once these paintings to imitate a
description of ancient paintings that
exists and well-known bit of all writing
petition has to have a subject for these
paintings be about
so he's given a few lines of ancient
poetry translated from Latin into modern
Italian so you can understand them and
one of those poems describes the myth of
Bacchus and Ariadne Ariadne is deserted
on the shores of naxos by her lover
Theseus she's in despair she spotted by
the god Bacchus
he makes love to her and transfer into a
constellation of stars
nutrition has to come up with a look for
this because no one knows what an
ancient painting looks like none
survived only ancient sculptures survive
and practitioners based the poses of
most of these figures on casts of
ancient sculptures all that it says in
the old writing is that those ancient
paintings were very lifelike petitioners
to get that through composition color
and handling
that's what he does it's got all the
warm brownie orange color in this part
of the painting and all the call blue
color and that part of the painting and
then those invasions of one color into
the other color area
it all seems a lot together we've got
this brilliant blue skirt surrounded by
warm orange and brown and his lovely
blue flowers surrounded by warm ground
there in the warm brown coloring of
Bacchus with the cool-blue around him
then there's this rush of Bacchus his
followers
the snake wrestlers main ads and the
little sat ears
they're all tearing apart wild animals
because that's what you do in the back
Canadian frenzy and then there's this
cut through the rush of the figure of
Bacchus that's the instant of backs his
love for Ariadne and I saw the painting
is about
now all this is tuitions own visual
invention is all coming out of his head
is made up from nothing
it's based on a few lines of all poems
and descriptions of all paintings but
he's come up with something totally
really new and that's what is there for
us the story with the painting is about
but the goodness of the painting doesn't
depend at all
you knowing the story
with some of tissues paintings hardly
anything is known about them anyway
like this girl what's her story
find out in a minute
yeah
yeah
hello petition painting we're going to
hear about now is a sexpot the other
news is she's got a sister
the first one lives here in Florence the
second one a bit further away in Paris
the venus of urbino petition that we
have very little hard information on but
it's become one of the main icons of the
Western tradition of the nude and
painting as a bit of high culture
it couldn't be more respectable venus is
always the goddess of love but Venus
wasn't issues title for this painting we
don't know what he called
there was a convention in Venice of
paintings of anonymous beauties which
later acquired titles from mythology
like penis but this is different because
of the non mythological surroundings a
room in a palace servants in background
the model was very likely a prostitute
according to records there about 12,000
in Venice when this was painted
partition himself is in all this
backstory is a tricky one
we know employed prostitutes as models
we don't know anything at all about his
personal sex life
this moment the paintings agreed
symbolism is in the process of changing
its going from one meeting to another
paintings meanings change all the time
you can have an eye for what they look
like in this case the jewel like
loveliness petition gets with this
intense green and red and white and the
Grays here all of setting that an
extreme darkness of that green and the
soft evening light behind it incredibly
subtle realistic mass of perform against
the white sheet and you can enjoy what
seems to be a bit of Freudian symbolism
the line of the cotton leading directly
to part of her body that maybe the whole
painting is about the always only be a
prisoner of whatever is in the air time
intellectual fashions ideas in our
history
you'll never have all the answers to
what it is you're really looking at
it's from art history that we get
meanings and heart but our history is in
the Bible or even the highway code
you've got a question it not
unquestioningly believe in it all the
time until recently our history assumed
that petitions Venus was light porn a
way of having female nudity in arts by
in viewing it with a bit of ancient
mythological symbolism Venus the goddess
of love
q a bit of all swooning when you're
looking at a street
you got to remember you're looking at
things that are established but only in
ways that might easily change
art history began in the 18th century
the main ideas were set up
categories styles movements in isms as
opposed to just histories of individual
great artist lives
from these ideas followed assumptions
and attitudes these changed but the
conditions that was made in changed
Society changed the way the art of the
past have seen change to in this
painting
manase olympia from 1865 which is a
three hundred years later sincere
Hommage to petitions Venus and a bit of
a funky sneer against it
respectability is taken away and the
shock of sex is put back
she is a prostitute in a brothel that's
the setup the little cat graphically
represents hand concealed
both the vigorous roughness of the paint
handling first back directly to the
style of Venetian painting and the
brazenness of the brothel setting a man
a wanting to get painting back into gear
to rev up the great tradition again to
make it strong instead of tween we
should have become in hands of the
strengths and then his time
my name makes explicit what academic
artists in the 19th century painted
nudes based on the tradition started by
Titian but slightly done instead of
broad done were being quiet about their
mythological nude sweet tablet
this is Alexandra cabin l's phoenix
rising from the way from the same time
that man a painted Olympia
this was the official taste then kind of
hideous as a heart but just the ticket
the audience and the time there's an
exciting idea
polished nudity right there to stare at
and nothing remotely challenging going
on with Olympia all this is upside down
painting is exciting because the paint
is aggressive situation is transparent
everything's self-conscious in the 20th
century editions Venus was seen in the
lights of olympia as a pre modern art
sex bomb waiting to go off
olympia was a shocker when it was first
shown in Paris but hardly any of the
critics who complained about it
notice that referred addition those who
did acknowledged the sophistication of
the reference but thought that money was
just playing a game with it using
sophistication to be deliberately crude
olympia was first shown in a huge public
exhibition furious critical route rupted
he's a scandal in the papers scandal of
the subject is the main thing
she was obviously a prostitute with a
scandal of style from that she looks
like an ape
he can't paint she's got no bones
she's a corpse
so many provides a modern context
modern life for an ancient tradition in
our started by Titian essential handling
of materials is also the beginning of a
new tradition of sharks in art this is
the tradition of the avant-garde where
artists want to shake everything up and
the scandal is right for that the legacy
of mannose Olympia is tracey emin's I
made bed
they're both very frank about sexuality
of course that's to leave out incredible
painterly thing that money does but then
that's what the official on guard art of
nowadays does it leaves out that
mentally thing
remember we're looking at the way in
which the meaning of the venus of urbino
it's not actually leaning but a
fluctuating lot of different meanings as
more is learned about relations Society
it turns out that at the time it was
painted petitions Venus probably did
have a respectable even more realistic
meaning
this is where the painting when it was
sold the palace in a be no Duke of
Urbino bought the painting in 1538 he
was 24 years old recently the idea has
come up in our history studies that the
venus is a painting celebrating marriage
are not describing what it might be like
to be a rich client visiting a
high-class venetian prostitute
the Duke of Urbino it already been
married for four years
his wife was still not quite 14 which
would have made a ten-time they're
married
this is bad for modern times and makes
us cross in the 16th century betrothal
attend wasn't unusual
there's a whole system of customs and
propriety that went with it
although yes in the end it was a
misogynist time but the venus of urbino
still might not be a misogynist or even
demeaning to women painting it might
only be our history since the 18th
century that gives it that cost
let's look at her again she isn't
necessarily reduced to mere object in
fact she confidently returns outlook
with a look
so in this picture her sexuality isn't
necessarily the main thing about it
those are roses in a hand and Roses
stand for love and internet some
symbolism a mouthful plant is love -
because it's always blooming
that's right for sex but what about the
dog
titian painted portraits of the Dukes
parents in the one of the Dukes mother
the same dog appears sex that would be
weird
maybe petitions pet maybe just kept
walking into his paintings but that's
unlikely in a world of constant
alertness to the symbolic potential of
everything which is what the Renaissance
world was
nothing in painting just happened was
meant something
dogs meant faithfulness as they do now
and the one in this painting is
embarking so ever she's looking at is in
a stranger
why shouldn't it be her husband in fact
she's probably nothing so literal as
either a real prostitute or a real wife
but a principal an ideal
those wooden chests in the background
would be associated for renaissance .
via with marriage
it was a custom an upper-class life to
give pairs of chess like these as a
wedding gift
sometimes had scenes of Venus and love
carved inside
logic of this painting probably follows
that the painting on canvas version of a
scene within a marriage chest
demonstrating the place of sexual love
within marriage
actually this interpretation of the
venus of urbino goes back to scholarship
in manets time it's because of a limpiar
that research was done that dug up new
information
it was only recently that the results
began to be taken seriously in our time
information wasn't considered sexy
enough before
what makes Titian always exciting battle
plants always blooming isn't facts about
mythology of prostitutes
patrol just four planets scholarship
anyway but what Titian does with paint
flashing Titian isn't seductive because
flash is always that but because he
paints it like that
come back and be seduced again in a
minute
welcome back
this is tuitions portraits of the
Emperor of Spain
right next to it petitions painting of
Christ being tortured for being
crucified 1 painting is about power and
prestige the other about life and death
as a renaissance . Catholic mission
would have believed there was a duality
of light and dark existence is composed
of opposites
as an artist you mix things up
imagine to information patterns overlaid
each telling something opposite
one is playfulness invention love the
love of texture paint
we've of the cameras
to torment darkness and death found
questioning of everything positive
this late issues like
all his confidence and ease in his
daring bravery putting paint on every
once all that is in the service of an
image of profound doubt and anxiety
personally i think is his audience
we tend to mix modes to belief because
these paintings are fantastic but also
skepticism because we're modern people
we want to find things out ourselves
we're seeing Marta some more sincere in
the old days why don't think they did it
for the money
since after all they did you could be
great and kind of straight
the 21 opposites in the way that today
we've seen they should be
titian pushed his career by taking the
right Commission's getting the right
introductions time you painted the venus
of urbino for example when he was in his
late forties
it was the first artist to paint not
just for a particular city but for
cities everywhere in the world is the
first modern style international artists
the reason tatian was known to there be
no court was that he painted the
portraits and there be no family other
Dukes whose portrait done introduced
into them if that's the main reason
petitions rise to international fame was
his portraits through a kind of portrait
chain
the Duke of Ferrara introduced him to
the Duke of dementia who introduced him
to the Emperor of Spain
went fishing first made contact with the
Emperor spain ruled much of europe
including parts of Italy the Pope's
power in Rome was completely secondary
to the Emperor's power so becoming the
personal friend of the end prayer
position quickly did was very shrewd of
tuition
portraits were a currency for him they
brought in power
there's also something radical and knew
that he bought to them
partition portraits for half this size
rigid in profile like an image on a coin
with tuition hands were in those are
three quarters view and a lot of
suggested movement the life likeness
atmosphere and feeling from the
restlessness of the paint as much as the
psychological depth for the expression
on the face
it's hard to appreciate how knew all
this was when petition did it because
these qualities have been current and
portrait painting right up until modern
art so we assume they were always there
but it was Titian and this is his
self-portrait
who invented them this natural alliance
in addition psychology between being a
bit of an operator and having an eye for
the main chance and at the same time
being one of the most inventive creative
imaginations in all of art went back
years and years
early on in his career in 15 18 petition
painted this altarpiece the assumption
and the church of santa maria gloriosa
day friday or the morality as it's known
for very low fee
not because he was so pious or Christian
because he saw it was a good opportunity
to advertise his skills position was a
bourgeois businessman and he never
forgot about the business side of what
he did when he was knighted 15 years
later by the Emperor of Spain for
painting members portraits petition and
both his sons receive pensions for life
the Emperor the significance petition
was not that it achieve nobility but
that had become incredibly successful
that's what being an artist then
involved being creatively independent
that's still believing in the values of
the challenge Kings not being alienated
from them but rolling along with them
trendy idea of our today is a mixture of
amusing unhinged
anything goes stuff and demoralizing
idea the artists exalted rollers
outsider
unconsciously we still a bit driven by
the ideals of the Abstract
Expressionists of the nineteen fifties
they wanted not to be seductive that to
be high-minded
the back of our thoughts today this is
still the model of art me and loveliness
seems wrong as a name for it
but in the philosophy of Venetian
painting being seductive goes with being
high-minded not against it
the Abstract Expressionists nineteen
fifties people not 15 fifties they think
painting is in a war with Society
painting is going to tell society off
Venetian painters think that society is
great for one thing there's hardly
anybody in it
just a handful of humanists and Dukes
and quarters
some genius artists
by late middle age petition was known as
both the richest artists and never been
as well as the most artistically daring
and inventive when he traveled outside
Venice was escorted if you were royalty
lifetime pension is coming in from
different governments all over the world
have a contract with the king of Spain
where it could paint more or less what
he liked for the rest of his life and
the King would buy it at a lot of
different businesses going in Venice
including selling timber
she ran with his son alexia petition
really was calling the shots every pipes
but intentions very late paintings it's
like the Ark of this story is that
having achieved the highest position he
goes on a journey into his own in the
darkness
it's not a glossy hedonist anymore but a
restless disturber of luxury a
questioner of life's pleasures
instead of a celebrator of them is power
and prestige
it's an absolute height of the flesh in
his paintings
now starts to seem decayed his colors go
from rich and brilliant to disease
here's a painting the petition was
working on at the time of his death
nothing is not his thoughts about the
exciting thing about this painting is
that there's two surfaces to be thinking
about always as the surface of the
painting and then there's this surface
of flesh painting seems to be all
surface is Tony brackish grayish stuff
that has points of red coming through
everywhere
so the painting is like a metaphor for
the skinning alive is going on with this
guy
his skin is actually being stripped off
the body by those sharp knives story is
the playing of Masius from obvious
metamorphosis
Marcia SAT here as well as goat legs
that's how i can tell you the SAT here
lose is a musical competition with the
god Apollo
the agreement is that whoever wins can
do it like to the loser
são Paulo has masses skinned alive
Apollo stands for reason and the mind
and Marcia stands for the body and
sensuality
so in the legend is like a triumph for
the mind over the body petition paint
himself into the legend
it's him as this old King guy looking on
horror here because the physical
substance of the painting dominates
everything else it's like that's the
thing
petition is questioning is asking
himself at the end of his days when he's
nearly a hundred but maybe more than a
hundred since nobody knows how
politicians really was
what's the place of his type of painting
in this internal competition between the
mind and the body
the feeling is because of the mood of
the painting questioning is a despairing
kind of questioning
this is a ph our petition is now in his
eighties and nineties while he was
working on it
an outbreak of plague Venice
peter is a scene where the Virgin Mary
laments the dead christ
petition made a lot of changes to this
painting as he went along he complicated
up the traditional symbolism
autobiography petition used his own
features for the traditional figure of
Nicodemus the arch recalls the typical
shape of a lot of the other pieces of
bellini petitions teacher
the golden mosaic the petitioners
painted at the top of the arch it calls
the decorations of Venice edition city
and the sculptures either side of the
arch like the art of Michelangelo
petitions rival there are huge grand
tragic forms balanced by charming detail
one at the bottom of this statute little
canvas that petition is painted in
in this painting of a painting you see
the figures in the bottom right of
petition and his son
axioo praying to the figures in the top
left of the Virgin Mary with the dead
christ in a lap
they're praying to be spared death from
the plague
so you go from that little scene to be
life-size real petition to the real
Christ the real virgin mary and the real
Mary Magdalene the reformed sinner
now wildly grieving and out to this vast
theme of memory petitions life as an
artist devotion is belief in the
afterlife and prayer
the message the message of this painting
which is save us with these last
paintings where he gives himself
important walk-on parts
titian looks back on his life Franklin
and power broken inspired creative leaps
and breakthroughs but he sees it all in
the mood of doubt
beauty in light of his paintings vs his
own fading light and his own old flesh
yeah
petition started painting the PIAT are
in the mid 50 seventies was intended for
the Ferrari the church Commission the
assumption of the virgin mary from
addition when he was a young man
when tuition at first started painting
the assumption 60 years before and a
special studio setup here at the Ferrari
was considered a nightmare by the Friars
would never seen anything like it before
they thought the figures much too big
and they kept bothering Titian to make
them smaller and then when he finished
it with its blazing lights and its
towering forms
it was considered an amazing success and
it marked the beginning of petitions
great rise in venice now in his old age
titian decided he wanted to be buried
here he got involved with the
complicated financial deal with the
friday he would paint the PIAT are for
the friars and as part of the deal
they promised to houses - but then the
plague arrived in the spring of 1576
lasted for months
it turned out to be the worst outbreak
of the century killed off half the
city's population
petition died of the plague on the
twenty-seventh of august 1576 his body
was buried here in the friday
a day later very hurried ceremony
because the plague was still raging in
the streets of Venice petitions age was
entered in the register here is a
hundred and three couple of days later
his son roxio also died of the plague a
mob immediately looted the house and
studio on the big randy lot of tuition
stuff including paintings went missing
not the PHR which is safely on show here
is sufficient asked only not for long
cuz return to petitions assistant power
module of money and never came back to
the front either because the Friars
thought there was something wrong with a
painting or else if it was something
wrong with the deal
yeah
petition invented modern painting
playfulness independence and profound
serious
flash he painted in furs lying naked
glossy muscular old wrinkled young
lustrous changes in Modern Art in two
color pattern form and handling on their
own
recognizable stuff human imagery or
gradually drops out
that's the modern art ship drifting out
to sea as far as most people concerned
then when imagery comes back again in
our heart the kind of art began in the
1960s is not connected to a painting
tradition of the movies and TV
tags shows us ourselves
shalin lust to be amused all the time
bring back painting we here if you could
just reel it in again exactly as it was
and it's old form
it was like it was then because this
really is the last word audition
the whole culture was set up that way
hours set up differently
yeah