Titian at the Luxembourg Palace Museum
Parisians turned out in force that past Sunday to visit the Titian Portraits of Power exhibit at the Luxembourg museum (which is located right next to the Senate building). Titian, one of the titans of the Late Italian Renaissance may be known by most Americans for his lush nudes (or unexercised depending upon your perspective) but in the Venice of his time, this was the guy that anybody who was anyone sought out to have their portraits (and wealth)immortalized. Some of the aristocrats and merchants featured in his paintings look as if they’re supplicating the Master Painter - “Please, make me look good!” There is no mistake at this time period that ‘the armor made the man’. Do you think next fall season we’re going to see a new line of suits ‘blinde’ i.e. armored suits?
As for Titian’s nudes - there is only one at this exhibit. We felt that her head appeared to be quite small for the rest of her body. Was this the hints of the Mannerist movement taking hold. Or did Titian just feel that brainpower simply wasn’t a prerequisite for his female models. Fidelity, Purity and Fertility. (Represented by the cute little dog, a string of pearls, and the perdrix (partridge).)
By Parisgirl | Permalink
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Thanks for mentioning the GLAR story! Maybe that explains why the heads don’t seem to match the bodies! I imagine if anyone were thinking about going out and buying a Titian they might want to check out the GLAR story first!
Hi Parisgirl
Thanks a lot for your kind replay.
The art historians has a lot of problems with Titian’s paintings, the most famous self-portrait in Museo del Prado…looks very different from Adolphe Braun’s photo from between 1860-77. It’s possible that Adolphe made a photo of a none existing painting. I don’t believe it. Do you ?
Kind regards
Greenland Art Review
Just checked out the link (disregard my e-mail) the link works fine. Tell me more about Adolphe Braun. Why do photographers photograph paintings anyhow? Probably because they can. I was so thrilled to be able to take photographs of impressionist paintings at the Musee d’Orsay - it’s ‘almost’ as good as taking the painting home with you - because there’s no glass reflection and you get an image that is probably much better than you’d get from an art book reproduction. It would be nice to nice a little bit more about the background of Adolphe Braun - was he at the Prado when he took this photo or someplace else? There are so many scenarios to consider here without knowing more of the details - one thing is certain - the photo and the painting that you’ve posted next to it are miles apart. Which brings me to the Caravaggio in Loche (Touraine). Have you seen that one yet?
And for anyone who is Stateside, did you catch this week’s episode of Boston Legal? James Spader as Mona Lisa? It’s too good a fit to be true. Now I know what always looked so familiarly smirking about Spader’s smile.
Biography: Adolphe Braun (France)(1811 - 1877)
After training as a fabric designer, Adolphe Braun changed his career to photography in 1853. He created an album of floral photographs entitled Fleurs photographiees, which earned him a medal at the 1855 Paris Exposition Universelle. In the 1860’s, Braun began creating topographical views across Europe and later made reproductions of artwork. He opened a photography studio that published his images of previously made works of art.
The photo was made in Museo del Prado by Braun between 1860 and 1877 and the museum used the photo to send to art historians up to about 1901. But after The World Fair Trade exhibition in Paris 1880 (where a Titian self-portrait with the two famous goldchain was exhibited) NOW lost, something strange happend, the Prado version got goldchains on.
Next time I’ll submit some links to my research on Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh.
Kind regards
Greenland Art Review
This story just gets better and better. Sounds like the beginning of a good detective yarn. Wouldn\\\’t you think the folks at the Prado might have noticed that Titian acquired some gold chains? Is it possible that if someone took a look in the Prado basement they might find a second self-portrait hanging around in a storage bin? I often wonder how museums can keep track of anything when you think of the number of paintings and art objects entrusted to them.
Yes…but more than that !
The inventary number 695 (painted in the painting, left corner down) has a different location, lower and more to the left.
Rubens estate inventory list, wich was found and still is in The National Library in Paris, notes 11 paintings attributed to Titian, including the Prado self-portrait, in addidion 32 copies after Titian.
Only God knows how many copies Rubens sold when he was alive.
Kind regards
Greenland Art Review
The fake Leonardo da Vinci in The Louvre !
This information is extracted from The Rape of la Belle by Harry Hahn (Frank Glenn Publishing Co. Inc., Kansas City, Missouri, 1946).
Kind regards
Greenland Art Review
Paul Gauguin:
One of his first amateur paintings, is actually a Master piece, “The Seine in Paris between the Pont d’Lena and the Pont de Grenelle.” 1875. Oil on canvas. Private collection.
It is a so-called “double exposure” (two paintings in one). The upper part a Sea with small green Islands and the lower part a subject from The Seine river.
Paul Gauguin married the Danish girl Mette Gad in 1873 and I can’t imagine that he two years after planned his escape to the Southen Sea, so it have to be something else he painted in the upper part.
My best guess is the danish island Laesoe in the Kattegat Sea in Denmark, his wife Mette Gad was born and lived on that Island in her childhood.
The double exposure was discovered by Greenland Art Review few years ago, the owner (anonymous)do not know about it yet. So if any of the readers help with an name and adress, it will just be fine.
Kind regards
Greenland Art Review
Paul Cezanne:
It’s not well known that Paul Cezanne painted “miniatures and faces” into his paintings.
On one of his first classic paintings from 1867 “The Abduction” he painted a hidden portrait, probably of his financial nightmare, his father. About 40 years later he painted the same portrait (very similar) into “Le Mont”, what I believe is a biographical painting, painted early 1900s. He also painted his nudes and bathers into “Le Mont” as hidden miniatures.
http;//www.glar.gl/abduction.jpg
Discovered by Greenland Art Review in connection to The Cezanne Year 2006.
Kind regards
Greenland Art Review
Vincent van Gogh:
Vincent van Gogh painted a lot self-portraits, but only three with his tools in his hands.
On his self-portrait from 1886, 1888 and 1889 he represent himself as a left-handed painter.
1886 It looks like he holds the palette in his right hand, but no fixed point for reference.
1888 The button on his jacket (on mens clothes allways fixed to the right side) He hold his palette in his right hand, same side as the fixed button.
1889 He cut the lower part of his left ear in arles late 1888, you see a perfect right ear and he holds his palette in his right hand.
So I assume he painted with his left hand. What is your opinion ?
Kind regards
Greenland Art Review
I guess the hardest thing to accept about looking at this painting - The Seine in Paris between Point d’Iena is realizing how that the present day landscape in no way resembles that idyllic countryside of another era. Except for the bridge, all one sees is water, unpaved roads, grass and blue skies populated by clouds are Danish islands perhaps.
Thanks for sharing this masterpiece with us.
RE: Cezanne and his miniatures and faces in his paintings. This reminds me of a much earlier practice of anonymous tapestry makers who sometimes put wove their self portrait discreetly into some corner of the tapestry. I have yet to get to the Gobelins tapestry factory in Paris. It seems to be the place that nobody ‘gets around’ to seeing’. How many forms of communication and art have these varied layers of understanding? Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. when do we know the symbols we think we see or understand are really the symbols that an artist had in mind?
RE.: When do we know the symbols we think we see or understand are really the symbols that an artist had in mind?
In at least two Paul Gauguin cases we know for sure, what he had in mind.
1) The Blue Trees, 1888/89, Ordrupgaard, Denmark
2) Landscape with two Goats,1897, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
The blue trees is painted in Arles 1888 or short time after he left Arles early 1889. Paul Gauguin visited van Gogh and I\’m sure he painted a portrait of Vincent into that painting.
http://www.glar.gl/vangogh.jpg
The French art-dealer vollard promoted Cezannes paintings in 1895-97, Paul Gauguin visited France on that time and he probably saw the exhibitions (shows) in Paris and he painted a portrait of Paul Cezanne into A landscape with two Goats as a homage to Paul Cezanne and as a \
More Titian news !
“Titian’s Self Portrait with a Young Woman”, Anthont van Dyck ca. 1630
Titian’s original self portrait was later lost, so that only Van Dyck’s etching remains ?
No…it still exist !
see http://www.glar.gl and scroll down to buttom
Kind regards
Greenland Art Review
Thanks for sending along this link. People may start looking for Titians gathering dust in their attics. What I loved was your line up of Titian’s family. The scene of them sitting around a table on a veranda having the time of their life makes me think that things must have been pretty good in Renaissance Italy - don’t you wish you were there?
P.S. Have you check out my last entry on Rembrandt? How many Rembrandts exist in the world, in your opinion?
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Interesting new research on The Duke of Mantua.
See http://www.glar.gl
Kind regards
Greenland Art Review (GLAR)