Titian's workshop

A reconsideration of the literary sources demonstrates that Giorgio Vasari’s characterization of the death in Naples of his friend Jan Steven van Calcar as an early one has been needlessly questioned. A spurious earlier birthdate of 1499 for Calcar was often used by medical historians to cast doubt on the reliability of Vasari who identified the northern artist as Vesalius’s illustrator. A later birthdate of c. 1515 for Calcar is proposed. The problematic descriptions by Vasari in the "Vite" of Calcar’s illustrations for Vesalius are also considered.

This book, which arose from an international research project, examines Titian’s market strategies, production system, and entrepreneurial skills from economic, social, and technical points of view.  Drawing on unpublished documents, and analysing a large body of variant, replicas and copies, it sheds light on the role played by Titian’s assistants in the mutually informative processes of invention and execution. In revealing their contribution to the brand associated with the name of Titian, it supplants received ideas about the painter’s authorship with a more nuanced account of the activity of the workshop as a whole, and of its flexible response to different circumstances.

This article contains a compilation of all the documents concerning Titian’s son, Orazio Vecellio, introduced by an essay discussing his artistic and managerial activity within the family workshop. It contains 89 new documents, thus adding new material to that already published by the author in Le botteghe di Tiziano.  The essay addresses the role played by Orazio in Titian’s later production, suggesting his was a regular and substantial contribution, while reattributing four paintings hitherto attributed to him to his cousin, Marco Vecellio. It ends by proposing new avenues of research into the social context in which the artist worked.

This article addresses Titian’s altarpiece of c. 1542-52 in the Duomo of Serravalle, near Treviso. It reconstructs the history of this painting by analysing new documents, and connects it to the painter’s commercial interests in the area.  Analysing its quotation of Raphael’s cartoon of the Miraculous Draught of Fishes for the Sistine Chapel tapestries, the article advances a reading of the painting as a critique of the papacy, an interpretation it relates to Titian’s engagement with pope Paul III and the Farnese family, his promotion his son Pomponio to the clergy, and his proximity to the ‘spirituali’.

Girolamo Dente signed the Four Seasons as "Girolamo di Tiziano", but he painted it independently from Titian. This paper investigates the career of one of the most important assistant of Titian inside and outside the workshop of Biri Grande.

Based on archival research, this article addresses Titian’s relationship with the Balbis: a middle-class Venetian family related to him, with whom he shared interests in the timber trade. It discloses connections between the artist and affluent circles of the Venetian bourgeoisie in the years 1550-70s, which included lawyers and members of the State bureaucracy, as well as shopkeepers and colour merchants connected with the Scuola della Carità.  The analysis demonstrates both how this extended network was supported by Titian’s prestige, and how it fostered the artist’s social ambitions at the same time as his artistic activity.

: documenti e contesto per un gonfalone perduto 1. Contratto e contraenti La notizia di un accordo fra Emanuel Amberger e la Scuola dei Battuti di Serravalle per la realizzazione di un gonfalone dipinto, riferita al 24 agosto 1579, era stata segnalata marginalmente e in forma incompleta da Giovanni Tomasi, che nel suo volume sulla storia della Diocesi di Ceneda accennava a un documento esistente nel fonda della Scuola conservato nell'Archivio Storico Comunale di Vittorio Veneto, senza tuttavia riportarne l'esatta segnatura 1 . Sulla scorta di tale indicazione, un'approfondita ricerca nell'archivio vittoriese ha consentito di rinvenire, insieme alia ricevuta di pagamento menzionata da Tomasi ( ), che registra l'avvenuto versamento di una rata nella casa veneziana del pittore, anche l'atto contrattuale firmato a Serravalle dallo stesso Amberger e dai rappresentanti della Scuola davanti al notaio Francesco Ogniben il 23 agosto 1578 2 • Quest'ultimo reca in calce, alia data del 12 agosto 1580, la notifica del saldo conclusivo corrisposto al pittore, con sua piena soddisfazione ( . II contratto precisa che il "penello o vero confalon" avrebbe dovuto avere misure e soggetto identici a quelli del "confalon grande", raffigurante la Vergine e altre figure , rna superarlo in bellezza. Al pittore, cui veniva dato "per mostra" il modello originale, sarebbe toccata procurarsi il drappo di seta (cendal) , l'oro e i colori, cosl come ogni altro materiale necessaria all'esecuzione del manufatto, eccezion fatta per "le franze et cm·doni" che sarebbero stati forniti dalla confraternita. A gratifica del lavoro veniva pattuito un compenso di 70 ducati complessivi, 30 dei quali consegnati in acconto al momenta della stipula e 40 da liquidare alia conclusione dell'opera. Il termine di consegna, fissato al Natale successivo, venne abbondantemente oltrepassato: dopo la prima rata di 62 lire (corrispondenti a 10 ducati), pagata a un anno di distanza dalla convenzione, trascorsero infatti altri quattordici mesi prima della risoluzione finale. La consegna del denaro venne affidata in tale circostanza a Tommaso de Tommasi, che all'epoca era gastaldo del popolo della Scuola 3 , gia incaricato di andare a Venezia insieme al collega 77

: documenti e contesto per un gonfalone perduto 1. Contratto e contraenti La notizia di un accordo fra Emanuel Amberger e la Scuola dei Battuti di Serravalle per la realizzazione di un gonfalone dipinto, riferita al 24 agosto 1579, era stata segnalata marginalmente e in forma incompleta da Giovanni Tomasi, che nel suo volume sulla storia della Diocesi di Ceneda accennava a un documento esistente nel fonda della Scuola conservato nell'Archivio Storico Comunale di Vittorio Veneto, senza tuttavia riportarne l'esatta segnatura 1 . Sulla scorta di tale indicazione, un'approfondita ricerca nell'archivio vittoriese ha consentito di rinvenire, insieme alia ricevuta di pagamento menzionata da Tomasi ( ), che registra l'avvenuto versamento di una rata nella casa veneziana del pittore, anche l'atto contrattuale firmato a Serravalle dallo stesso Amberger e dai rappresentanti della Scuola davanti al notaio Francesco Ogniben il 23 agosto 1578 2 • Quest'ultimo reca in calce, alia data del 12 agosto 1580, la notifica del saldo conclusivo corrisposto al pittore, con sua piena soddisfazione ( . II contratto precisa che il "penello o vero confalon" avrebbe dovuto avere misure e soggetto identici a quelli del "confalon grande", raffigurante la Vergine e altre figure , rna superarlo in bellezza. Al pittore, cui veniva dato "per mostra" il modello originale, sarebbe toccata procurarsi il drappo di seta (cendal) , l'oro e i colori, cosl come ogni altro materiale necessaria all'esecuzione del manufatto, eccezion fatta per "le franze et cm·doni" che sarebbero stati forniti dalla confraternita. A gratifica del lavoro veniva pattuito un compenso di 70 ducati complessivi, 30 dei quali consegnati in acconto al momenta della stipula e 40 da liquidare alia conclusione dell'opera. Il termine di consegna, fissato al Natale successivo, venne abbondantemente oltrepassato: dopo la prima rata di 62 lire (corrispondenti a 10 ducati), pagata a un anno di distanza dalla convenzione, trascorsero infatti altri quattordici mesi prima della risoluzione finale. La consegna del denaro venne affidata in tale circostanza a Tommaso de Tommasi, che all'epoca era gastaldo del popolo della Scuola 3 , gia incaricato di andare a Venezia insieme al collega 77

https://www.rsa.org/blogpost/1935950/372967/Early-Titian-Redux-New-Directions-and-Research

2021 marks twenty years since the publication of Paul Joannides’s watershed monograph reexamining the Venetian artist Titian’s (c.1488/90-1576) early career, Titian to 1518: The Assumption of Genius (2001). Invigorated by Joannides’s study and numerous fresh discoveries, art historians have gradually begun to recalibrate knowledge of the artist’s youthful activity, workshop organization, and praxis. Notably, Titian’s Flight into Egypt (c.1507), Risen Christ (c.1511), and a putative Portrait of Pietro Aretino (1527) have reemerged from obscurity. Identities are also likely confirmed for the patron of the so-called Three Ages of Man (c.1512-14) and sitters in A Man with a Quilted Sleeve (c.1510) and Portrait of Girolamo Fracastoro (1528). Moreover, there have appeared several new catalogue raisonnés and a dozen or so major international exhibitions devoted to Titian and his immediate circle. Yet what, if any, definitive conclusions can be drawn from these and additional fresh data we now possess that elucidate—in a broad, synoptic manner—the beginning phases of Titian’s career? How might such revelations reshape narratives of Titian’s notoriously thorny early trajectory?

This session invites papers presenting fresh analyses on any topic involving the early period of Titian’s activity and art, up until 1526. Case studies or thematic studies are welcome. This slightly expanded chronological scope is demarcated by the completion of the St. Peter Martyr altarpiece, the moment Titian’s fame was acknowledged by his contemporaries and just prior to his rise to international acclaim. Particular emphasis will be on papers that employ innovative methodologies, that introduce new documentary evidence, or that bring novel insights into Titian’s oeuvre, immediate networks, and historiography.

Please email proposals to James R. Jewitt ([email protected]) by August 1st and include the following:

• Name, title, affiliation, and email address
• Paper title
• Abstract (200 words max.)
• Brief CV

Francesco Vecellio’s set of organ door shutters at San Salvador – his principal work in Venice – is arguably his most important commission and presents the ideal case to investigate his role in the Venetian artistic environment and his relationship with Titian and Titian’s workshop. This paper will suggest a radical change to the current installation of the canvases. It will move on to a reading of the paintings with respect to their patronage, their liturgical function, and their symbolic connection with the public ritual of the Resurrection during the Holy Week. Stylistically, the works can be compared to Titian’s Averoldi Polyptych and reveal that Francesco at the beginning of the 30s was still working at his brother’s atelier and that Titian must have played a very important role in winning the commission.