Palazzo Reale opens in 2022 with a major exhibition dedicated to the image of the woman in the sixteenth century as painted by the grandmaster Tiziano and his famous contemporaries such as Giorgione, Lotto, Palma il Vecchio, Veronese, and Tintoretto. There will be around a hundred works on display including 47 paintings, 16 by Titian, many of which are on loan from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, as well as sculptures, objects of applied art such as jewellery, a homage by Roberto Capucci to Isabella d’Este (1994), books, and graphics.
“The exhibition – says curator Sylva Ferino – aspires to reflect on the dominant role of women in Venetian painting of the sixteenth century, which has no equal in the history of the Republic or other areas of European culture of the period. This exhibition looks at the woman as painted by Titian and his contemporaries: beauty, elegance, and sensuality, and of the very particular role that their representation acquired in the Venice of the 1500s”.
Starting from the theme of the realistic portrayal of women belonging to different social classes, passing to the highly idealized so-called “Venetian beauties”, one by one we meet famous heroines and saints, up to the divinities of myth and allegories. Also included in the exhibition are the portraits and writings of famous poets who spoke of love and equated the search for beauty with the exaltation of women and feminine splendour. The women’s clothing and hairstyles depicted in the portraits, both real and fanciful, are also analysed, examining contemporary fashion with its predilection for sumptuous fabrics, pearls, and refined jewellery.
In Venice, it is in figurative art that the theme stands out, thanks to the mastery of Tiziano, who places the female figure at the centre of his creative world. For him, artistic beauty and women are one and the same. Grace, sweetness, power of seduction, innate elegance are the fundamental components of the female images of the Venetian School, which sees Titian as the undisputed protagonist; thanks to him the artistic scenario of the era changed completely.
In sixteenth-century Venice, the female image takes on a unique role and importance that has never been seen before in the history of painting. On the one hand, there is the presence of Titian, with his interest in depicting a woman in all her tender sensuality and sophisticated elegance, and on the other, the particular status women enjoyed in Venetian society. In fact, Venetian brides were afforded uncommon rights, such as continued access to their dowry and being able to distribute it among their children after the death of their husbands.
Then there are the heroines such as Lucretia, Judith, and Susanna who represent honour, chastity, courage, and sacrifice. And finally the mythological figures like Venus who is born from the sea like Venice and personifies the city. In every woman painted, Titian celebrates their multiple and diversified qualities: to the eye of the beholder, they all appear as fiercely strong personalities, as goddesses.
The exhibition is promoted and produced by the Municipality of Milan, Palazzo Reale, and Skira publishing house, with the Bracco Foundation as Main Partner.
Tiziano e l’immagine della donna nel Cinquecento veneziano
Milan, Palazzo Reale
23 February – 5 June 2022
Article edit by Lucrezia Doria