Investigating Titian: The First Forty Years

Jill will be presenting some of the discoveries made as part of a project to examine and publish the results of the technical examination of the National Gallery’s celebrated group of works by Titian from the first half of his career, up to about 1540. Paintings discussed will include Bacchus and Ariadne and the great early portraits, including the Portrait of a Man with a Blue Sleeve, recently identified as Gerolamo Barberigo, and ‘La Schiavona’. In addition, the project includes some works from outside the collection, including Titian’s earliest large canvas, The Flight into Egypt from the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, and the latest painting in the study, The Triumph of Love from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Titian’s painting technique will be illustrated with X-ray and infrared images, as well as paint cross-sections and details from the paintings themselves.