Titian in Pieve di Cadore

Titian in Pieve di Cadore. The Madonna and Child between Saints Titian and Andrew. History, restoration, meaning, edited by Stefania Mason 

The Titian and Cadore Study Centre Foundation decided to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the foundation’s inauguration with a gift to the community: the restoration of a work of the town’s most illustrious fellow citizen, a painting intended for and preserved in his family’s chapel in the archidiaconal church of Santa Maria in Pieve di Cadore, in which Titian himself is present in his self-portrait, almost filling the purpose of a signature.

The painting was in an unacceptable state of decay, damaged by an attempted theft and an actual theft, tampered with during repeated restorations, altered by the scratching caused by cleaning with soda, varnish oxidisation and the accumulation of layers of dirt and smoke. 

A comprehensive diagnosis regarding the painting materials, the artistic technique and the master’s modus operandi had never before been undertaken. 

During the restoration, entrusted to Francesca Faleschini, the canvas underwent a series of analyses using imaging techniques (visible, ultraviolet, infrared and e-ray) and samples were taken of three particularly complex areas to investigate the pigments and Titian’s stratigraphy.

The results revealed the typical and vigorous Tizianesque brushstroke, applied over a charcoal underdrawing, with some revisions in the drapery behind, in the self-portrait, and in particular, in the figure of Saint Andrew, raising questions about the alterations this character has undergone 

From the invisible to the visible, passing through the underlying layers, beginning with the report on the results of the restoration and the data provided by the preliminary diagnostics, the volume addresses the theme of the genesis and execution of the work created by Titian for the family chapel, where he wished to be buried, probably around the time of his brother Francesco’s death at the beginning of 1560, the reconstruction of the old church of Pieve, destroyed in 1761, as the artist saw it, and analysing this votive painting in the context of Titian’s career, with its sources of inspiration and its implications of deep family devotion, providing significant elements for a new historical-artistic interpretation.

An important contribution to understanding the work is offered by the anthology, complete for the first time, of the painting’s historiography, from its first mention in 1604 to our contemporary sources, enabling a reassessment of the documentation following its installation in the church and a reweaving of the historiographical and critical events from the questionable dating to the issue regarding authorship.

INDEX

Storia e significato.

A cura di Stefania Mason

Stefania Mason
Dentro il “lascito” di Tiziano a Pieve di Cadore: una premessa

Enrico Maria Dal Pozzolo
La tela votiva di Tiziano a Pieve di Cadore: dall’idea alla trasformazione

Elisa Bonaiuti
La storiografia e la critica

Alessandra Cusinato
Tiziano e la sua chiesa 

Restauro

Nicole de Manincor
Storia conservativa e nuove indagini diagnostiche

Francesco Rizzi e Stefania Pellizzaro
Indagini stratigrafiche

Francesca Faleschini
Il restauro svelato 

Antologia critica
a cura di Elisa Bonaiuti

BIBLIOGRAFIA E REFERENZE FOTOGRAFICHE