Exhibition catalogue of Tiziano, Venezia e il Papa Borgia

The exhibition and catalogue of Tiziano, Venezia e il papa Borgia took an in depth look through new documentation of the genesis of Titian’s important early painting Bishop Jacopo Pesaro and Pope Alexander VI before Saint Peter (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp).  

All of Titian’s masterpieces have a story of their own as well as their own iconographic references and programmatic goals. They condense memorable moments, explore new roads, manifest tastes and wills, but also relations, encounters, and political and commercial dynamics. They are the signs of an era and of an artistic path.  

In the catalogue the Antwerp canvas is the subject of an essay “In hoc signo vinces: Il vescovo Jacopo Pesaro e papa Alessandro VI davanti a san Pietro di Tiziano” by Beverly Louise Brown and Paola Artoni and Sandra Rossi’s essay “Le piume dell’arcangelo: scoperte e propste per Tobiolo e l’angelo di Tiziano” discusses Titian’s early Tobais and the Angel (Galleria dell’Academia, Venice).  The catalogue provides the chance to reconsider the style and dating of the Antwerp and Venetian paintings and to more closely examine the events that surrounded their commissions.