Annunciation (church of San Salvador)

Last updated
Annunciation
San Salvador Interno - Annunciazione del Signore Tiziano.jpg
Artist Titian
Year1559–1564
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions410 cm× 240 cm(160 in× 94 in)
LocationChurch of San Salvador, Venice

The Annunciation is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Titian, executed between 1559 and 1564. It remains in the church of San Salvador in Venice, for which it was commissioned.

Contents

Originally three paintings were commissioned by the D'Anna family for their chapels in the church of San Salvador in Venice, northern Italy. [1] Only two out of the three remains in place in the church. The other pieces that were commissioned were a Transfiguration dated around 1560, as the altarpiece of the high altar, and a Crucifixion now in the Church of San Domenico, Ancona. [1] The painting depicts the scene when the Virgin Mary being told that she is carrying the child of God, called the Annunciation of the Virgin.

Composition

The lower figures are Mary (mother of Jesus) and Gabriel. Mary is in shown in a degree of shock but Titian using his colours brings out the sight of the angel. This is most evident in his handling of light. A heavenly light pours from an opening in the sky into the place of the Annunciation. [1]

There have been opinions on the different usage of colour in the painting from Giorgio Vasari to Charles Hope. Hope's opinion ”disliked use of the muddy colours, the physical types, the mannered pose of the Virgin or the badly drawn figure of Gabriel and the inept use of gesture”. [2] Hope's observation is an extension from Vasari's criticism. While Bohde explains that "muddy colours" and the physicality of the figures makes the composition of Titian's Annunciation so good.

Bohde says, "Titian’s painting ultimately deals with the transformation of the immaterial into the material, which is the core of the incarnation theme". [1] The figures itself explains the main theme of incarnation of God within the Virgin. This theme comes thought with the dove in the back that pours out amounts of light from the clouds. The figures are different from other versions of the story annunciation in other Venetian works Titian does not connect to the myth of the city of Venice founded on the day of Annunziata. As Bohde states "Titian merely connects the place of the Annunciation with the interior of San Salvador through the red and white tiled floor and the row of columns. But these features mainly serve to unify the pictorial and the real space, and are not significantly Venetian." [1]

The overwhelming size of the angel compared to the Virgin and the brush strokes being more expressive shows the theme of incarnation. Titian's way of depicting the Virgin showing the flesh is more full in her bosom. [1] Making the flesh of the virgin more evident, puts emphasis that Jesus was made from the Virgin's flesh.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Titian</span> Italian painter (died 1576)

Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio, known in English as Titian, was an Italian (Venetian) Renaissance painter of Lombard origin, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore, 'from Cadore', taken from his native region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanni Bellini</span> 15th- and 16th-century Italian Renaissance painter

Giovanni Bellini was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father, but now that familial generational relationship is questioned. An older brother, Gentile Bellini was more highly regarded than Giovanni during his lifetime, but the reverse is true today. His brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tintoretto</span> 16th-century Italian painter of the Renaissance

Tintoretto was an Italian painter identified with the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized the speed with which he painted, and the unprecedented boldness of his brushwork. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso. His work is characterised by his muscular figures, dramatic gestures and bold use of perspective, in the Mannerist style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Salvador, Venice</span> Church in San Marco, Venice

The Chiesa di San Salvatore is a church in Venice, northern Italy. Known in Venetian as San Salvador, is located on the Campo San Salvador, along the Merceria, the main shopping street of Venice. The church was first consecrated in 1177 by Pope Alexander III shortly after his reconciliation with Emperor Frederick Barbarossa at nearby San Marco. The present church, however, was begun in around 1508 by Giorgio Spavento and continued after his death the following year by Tullio Lombardo, Vincenzo Scamozzi and possibly Jacopo Sansovino. They built a large hall church, formed from three Greek crosses placed end to end. Each has a dome with a lantern to let light into the cavernous interior. The facade was added in 1663 by Giuseppe Sardi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vittore Carpaccio</span> 15th and 16th-century Italian painter

Vittore Carpaccio (UK: /kɑːrˈpætʃ oʊ/, US: /-ˈpɑːtʃ-/, Italian: [vitˈtoːre karˈpattʃo]; was an Italian painter of the Venetian school who studied under Gentile Bellini. Carpaccio was largely influenced by the style of the early Italian Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina, as well as Early Netherlandish painting. Although often compared to his mentor Gentile Bellini, Vittore Carpaccio's command of perspective, precise attention to architectural detail, themes of death, and use of bold color differentiated him from other Italian Renaissance artists. Many of his works display the religious themes and cross-cultural elements of art at the time; his portrayal of St. Augustine in His Study from 1502, reflects the popularity of collecting "exotic" and highly desired objects from different cultures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gallerie dell'Accademia</span> Art museum in Venice, Italy

The Gallerie dell'Accademia is a museum gallery of pre-19th-century art in Venice, northern Italy. It is housed in the Scuola della Carità on the south bank of the Grand Canal, within the sestiere of Dorsoduro. It was originally the gallery of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, the art academy of Venice, from which it became independent in 1879, and for which the Ponte dell'Accademia and the Accademia boat landing station for the vaporetto water bus are named. The two institutions remained in the same building until 2004, when the art school moved to the Ospedale degli Incurabili.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paris Bordone</span> Italian painter of the Venetian Renaissance

Paris Bordone was an Italian painter of the Venetian Renaissance who, despite training with Titian, maintained a strand of Mannerist complexity and provincial vigor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alessandro Vittoria</span> Italian sculptor (1525–1608)

Alessandro Vittoria was an Italian Mannerist sculptor of the Venetian school, "one of the main representatives of the Venetian classical style" and rivalling Giambologna as the foremost sculptors of the late 16th century in Italy, producing works such as Annunciation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Il Pordenone</span> Italian painter (c.1484–1539)

Pordenone, Il Pordenone in Italian, is the byname of Giovanni Antonio de’ Sacchis, an Italian Mannerist painter, loosely of the Venetian school. Vasari, his main biographer, wrongly identifies him as Giovanni Antonio Licinio. He painted in several cities in northern Italy "with speed, vigor, and deliberate coarseness of expression and execution—intended to shock".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scuola Grande di San Rocco</span> Building in Venice, Italy

The Scuola Grande di San Rocco is a building in Venice, northern Italy. It is noted for its collection of paintings by Tintoretto and generally agreed to include some of his finest work.

<i>Assumption of the Virgin</i> (Titian) Painting by Titian

The Assumption of the Virgin or Frari Assumption, popularly known as the Assunta, is a large altarpiece panel painting in oils by the Italian Renaissance artist Titian, painted in 1515–1518. It remains in the position it was designed for, on the high altar of the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari or Frari church in Venice. It is the largest altarpiece in the city, with the figures well over life-size, necessitated by the large church, with a considerable distance between the altar and the congregation. The images above and below are not Titian's work, they are by Palma Vecchio. It marked a new direction in Titian's style, that reflected his awareness of the developments in High Renaissance painting further south, in Florence and Rome, by artists including Raphael and Michelangelo. The agitated figures of the Apostles marked a break with the usual meditative stillness of saints in Venetian painting, in the tradition of Giovanni Bellini and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italian Renaissance painting</span> Art movement

Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian Peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political states, some independent but others controlled by external powers. The painters of Renaissance Italy, although often attached to particular courts and with loyalties to particular towns, nonetheless wandered the length and breadth of Italy, often occupying a diplomatic status and disseminating artistic and philosophical ideas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palma Vecchio</span> Italian painter (c.1480–1528)

Palma Vecchio, born Jacopo Palma, also known as Jacopo Negretti, was a Venetian painter of the Italian High Renaissance. He is called Palma Vecchio in English and Palma il Vecchio in Italian to distinguish him from Palma il Giovane, his great-nephew, who was also a painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venetian painting</span> Art from the Republic of Venice

Venetian painting was a major force in Italian Renaissance painting and beyond. Beginning with the work of Giovanni Bellini and his brother Gentile Bellini and their workshops, the major artists of the Venetian school included Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto (1518–1594), Paolo Veronese (1528–1588) and Jacopo Bassano (1510–1592) and his sons. Considered to give primacy to colour over line, the tradition of the Venetian school contrasted with the Mannerism prevalent in the rest of Italy. The Venetian style exerted great influence upon the subsequent development of Western painting.

<i>Crucifixion</i> (Titian) 1558 painting by Titian

The Crucifixion is a life sized painting by the Venetian artist Titian, completed in 1558 and presently hanging in the sanctuary of the church of San Domenico, Ancona. Jesus Christ is shown crucified, with Saint Mary and Saint John standing either side of the cross in the Stabat Mater tradition. The kneeling figure is of Saint Dominic. The canvas was completed during Titian's fifth decade of painting, and is one of the works marking a shift toward his extensive exploration of tragedy and human suffering.

<i>Christ Carrying the Cross</i> (Titian) 1505 painting by Titian or Giorgione

Christ Carrying the Cross is an oil painting attributed to either Titian or Giorgione. It is dated to about 1505. The painting is housed in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, Italy. There are several later versions of the subject by Titian.

<i>San Giobbe Altarpiece</i> Painting by Giovanni Bellini

The San Giobbe Altarpiece is a c. 1487 oil painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini. Inspired by a plague outbreak in 1485, this sacra conversazione painting is unique in that it was designed in situ with the surrounding architecture of the church, and was one of the largest sacra conversazione paintings at the time. Although it was originally located in the Church of San Giobbe, Venice, it is now housed in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice after having been stolen by Napoleon Bonaparte.

<i>Barbarigo Altarpiece</i>

The Barbarigo Altarpiece or Enthroned Madonna and Child with Angel Musicians and Saint Mark, Saint Augustine and Doge Agostino Barbarigo is a 1488 oil painting on panel by Giovanni Bellini, now in the church of San Pietro Martire in Murano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italo-Byzantine</span> Style term in art history

Italo-Byzantine is a style term in art history, mostly used for medieval paintings produced in Italy under heavy influence from Byzantine art. It initially covers religious paintings copying or imitating the standard Byzantine icon types, but painted by artists without a training in Byzantine techniques. These are versions of Byzantine icons, most of the Madonna and Child, but also of other subjects; essentially they introduced the relatively small portable painting with a frame to Western Europe. Very often they are on a gold ground. It was the dominant style in Italian painting until the end of the 13th century, when Cimabue and Giotto began to take Italian, or at least Florentine, painting into new territory. But the style continued until the 15th century and beyond in some areas and contexts.

<i>The Archangel Raphael and Tobias</i> (Titian) Painting by Titian

The Archangel Raphael and Tobias is an oil painting by Titian, dated to about 1512 to 1514, which is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. Another painting by Titian on the same theme, entitled Tobias and the Angel, and dated to about 1540 to 1545, is preserved in the church of the Madonna dell'Orto in Venice.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bohde, D (2001). "Titian's Three-Altar Project in the Venetian Church of San Salvador: Strategies of Self-Representation by Members of the Scuola Grande Di San Rocco". Renaissance Studies. 15 (4): 450–472. doi:10.1111/1477-4658.00376. S2CID   191491795.
  2. Hope, Charles (1980). Titian. London. p. 141.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Bibliography