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Europe 1300 - 1800
Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 4
Lesson 9: Venice- Greek painters in renaissance Venice
- The Renaissance Synagogues of Venice
- Giorgione, The Tempest
- Giorgione, The Tempest
- Giorgione, Three Philosophers
- Giorgione, the Adoration of the Shepherds
- Bellini and Titian, the Feast of the Gods
- Titian, Pastoral Concert
- Titian, Noli me Tangere
- Titian, Assumption of the Virgin
- Titian, Madonna of the Pesaro Family
- Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne
- Titian, Isabella d’Este (Isabella in Black)
- Titian, two portraits of Pietro Aretino
- Titian, Venus of Urbino
- Titian, Venus of Urbino
- Titian's Venus of Urbino
- Titian, Christ Crowned with Thorns
- Titian, Pieta
- Correggio, Jupiter and Io
- Correggio, Assumption of the Virgin
- Veronese, The Family of Darius Before Alexander
- Veronese, the Dream of Saint Helena
- Paolo Veronese. Feast in the House of Levi
- Transcript of the trial of Veronese
- Tintoretto, the Miracle of the Slave
- Tintoretto, The Finding of the Body of Saint Mark
- Tintoretto, the Origin of the Milky Way
- Tintoretto, Last Supper
- Palladio, La Rotonda
- Palladio, Teatro Olimpico
- The Renaissance in Venice in the 1500s
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Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne
Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne, 1520-23, oil on canvas now atop board, 69-1/2 x 75 inches (National Gallery, London). Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
Part of a mythological cycle painted by Titian and Giovanni Bellini and commissioned by Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara that includes The Feast of the Gods and the Andrians. Originally hung in the studiolo or Camerini d'Alabastro of the Duke's Ferranese castle.
. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.Want to join the conversation?
- dogs wore collars 500 years ago?(9 votes)
- Yes, dogs have been wearing collars for thousands of years. In the ruins of the Pompeii eruption of August 24th AD 79, a petrified dog was found with a collar around his neck saying has name and that he had save his master three times. He was found protecting him yet again, this time from a lava flow.(25 votes)
- Why is he wrapped in snakes?(8 votes)
- It is a reference to a well-known Classical statue by the name of Laocoön and His Sons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laocoön_and_His_Sons(3 votes)
- Hi I am reading a book written by Bruce Cole on Titian and the Venetian Art, and there it says that the three large pieces commissioned by Alfonso d"Este to Titian were actually painted in 1518-1523. Are you sure your time frame is correct?(4 votes)
- Thank you for bringing this to our attention. There are more than 2 date ranges. Cole's is the earliest. Ours the latest, based on older scholarship at the National Gallery. We will change our date to conform to the museum's current dating, 1520-23.(4 votes)
- Atyou mention how this an important Renaissance painting, but why is it so significant to the Renaissance? 0:12(3 votes)
- Who are all the figures on the right?(2 votes)
- They're Bacchus' followers which include Satyrs and some other creatures.(2 votes)
- How does the painting relate to the culture of that time?(2 votes)
- Venetian artists liked to paint secular themes (non-religious) in the countryside.(2 votes)
- Did any of these artist make mistakes and then just went along with it, or are these paintings exactly as they envisioned them?(2 votes)
- If they were commissioned, the art should be suited to the patrons taste. Usually the artist would paint over mistakes or unwanted poses, as seen through x-rays.(1 vote)
- I absolutely love the ancient subject matter that Titian chose to explore. I wonder though, that since he was so absorbed and so utterly interested in this subject...could he have believed in or worshipped these ancient gods even if in secret perhaps?(1 vote)
- He probably could've or it was a good subject to paint.(2 votes)
- How would Titian have known what cheetahs looked like at this time period?(1 vote)
- They belonged to the court of Alfonso D'este, so he would have seen them to paint them.(2 votes)
- Where is the island of Naxos?(1 vote)
- There's a great map with this article. Shows the location very clearly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naxos(1 vote)
Video transcript
(piano playing) Dr. Zucker: We're in the National
Gallery in London and we're
looking at a really large, really important Renaissance
painting, an artist who is
Venetian, known simply at Titian. Dr. Harris: Tiziano in Italian. Dr. Zucker: That's right,
that's right. So this is ... Dr. Harris: Bacchus and Ariadne. Dr. Zucker: It tells the story of
Ariadne who's love, Theseus, had
just left her on the island of Naxos. Dr. Harris: He abandoned her. Dr. Zucker: You can see his ship
just on the horizon, on the extreme
left, to the left of her shoulder. Dr. Harris: Bacchus who's riding
in a chariot lead by two cheetahs. Bacchus, the God of Wine and
Intoxication followed by his revelers kind of emerge in the diagonal
coming forward into the foreground. Bacchus leaps out of his chariot
and apparently love at first sight. Dr. Zucker: He's intoxicated with Ariadne. Dr. Harris: She's initially a little
frightened of him, but promises
to turn her into a constellation. Dr. Zucker: Which you can see above her
head in the upper left of the canvas, that group, that almost
halo of eight stars. Her pose is really complicated. Presumably she had just been
mourning the loss of her lover and
is turned and transfixed by his gaze. He is full of energy as he
literally flies out of the chariot,
that drape just wild behind him and his foot supported by
nothing, suspended in midair. You feel his weight as it just
flies over the edge of that chariot. Dr. Harris: I'm struck as I
continue to look by the ways that each figure embodies two opposing actions. Ariadne moves forward but
also turns to the right. He lurches forward toward Ariadne,
but also his arms move back while his head and shoulders move forward. Dr. Zucker: They were both
involved in doing something else and had been so drawn to each other
so unexpectedly that there hands, their arms are still
tracing their previous ... Dr. Harris: Actions. Dr. Zucker: ... intention. Yeah. Dr. Harris: Even the figure
in the foreground, this
Bacchic reveler that we see who's entwined with snakes, rather
reminiscent of the way [unintelligible]
the Ancient Greek sculpture, even he is doing two things at
one time with his body, right? He seems to be sort of
reaching back, moving forward, there's all of this conflicting
movements to the bodies of the figures. Dr. Zucker: This was a painting
that was originally created for one of the members of the
d'Este family and Ferrara. It would have hung in their
palace and it speaks to a man who
wanted to express his knowledge of antiquity and of course to also
be a great patron of the Renaissance. Dr. Harris: We see that thing
that we know, Venus [four]
which is the use of color; those blues, the reds,
the pinks, the greens. Dr. Zucker: Brilliant colors, absolutely. Dr. Zucker: With a kind of
prismatic almost gem like quality,
a result of his glazing technique. Dr. Harris: And the browns and
sort of earth tones on the right
corner where the Bacchic revelers compared with the clarity of
those blues and reds on the left. Dr. Zucker: Not only the contrast
of the actions of the figures, not
only in the contrast of colors, as you've pointed out, but also
in the purity of the love that's
expressed between those two figures, or at least Bacchus' love of
Ariadne and then just the partying
that's going on on the right. Dr. Harris: It's true. Dr. Harris: Animal behavior on the right. Dr. Zucker: Absolutely. (piano playing)