(lighthearted music) Male Voiceover: We're in
the Accademia in Venice, standing in front of a very late Titian. In fact, a painting so late in his life, that not only did he
intend it for his own tomb, but it was unfinished at this death. Female Voiceover: Parts
of it were finished by another artist after Titian's death. Male Voiceover: We have some evidence that the angel holding the large candle may have been added by that later artist. Female Voiceover: The painting
was intended for his tomb in the church of the Frari here in Venice, that Titian painted two
other great paintings for; his Assunta, or the Assumption of the
Virgin, and also his Pesaro Madonna. So, this was a church that
he was very familiar with, that he had a relationship with. Male Voiceover: And where he is buried; although, there was a dispute,
so this painting was not added. This is a Pieta, which was
a rare subject for Titian, and we think that it would
have been on the right wall, so you would have
approached it at an angle; and it helps to explain the composition. Female Voiceover: That's true,
generally, for Titian's work, that he was very aware of
the approach of the viewer toward the painting in the way in which the figures depicted
related to the viewer. Male Voiceover: Well, look at
the composition of this painting. You have a very stable
architectural form in the middle, and that might well create
a sense of stability; but in Titian's hands, it doesn't, because he's got this wonderful
diagonal that moves up from the lower right
corner through the figure that is draped in red that some art
historians think may be St. Jerome, through the shoulders of
Christ, to Mary, wearing blue, finally to Mary Magdalene, who stands, and then that line is
stopped by her right hand. Female Voiceover: She
strides forward towards us, although she looks away from us. Some art historians think
that the figure St. Jerome, who's kneeling and grasping
the hand of Christ, looking up at Christ and Mary, may
be a portrait of Titian himself; and Titian does appear,
we think, in the Pieta, in a painting within the painting
that we see on the lower right. There's a small image of two
figures praying toward a Pieta. Male Voiceover: That's stacked
right over the family crest, which you can see just below that canvas. Female Voiceover: That
identification with Titian and his son is pretty certain; so this is personal image for the artist. It's clear that Titian
often worked on paintings for long periods of time,
returning to them again and again, which is something you
can do with oil paint; but, to me, it makes
sense that you might not finish a painting that's
destined for your own tomb. Male Voiceover: The forms that frame the central figures are
enormous and powerful. On the left, you see
Moses holding the laws, holding the staff that
he'll strike a rock with to create a spring miraculously. On the right, you see a sculpture
of a pagan holding a cross. Female Voiceover: So, Moses,
from the Old Testament, the Sibyl figure from classical antiquity, who prophesied the coming of Christ, and so therefore, she holds a cross, and these two figures
represented a sculpture because they are from the older
pagan and Jewish traditions. Male Voiceover: But, Titian also refers to his own history much more
directly in this painting. In the center, it is this massive
piece of architecture, this apse. We can see this rusticated masonry, and a broken pediment at the top, but inside you see this concave space with a mosaic at its top that reminds us of the mosaics in San Marco in Venice, that were referred to
[unintelligible] of Giovanni Bellini, the great Venetian artist
that came before Titian. These were formative paintings
for Titian's own early career, and here, in his last years,
he refers back to this history. Female Voiceover: Although
the painting is unfinished, we do get a sense of how
oil paint allowed Titian and other Venetian artists
to work on paintings over a long period of
time to be expressive with their brushwork, to
have a sense of immediacy and individuality in that brushwork, to create forms that were open,
that lack a kind of finality. Male Voiceover: That's right,
this painting feels mutable. It feels as if Titian might have continued to push the paint, and
that form might resolve, or in some places, continue to dissolve. Part of the power of this painting has to do with the fact that
it is represented at night, but it allows Titian
to have these figures, these forms, emerge out of darkness. Female Voiceover: The light almost
seems to emerge from Christ. There is that interest in spiritual light, that is something we see
in the work of Titian going back to his other paintings
in the Frari, like the Assumption. The figures are life-size, the painting
itself, is probably about 10 feet high. This is still, though, a very
intimate and personal image. (lighthearted music)