Studi Tizianeschi XIV

Studi Tizianeschi, now in its very full 14th edition (2024), is a series of articles by Italian and international academics, revealing how broad and lively interest is in our field of research.

It opens with Titian’s Annunciation in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, recently restored by Giulio Bono, who presents, with substantial documentation, the research that preceded the work, the procedures that followed, and the new findings that emerged.

Giovanni Canato’s study examines a triple portrait, in the British Royal Collection, which shows Titian in the pose of his Berlin self-portrait, the Grand Chancellor Andrea de Franceschi, copied from the portrait now in Detroit, and the ‘friend of Titian’, so called because he is identical to the figure in a portrait now at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, and holds a sheet with the inscription ‘by Tiziano Vecellio, a singular friend’. Through a series of archival documents, this figure can be identified with certainty as Pietro de Franceschi, secretary of the Council of Ten; the genesis of the painting is reconstructed, and its author indicated.

After this deep dive into an intriguing painting, the journal, through a series of fortunate scholarly coincidences, seems inspired to tackle the issues raised by the seminal volume on Le botteghe di Tiziano (Titian’s Workshops), published by the Tiziano Foundation in 2010: to address and clarify the contribution of individual artists active in the ‘solar system’ of Titian’s workshop.

Particular attention is given to Girolamo Dente, one of Titian’s close collaborators,  beginning with Nina Kudis, who examines one of the emblematic results of the output of Titian’s workshop: the polyptych of the high altar in the Cathedral of Ragusa (Dubrovnik), which bears the signature TICIANUS·F· on the central panel depicting the Assumption of the Virgin. Its history is reconstructed, including its original provenance from the confraternity of San Lazzaro in the church of the same name, and a new dating is proposed, placing it in the first half or around the middle of the fourth decade of the 16th century. It is regarded as one of the earliest examples of Titian entrusting a significant task to Girolamo Dente, his ‘creato’ (protégé or assistant).

Amos Mettifogo, in turn, reflects on the same painter in light of a newly discovered document concerning the commission of the Annunciation for the Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Carità in Venice, which until now has received only sporadic attention. Placed at the end of the sixth decade, the painting fits within the debated transitional zone in Dente’s biography, between workshop collaborator and independent painter.

Finally, an unpublished late work is brought to light by Letizia Lonzi, enriching the Cenedese artist’s thin catalogue with a large altarpiece in the church of San Tommaso in Faè di Oderzo, on which he still signs himself as Gerolamo di Tiziano.

Enrico Maria Dal Pozzolo takes us inside Titian’s workshop at Biri Grande, focusing on the figure of Simone Peterzano during a still little-studied phase of his career. To the Detroit Pan Grasping a Maenad  he adds a Penitent Magdalene, from a private collection, which reveals direct knowledge of one of the autograph ‘sister’ versions executed by the master himself. Thus, is can be dated between 1560 and 1565.

Remaining within the tight orbit of the Tizianesque galaxy, Carlotta Menegazzo presents an almost complete survey of references to Marco Vecellio in art history literature from the 17th century to the present. Her study serves as a starting point for reconstructing the profile of Titian’s second cousin, active between Cadore and Venice, who, until now has only been the subject of fragmentary analyses.

As evidence of the revival of Titian’s fame in Venice and other cultural centres in Europe from the beginning of the nineteenth century, a fame partially eclipsed in the eighteenth century by that of Veronese, William Barcham’s essay traces a substantial number of Italian, French, and English paintings and sculptures that depict imagined episodes from the life of the painter from Cadore, such as Charles V Picking Up Titian’s Brush, or portray the artist’s death in scenes such as The Funeral of Titian. This reappraisal of Titian’s art also includes the numerous copies of his celebrated works produced not only in Venice but also in Paris and London.

As always, the journal concludes with several reviews of books and exhibitions. Specifically, the first complete catalogue on Bonifacio de’ Pitati, the Giorgione case, and the exhibitions on sixteenth-century Venetian painting (Munich, Alte Pinakothek), on the art of engraving in the lagoon during the Renaissance (Bassano del Grappa, Museo Civico/Venice, Ca’ Rezzonico), and, lastly, the portrait career of Giovanni Battista Moroni (Milan, Gallerie d’Italia).

SUMMARY

6
Premessa
STEFANIA MASON                                                               

8
Notizie dal Centro Studi
MARIA GIOVANNA COLETTI, STEFANIA MASON                                         

11
Il restauro dell’Annunciazione di Tiziano nella Scuola Grande di San Rocco. Ricerche, procedure e novità
GIULIO BONO                                                                   

31
Tiziano, i de Franceschi e il triplice ritratto di Hampton Court. Nuove scoperte
MARIO CANATO                                                                

55
Il polittico della Cattedrale di Ragusa (Dubrovnik): un affidamento precoce a Girolamo Dente
NINA KUDIŠ                                                                    

67
L’Annunciazione di Girolamo Dente. Nuove indagini storico-archivistiche
AMOS METTIFOGO                                                              

93
Un ignorato Girolamo di Tiziano a Faè di Oderzo
LETIZIA LONZI                                                                  

99
Ancora su Peterzano nella bottega di Tiziano
ENRICO MARIA DAL POZZOLO                                                     

107
Per la fortuna critica di Marco Vecellio
CARLOTTA MENEGAZZO                                                           

129
Tiziano rivisitato nell’Ottocento: tra invenzione e finzione, tra mistificazione e apoteosi
WILLIAM BARCHAM                                                              

RECENSIONI – LIBRI 

152
Philip Cottrell e Peter Humfrey
Bonifacio de’ Pitati
GIORGIO TAGLIAFERRO                                                           

156
Bernard Aikema
Il caso Giorgione
Xavier F. Salomon
Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini
PAUL HOLBERTON                                                               

RECENSIONI – MOSTRE
160
Venezia 500. Die sanfte Revolution der venezianischen Malerei
SYLVIA FERINO                                                                

163
Rinascimento in bianco e nero. L’arte dell’incisione a Venezia (1404-1615)
MARIA AGNESE CHIARI MORETTO WIEL                                           

166
Moroni (1521-1580). Il ritratto del suo tempo
LUCA BRIGNOLI                                                                 

169
Premio Gemma Donata Nicolosi Dal Pozzolo 2025                                      

170
GLI AUTORI                                                                  

171
REFERENZE FOTOGRAFICHE