TITIAN FIND

Evening Star, Issue 20846, 16 July 1931, Page 6

TITIAN FIND

TWO SELF PORTRAITS Two magnificent portraits of Titian, painted by himself nearly 400 years ago, have been discovered by Mr frank T. s>abin th© well-known London collector, writes E. E Tatlock, in tho ‘Daily Tele- ° They were found in tho collections respectively of the Earl of Ashburnham and the Earl of Darnloy. Both pictures had been hanging for a very long time in the homes in which their present owner found them. It was not until tho old dirty varnish that obscured them had been removed that the portraits were identilied definitely as Titians . The discovery of a single self-portrait by the great Venetian master at this time ot day would be an event of the first importance in tho world of art. lhat two should have come to light at the same timo through tho knowledge and vigilance of a single collector is all the' more astonishing. Tho artist himself was his most distinguished sitter. In this case there is no question whatever of their being copies, of their being over-painted, or even of their “cmg mferior work by the master himself, from now onwards they will occupy a chief place in tho ceurvo of Titian. They are intensely interesting, not only artistically but biographically, for it is a rare event for a picture to appear, after a lapse of 400 years, showing us ono of the greatest geniuses of all time, not as others saw him, but as he saw himself. There is good evidence that Titian, nice Rembrandt, loved to paint himself % But until the discovery of these two pictures experts were ag'eed that only three authentic self-port-aits by Titian had survived. They aro in tho_ galleries of Florence, Berlin, and Madrid. The first of the two portraits now reproduced (until recently in Lord Ashburnliam’s collection) shows tho aged master with, by his side, a statute of Venus, curiously like the Andromeda of tho Wallace collection, and an unfinished sketch in Ins hand. Tho chain round tho artists neck has just been identified as that of the Order of the Golden Spur, which he received from the Emperor in 1533. _ Judging by th style, tho portrait must havo been painted about 1550, and tins is borne out by tho apparent age of the sitter. Several otlie- versions of it exist, in America and elsewhere, but none, 1 am convinced, is genuine; and there is, in any case, powerful documentary evidence in support of the attribution of the newlydiscovered work to tho master—though even in tho absence of such evidence nobody would question the ascription to Titian. No other artist of tho time and of the school could conceivably have painted anything so full of dignity, so exquisite in poise and composition, and so subtle in lone and colour ns this. I have not hero analysed tho documentary evidence to which I have referred, but one point suggested convincingly by it is that tho portrait was painted by Titian “as a memorial of himself for his children.” The inclusion of tho figure of Venus may bo in the nature of a lesson to them to follow their father’s example and devote their lives to the search for beauty. The second and only less important selfportrait is ono which has been sought for this many a yea- lan informed by Mr G. M. Kitchter (whose scholarship has been instrument in clearmg many of the mysteries with which both works havo been until now surrounded) that it was identified a shoto timo ago in the Earl of Darnlcy’s collection, and that Eidolfi saw it in the Euzzini Palace long ago. The second figure in the picture represents Se-b-stinno Zuccato, tho first teacher of Titian. His son, Francesco, was godfather to one of Titian’s children.