The Concert (Titian) on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
''The Concert'' or ''The Interrupted Concert'' is a c. 1543–1564 oil on canvas painting by
''The Concert'' or ''The Interrupted Concert'' is a c. 1543–1564 oil on canvas painting by Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...
, now in the Galleria Palatina
The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the presen ...
, in Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
. A copy in the Galleria Borghese
The Galleria Borghese () is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. At the outset, the gallery building was integrated with its gardens, but nowadays the Villa Borghese gardens are considered a separate touris ...
includes an additional fourth figure.
History
In 1678Carlo Ridolfi
Carlo Ridolfi (1594–1658) was an Italian art biographer and painter of the Baroque period.
Biography
Ridolfi was born in Lonigo near Vicenza.
He was a pupil of the painter Antonio Vassilacchi (Aliense). He painted a ''Visitation'' for the ...
saw a work on a similar subject in Paolo del Sera Paolo del Sera (161722 September 1672) was a Florentine artist and art connoisseur of Venetian art who is best known for his correspondence with Leopoldo de 'Medici. He is said to have trained under Domenico Passignano
Domenico Passignano (1559 ...
's collection, possibly the work now in the Galleria Palatina. The latter is first definitively recorded in 1654, when it was acquired as a Giorgione
Giorgione (, , ; born Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco; 1477–78 or 1473–74 – 17 September 1510) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic quali ...
work by cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici
Leopoldo de' Medici (6 November 1617 – 10 November 1675) was an Italian cardinal, scholar, patron of the arts and Governor of Siena. He was the brother of Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Biography
Prince Leopoldo was born a ...
, whose collections later merged with that of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
Sebastiano del Piombo
Sebastiano del Piombo (; c. 1485 – 21 June 1547) was an Italian painter of the High Renaissance and early Mannerist periods famous as the only major artist of the period to combine the colouring of the Venetian school in which he was trained ...
and Giovanni Cariani
Giovanni Cariani (c. 1490–1547), also known as Giovanni Busi or Il Cariani, was an Italian painter of the high-Renaissance, active in Venice and the Venetian mainland, including Bergamo, thought to be his native city.
Overview
His father, ...
have also been mentioned in the past as possible alternative attributions. First proposed in 1896 by Giovanni Morelli
Giovanni Morelli (25 February 1816 – 28 February 1891) was an Italian art critic and political figure. As an art historian, he developed the "Morellian" technique of scholarship, identifying the characteristic "hands" of painters through s ...
, the attribution to Titian is now generally accepted. An upper strip of canvas, added to the work at a later date, was removed in 1976–1978. That restoration also re-dated the work from c. 1521 to 1555–1589.
Conductor Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter (born Bruno Schlesinger, September 15, 1876February 17, 1962) was a German-born conductor, pianist and composer. Born in Berlin, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, was naturalised as a French citizen in 1938, and settled in the U ...
mentions that Gustav Mahler had a reproduction of the painting hanging on his wall. Walter however, writing in the 1930s, identifies the painting as by Giorgione, not Titian, "...I entered his study and my first glance was arrested by a reproduction of Giorgione's "Concerto" which hung on the wall. Who is the monk, I asked myself, who, his hands on the keys, seems to have stopped in his playing to turn around? What has he to do with Mahler whom he so strangely resembles? And I recall that, for a long time to come, I mysteriously identified the ascetic monk of the painting with Mahler."Bruno Walter, ''Gustav Mahler'', with biographical essay by Ernst Krenek, new introduction by Erik Ryding, Dover Publications, 2013, p.7.
References