Not all of us are into art, but Venice's Fondazione Musei Civici has found a way to attract the most reluctant museum visitors to the Doge's Palace.
During the exhibition "From Titian to Rubens. Masterpieces from Antwerp and other Flemish Collections" (5th September 2019 - 1st March 2020), the rooms of the palace will be filled with the finest Italian and Flemish paintings by masters such as Titian, Maerten de Vos, Pieter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, thanks to a collaboration with the Flemish Community, the City of Antwerp and VisitFlanders.
Three icons of Venetian painting will return to La Serenissima - "Jacopo Pesaro Presenting Saint Peter to Pope Alexander VI" by Titian; "Portrait of a Lady and her Daughter", said to be "Milia and Emilia" by Titian, and "The Angel foretelling Saint Catherine of Alexandria of her martyrdom", the altarpiece from the lost Church of San Geminiano, also known by the international media as "David Bowie's Tintoretto".
The latter was commissioned by the Scuola di Santa Caterina in the 1560s for the Church of San Geminiano on Piazza San Marco in Venice and remained there until the church was demolished in 1807 during Napoleon's occupation. While the exterior of this church, located in the centre of the westside of the Piazza, directly facing the great basilica, was not that remarkable by Venetian standards, its interior had two altarpieces by Giovanni Bellini and Tintoretto, and a pair of organ shutters by Veronese.
Tintoretto's "Saint Catherine" was one of the few Old Master paintings that the British rock icon David Bowie purchased in the '80s. A fan of the Venetian painter, Bowie also renamed his record label "Jones/Tintoretto Entertainment Co., LLC" after its purchase.
The painting was acquired by a European collector in 2016, when Sotheby's sold the late musician's collection, and it was then given on a long-term loan to the Rubenshouse Museum in Antwerp, Belgium, to allow more people to admire it.
When the Rubenhuis displayed "Bowie's Tintoretto" its visitors increased by 30%: for many of them this was their first museum visit and the museum director (and curator of the exhibition at the Doge's Palace) Ben van Beneden, expressed his happiness at the fact that the painting that had belonged to a 20th century rock star was allowing people to discover Old Master paintings.
Venice's Fondazione Musei Civici hopes to do the same with this exhibition that will include also favourite paintings dedicated to passionate lovers of art, including Titian's unfinished "Portrait of a Lady and her Daughter". There is an intriguing story behind this painting: after his death in 1576, Titian's son Pomponio had the scene of the mother and her daughter painted over, turning it into "Tobias and the Angel," as a religious subject was more likely to sell.
In 1581 Pomponio sold off his father's studio, including the new painting, to Cristoforo Barbarigo, who kept it in his collection in the Palazzo Barbarigo della Terrazza on the Canal Grande until 1850, when it was acquired by Tsar Nicholas I.
Large parts of the Tsar’s collection were sold and dispersed soon afterwards, including "Tobias and the Angel" that in the 1920s was acquired by the French art dealer René Gimpel. Before the outbreak of World War II, in 1939, Gimpel brought his collection to safety in London, storing it in a garage in Bayswater without informing anyone about its exact location.
In 1945, he was arrested by the Nazis and imprisoned in the German Neuengamme concentration camp, where he died. After a long search, Gimpel's sons managed to discover the works that were hidden by their father, including the Titian. In 1948, Jean Gimpel ordered a technical examination of the work at the renowned Courtauld Institute of Art in London. X-ray photography revealed a portrait of a young girl looking up at her mother and long restorations allowed the hidden portraits to emerge again.
On another note there has recently been a further connection between Bowie and Venice as his widow, former model and activist Iman Abdulmajid, received the Franca Sozzani Award (that recognizes women who stand out for their artistic careers and social commitment) at the end of August, athe Belmond Hotel Cipriani on the Giudecca island, ahead of the 76th edition of the Venice International Film Festival, closing this week.
Image credits for this post
3. Jacopo Robusti detto Tintoretto
The Angel foretelling Saint Catherine of Alexandria of her martyrdom, known as "Bowie's Tintoretto", 1560 ca.
Oil on canvas 177,1 x 99,3 cm
Private collection
4. Tiziano Vecellio
"Portrait of a Lady and her Daughter", 1558 ca.
Oil on canvas 88,3 x 80,7 cm
Private collection
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