The exhibition launches at the National Gallery in March 2020. It will then travel to the Scottish National Gallery and Madrid’s Museo del Prado before moving to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, US in 2021.
The exhibition, Titian: Love, Desire, Death, marks the first time Titian’s six large-scale mythological paintings known as the ‘poésie’ will be displayed together in the same room since 1704.
Originally planned as an exhibition of five of the six works, a landmark decision by London’s Wallace Collection to lend Perseus and Andromeda to the London run of the exhibition on a temporary basis for the first time in its 119-year history means the collection is reunited.
Matthew Moore, President and Managing Director, Liberty Specialty Markets, said: “This is a truly important exhibition which we’re very proud to support. It offers a remarkable opportunity to see these works as the artist wanted them to be presented for the first time.
“This exhibition exemplifies the risks and opportunities in the art world that our fine art specialists help to resolve every day – priceless works of art, needing care in transportation and hanging, exposed to the viewing public. We are delighted to be playing our part in making this happen and sharing the experience with our clients and brokers in London, Madrid and Boston.”
Painted between about 1551 and 1562, the paintings comprising Titian’s poésie are among the most original visual interpretations of classical Greek myth of the early modern era. The series of works was commissioned by Philip II of Spain and marked a turning point in Titian’s career.
In 2011, Titian’s painting of A Sacra Conversazione: The Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria sold at auction in London for £10.6m.
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