Italian Renaissance from Wawel: Botticelli, Tiziano

One of the most valuable paintings by the mature Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini (ca 1430–1516), Madonna and Child, was showcased in an exhibition at the National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania from February 23 to May 19 in 2024.

 

The National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania is continuing its year-long cooperation with the Wawel Royal Castle – State Art Collections in Kraków (Poland) and in this exhibition, Italian Renaissance from Wawel: Botticelli, Tiziano, it is presenting another five outstanding works by Italian Renaissance artists.

 

The works displayed at this exhibition are by masters from two schools of painting – the Florentine and Venetian. An admiration for Antiquity, the play of colour and the depiction of people as idealised representations of beauty are the creative characteristics of probably the most famous artist from Florence, the innovator Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, 1445–1510). These characteristics are evident in the work Madonna and Child with Angels.

 

Masters of the Venetian school were known for their contrasting colour, dynamism and realistic depiction of people. It was precisely paintings from the Venetian school that were most popular and most highly sought-after in the courts of rulers and magnates in the 15th–16th centuries; monarchs from Portugal to Poland, Lithuania and Sweden rivalled one another to own these works. At this exhibition visitors may see four of the most distinctive works by painters of the Venetian school currently in Central Eastern Europe: Tiziano’s (Tiziano Vecellio, 1488/1490–1576) and his workshop‘s Allegory of Love, a painting attributed to his studio Madonna and Child with St John the Baptist and St Cecilia, Paris Bordone’s (Paris Paschalinus Bordone, 1500–1571) work Diana and Callisto and Palma the Younger’s (Palma il Giovane, real name Jacopo Negretti, 1548–1628) canvas Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife.

 

The paintings on display are related by the themes of female beauty and love. Each artist presents his own unique interpretation, revealing different narratives and harnessing different compositions. A client in the Medici court, Botticelli adopted the neo-Platonic ideas emerging from there that declared unity between beauty and divinity. In the painting seen here, he also applied the creative principles of his teacher Fra Filippo Lippi (ca 1406–1469), displaying his erudition: the roses held by the angel are a symbol of Mary’s unconditional love for the Redeemer, while also serving as an allusion to the Song of Songs from the Old Testament.

 

Later works coming from the Venetian school were based more on ancient narratives. In Tiziano’s Allegory of Love, the woman, identified with Psyche, awaits her beloved as if unable to see anything else around her, grasping Cupid’s bow and arrow, and ignores the mirror held by the man. The facial features of this woman were partly repeated when painting St Cecilia in one of the earliest works from Tizianio’s workshop. The painting method used by Giorgione (1477/1478–1510), where figures in the painting are shown as if captured in a stop-motion scene, is evident both in the works of the master Tiziano and of his workshop. The interplay of glances between the subjects in the canvas Madonna and Child with St John the Baptist and St Cecilia accentuates the most important figures in the scene – Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

 

The painting Diana and Callisto by Paris Bordone, a famous painter of scenes from Antiquity and one of the most significant pupils of Tiziano, tells of an Ancient myth about forbidden love. Callisto, an admirer of the goddess Diana, had vowed to remain chaste yet was seduced by Zeus appearing as Diana herself. Noticing Callisto’s pregnant state while she was bathing, the goddess decides to send her into exile.

 

The canvas by Tiziano’s last pupil, a painter of the Venetian school’s golden age, Palma the Younger, also depicts forbidden love and passion, or more precisely, a short biblical narrative about how Potiphar’s slave Joseph did not succumb to the enticements displayed by his master’s wife. Later, Potiphar’s wife accused Joseph of rape, for which he was thrown into prison, so the painter depicted her specifically as drowning in darkness, whereas Joseph is surrounded by moral and spiritual light. The paintings by the monk Palma the Younger often illustrated a moral, so monarchs and nobles supporting the Reform of the Catholic Church would often acquire his works. It is known that some of them were part of the collection of the rulers of Poland and Lithuania, the Vasas. Two canvases by Palma the Younger can also be seen as part of the National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania permanent exposition.