User:Ngal7/sandbox

Titian's poesie series for Philip II
In 1554, Titian wrote to Philip II about the progress of the poesie series:"And as the Danaë which I have already sent to Your Majesty is seen from the front, I wanted to vary it in this other poesia, showing the figure from a different view; thus the room in which they are to hang will be more appealing. Soon I will send you the poesia of Perseus and Andromeda, which will offer still another view, different from these; and the same with Medea and Jason."

David Rosand remarks that the Medea and Jason painting was never realized and that the Perseus and Andromeda painting was instead paired with the Rape of Europa. Titian wrote to Philip II in a letter dated April 26, 1562: I have finally with divine grace brought to completion the two pictures that I began for your Catholic Majesty: one is Christ in the Garden, the other the poesia of Europa carried by the Bull, which I send to you. And I can say that she [the Europa] may be the seal of the many other works that were ordered finished to you by me and that I have on many occasions sent to you.

Exhibitions
The painting was included in the 1857 Manchester Art Treasures exhibition.

The painting was included in the National Gallery in London's exhibition, Titian: Love, Desire, Death. The painting, which is on view from March 16, 2020 to January 17, 2021, will be joined by five other paintings in the poesie series for the first time in 400 years.

Restoration
The restoration the painting underwent in 2019 allowed the painting to more closely resemble what it would have looked like when Titian painted it. Conservation efforts led by Gianfranco Pocobene revealed that pigments Titian had used, such as the smalt to paint areas of blue in the sky and the sea, had darkened over time and resulted in a darker photo than Titian originally intended. X-rays also revealed that Titian had made changes to the original plan of the painting as he painted it. For example, x-rays revealed that Titian had changed the placement of the bull's tail and the putto's wing furthest to the right. The removal of layers of yellow varnish allowed the colors brightness to reflect what Titian had originally intended.

Technique
David Rosand’s “Titian and the Eloquence of the Brush” provides an in-depth analysis of the Titian’s technique in painting The Rape of Europa. He describes the majority of the canvas as “thinly painted.” Rosand suggest the colors of blue as a “glaze” and the “gauze-textured” background and enhance the appearance of perspective in the painting. Titian’s decision to build up paint in certain areas of the painting rather than others in addition to his use of colorito also enhances the dimensionality of the work. Arthur Pope, in a study of the painting's composition for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, details that Titian used thick impasto to separate images in the foreground and to also show texture in Europa's skin. Pope also makes note of Titian's use of shadow, especially across Europa's face, in order to create tension in the piece. Titian used contrast in order to separate images in the foreground from images in the background. For example, the high contrast in Europa's raised knee bring it into the foreground when compared to the much softer contrasts in the sky. The hues Titian has used in the painting range from a "red-orange of Venetian red, through yellow to green and blue."

Commission
The commission of the poesie series was presumably discussed either in 1548 in Milan, when Prince Philip met Titian through his father, Charles V, or in Augsburg in 1550-1. Although very little is known about the commission, one can gather from the letters between Philip II and Titian that no specific subjects were requested to be in the commission. “Along with the Perseus and Andromeda Titian promised a Medea and Jason, apparently never executed and presumably substituted by the Rape of Europa. The Death of Actaeon (London, National Gallery), evidently conceived to pair with the Europa, remained unfinished and undelivered.” Titian wrote to Phillip II of Spain in a letter dated from April 26, 1562, that he had completed the last painting of the poesie series.