The Age of Titian

Not only the superstar of the Venetian Renaissance Titian, but a stellar supporting cast. It represents the explosion of modernity in Venice in the 16th century, but also seeks to tell another historical story.

(Edited highlights of the panel's review taken from the teletext subtitles that are generated live for Newsnight Review.)

BONNIE GREER:
I loved it. I loved the narrative power of it, as opposed to the one in London, which was mostly Titian's work, which was actually about the power and the glory of this painter. This puts him in the context of who he influenced, who influenced him, and about Scotland, and about Venice. It's a beautifully constructed show. On top of it, you learn an enormous amount which I really appreciated, particularly the idea of Titian creating portraiture, that gaze, which we take for granted now in the 21st century, but was absolutely revolutionary. This show shows you exactly how it came to be. I found it incredibly enriching and beautiful.

IAN RANKIN:
I think Bonnie has used the right word when she says context, because there is a subtext to this as well, Titian in the context of Venice, but there's also the context of where this exhibition is, it's in this brand new, refurbished Royal Scottish Academy. It's a flag-waving exercise which is why it's not just Titian, it's Titian in Scottish collections or at one time in Scottish hands.

WARK:
It's quite interesting because it's not a tenuous connection. It's extraordinary that so many Venetian 16th century paintings are or were in Scottish collections.

STUART MACONIE:
That's not something I'm an expert in, but I thought the exhibition did bring that out, this sense of how they are in private collections, some in Kelvingrove, some in Edinburgh. You did get a real sense of Venetian swagger. This was a community at that time, a city, that was swaggering, commercially, artistically, politically. It was the nexus of the world, and boy did they know it. It's there in the paintings, that confidence.

GREER:
It's partly about, as Stuart said, the celebration of Venice itself. Also what always fascinates me is the relationship between Scotland and Italy. It's an incredible kind of coming together which is ancient. And you can actually see how it comes to be in this show, this deep appreciation.

RANKIN:
You've got a movement towards realism, before this you had very static scenes, very much two-dimensional. In this it's all movement, a bit like Cartier-Bresson's photographs, it's a moment captured in time. Titian, and those who were working alongside him, were very good on movement, and making it seem like there is a lot of things happening in this painting, it's not just captured.

WARK:
I think for me the best canvas in the work was a canvas by Lotto, a very stark canvas. At a wonderful angle, these piercing eyes.

MACONIE:
This is the best thing in the exhibition, I thought, because¿this is not information I had, I am indebted to the notes! But apparently this was Lotto's characteristic style of melancholy, the diagonals. This is psychologically very penetrating. This isn't the prim formality of the painting you got before the Venetian school. You get a sense of who that guy was. We don't actually know who he was, it makes that clear, but you get a sense of a personality behind the eyes.

WARK:
Also, this exhibition very judiciously highlights a number of artefacts, so there's the marriage chest, and fragments of velvet. And one wonderful little book by Sir Michael Balfour, who was a diplomat at the court of King James VI, and it's got watercolours in it of exquisite quality.

RANKIN:
It's almost got too much material. There's almost too much to take in, because at the same time you're also trying to take in this new gallery, and the extension. It's a whole day's worth of stuff.

WARK:
But its ambition is terrific, isn't it.

GREER:
That's the point; it is a big, big show. It's a big feeling when you come into the show. It's very ambitious, and I love the ambition of it. I love the audacity of it, and I love the celebration of it as well.