THE POETICS OF TITIAN’S RELIGIOUS PAINTINGS

In this book, Una Roman D’Elia examines Titian’s religious paintings in relation to the changing religious climate of sixteenth-century Venice. Like his literary friends, Titian struggled with the decorum appropriate for religious subjects at a time when this critical issue was current and topical. As D’Elia notes, the artist did not distinguish between the sacred and secular. Rather, he used a variety of styles depending on the size and subjects of his works. High subjects required grandiloquent rhetoric; pastoral scenes, humility; tragic martyrdoms, violence; and the passion of Mary Magdalene, eroticism. His decorous paintings served as important models for the Baroque and, thereby, suggest new ways to interpret the art of the Counter-Reformation.

Una Roman D’Elia is a scholar of Renaissance art and a recipient of fellowships from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is an assistant professor of art history at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

THE POETICS OF TITIAN’S
RELIGIOUS PAINTINGS

Una Roman D’Elia

PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Una Roman D’Elia 2005

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2005

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

Typeface Bembo 11/14 pt.     System LATEX 2_e   [TB]

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
D’Elia, Una Roman, 1973–
The poetics of Titian’s religious paintings /
Una Roman D’Elia.
p.  cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-521-82735-3 (HB)
1. Titian, ca. 1488–1576 – Criticism and interpretation.
2. Christian art and symbolism – Italy – Venice – Modern period, 1500–
3. Titian, ca. 1488–1576 – Friends and associates.
4. Art and literature – Italy – Venice – History – 16th century.
I. Titian, ca. 1488–1576. II. Title.
ND623.T7D44     2005
59.5 – dc27         2004052118

ISBN 0 521 82735 3 hardback

For Granny and Rufus,
with love and admiration

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

Color Plates (follow page xvi)

ABBREVIATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THIS BOOK BEGAN AS A DISSERTATION at Harvard University, written under the direction of the late John Shearman. John (as he asked us to call him after graduation) encouraged me to find an exciting and ambitious topic and talked to me for hours at a time about my research. He was enormously generous, letting me use his notes, his library, and his unpublished collection of Raphael documents, and even allowing my husband and me to stay at his house so that we could do further research in the Harvard libraries. I am still realizing how greatly his approach to the history of art has influenced my own.

   I am also grateful to my other dissertation readers, Creighton Gilbert and Lino Pertile. Professor Gilbert was my undergraduate advisor at Yale, and it was because of his lectures that I decided to become an art historian. He has generously read and commented on everything I have written since then, including the dissertation and the book, with pages of line-by-line criticisms for each chapter. Professor Pertile has been extraordinarily patient and kind in helping a neophyte in Italian literary studies avoid embarrassment and in sharing his thoughts about the intersections between literary criticism and religious change in the cinquecento. He has corrected all of the translations and transcriptions for this book (although, of course, remaining mistakes are my own).

   While at Harvard, I was supported by grants from the Mellon Foundation, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and Harvard University. I have, for the past two years, been able to carry out new research and substantially rewrite the book with the generous support of a postdoctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. I have been fortunate enough to have access to the rich resources of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the Biblioteca Marciana, the Archivio di Stato in Venice, the British Library, the Hertziana, the Houghton Library, the Fischer Rare Book Library, and the Warburg Institute.

   The readers for Cambridge University Press, Jodi Cranston and Alexander Nagel, both offered thoughtful, detailed, and informed criticism of the book. Alex has been a great friend, interlocutor, and supporter. He has not only read and commented on the whole dissertation and book (in various drafts), but has also carried on an exciting ongoing debate with me over the last three years by e-mail and in person about art and the Counter-Reformation. His ideas, questions, and challenges have informed every chapter of this book. My editor, Beatrice Rehl, has been particularly patient and supportive when faced with a barrage of questions and requests.

   Charles Hope generously agreed to read the entire manuscript of a total stranger and offered extremely useful criticism of both smaller points and larger ideas. Joseph Koerner, Stuart Lingo, Bette Talvacchia, and Randi Klebanoff gave helpful comments on various chapters. David McTavish, an unfailingly kind and learned colleague here at Queen’s, has read the entire manuscript and discussed many aspects of cinquecento painting with me. John Osborne, Cathleen Hoeniger, and my other colleagues here at Queen’s University have all been warm, welcoming, and supportive. I have enjoyed working here and discussing ideas with them.

   I have many close friends who also study the Renaissance and have taught me a great deal. Kathleen Christian, a friend since the beginning of graduate school, has read a lot of my work and been a great intellectual companion. Nadja Aksamija, whose work on the Counter-Reformation I admire, is also the warmest of friends. There are many others that I manage to see at Harvard, in Italy, and at the Renaissance Society of America conference and wish that I could see more often: Filippo de Vivo, Maia Ghatan, Robert Goulding, Frederick Ilchman, Cindy Klestinec, Thomas McGrath, Margaret Meserve, Emily O’Brien, Lisa Pon, Jutta Sperling, Katy and Louis Waldman, and Mary-Ann Winkelmes. Here in Kingston, I’ve been comforted, cajoled, and cheered by the constant presence of our dear friends, Chris, Jeanette, Laurence, and Murley Herrle-Fanning.

   My brother and sister-in-law, Luke and Monica Roman, are also academics and, although far away and very busy, have talked about ideas with me, read things for me, and been warmly supportive. I feel very lucky to have my parents so close in Toronto, as they are also my best friends. My grandparents, Rufus and Leslie Stillman, are the most elegant, cultured, and generous people I know. I first learned about art sitting on Rufus’s lap, leafing through what seemed to be huge books, as he told me the stories of the pictures and made them seem alive, funny, and sexy. They took me to art galleries in New York, supported my family in many ways, paid for my education, and sent me to Italy. I dedicate this book to them.

   My husband, Tony, a scholar of Renaissance humanism, has read this book many times and advised me on every aspect of it. I am blessed to be able to travel to Italy with him, sit next to him working in the library and at home, and share everything with him. I could not possibly articulate how much he has given me. Our daughter Lucia, who was born just as I was checking the proofs, outshines all of Titian’s putti with her sweet beauty.