Titian

In the End

From Wholesome Flesh

To

Disintegrating Skin

© Deborah Feller

December 12, 2017

How many artists does it take to complete a

painting?

How many artists does it take to complete a

painting?

6

How many artists does it take to complete a

painting?

6

1 to do the painting

How many artists does it take to complete a

painting?

6

1 to do the painting

&

5 to drag her away from the canvas when it's

finished.

Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas

(before 1576, oil on canvas, 86.6 x

80.3 in. [220 x 204 cm]). Archbishop's

Palace, Kroměříž, Czech Republic.

Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas (before

1576). Figure 3: Venus of Urbino (1538,

oil on canvas, 46.85 x 65 in. [119

x 165 cm]). Galleria degli Uffizi,

Florence.

Figure 2: Nymph and

Shepherd (early 1570s, oil

on canvas, 59 x 73.6 in.

[149.7 x 187 cm]).

Kunsthistorisches

Museum, Vienna, Austria.

Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas

(before 1576).

Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas

(before 1576).

‘No! no! He screamed,

’Why tear me from myself? Oh, I

repent!

A pipe’s not worth the price!’ and

as he screamed

Apollo stripped his skin; the

whole of him

Was one huge wound, blood

streaming everywhere,

Sinews laid bare, veins naked,

quivering

And pulsing. You could count his

twitching guts,

And the tissues as the light

shone through his ribs...”

Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas

(before 1576).

Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas

(before 1576).

Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas (before

1576).

Figure 4: The Flaying of Marsyas,

detail, blood dripping.

Figure 5: Compositional analysis of

The Flaying of Marsyas.

Figure 7: Anonymous, after Titian's

Flaying of Marsyas. Private collection.

Figure 6: Flaying of Marsyas, X-ray of

upper left part of Kroměříž painting with

sketch of lyrist in red. From Sylvia Ferino-

Pagden, Late Titian and the Sensuality of

Painting, 235.

Figure 9: Attributed to Pothos Painter,

Apollo and Marsyas Compete (ca. 430-

410 BCE, attic red figure krator).

British Museum.

Figure 8: Apollo and Marsyas, (ca.

290–300, panel of a sarcophagus).

Paris, Louvre Museum.

Figure 10: White Marsyas or

Marsia Appeso (hanging) (200-

100 BCE, Roman copy of Greek

original). Florence, Uffizi

Gallery.

Figure 11: Giulio Romano, Apollo Flaying Marsyas (1527, pen, ink and wash over

chalk, 19.8 x 26.1 in. [50.2 x 66.3 cm]). Design for a detail of the frieze in the Sala

di Ovidio, Palazzo del Te. Louvre, Paris.

Figure 12: Agostino da Mozzanega and Anselmo de Ganis,

after a design by Giulio Romano, Apollo Flaying Marsyas (1527,

fresco). Sala di Ovidio, Palazzo del Te, Mantua.

Figure 13: Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Raphael) and

assistant, Apollo Ordering the Flaying of Marsyas (1510-11,

fresco). Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican.

Figure 15: Giulio Romano,

Apollo Flaying Marsyas,

detail.

Figure 14: Raffaello

Sanzio da Urbino

(Raphael) and assistant,

Apollo Ordering the Flaying

of Marsyas, detail, inverted

view.

Figure 16: Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola

(Parmigianino), Apollo Overseeing the Flaying

of Marsyas (ca. 1527-30, red chalk, partly

outlined in pen and ink). Uffizi Gallery,

Florence.

Figure 18: Andrea Meldolla (Andrea

Schiavone) after a lost drawing by

Parmigianino, Apollo Overseeing the

Flaying of Marsyas, (mid-16th century,

point of brush, wash, over chalk, with

heightening, cropped at left). Royal

Library, Windsor, England.

Figure 17: Antonio Fantuzzi after

Parmigianino, Apollo Overseeing the Flaying

of Marsyas (ca. 1545, etching). Bibliotèque

Nationale, Paris.

Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas (before

1576).

Figure 11: Giulio Romano, Apollo Flaying Marsyas

(1527).

Figure 19: Giulio Romano, Apollo Flaying

Marsyas, detail, reverted Marsyas head.Figure 20: The Flaying

of Marsyas, detail,

reverted Marsyas head.

Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas (before

1576).

Figure 11: Giulio Romano, Apollo Flaying

Marsyas (1527).

Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas (before 1576).

Figure 21:

The Flaying

of Marsyas,

detail,

Phrygian

flayer's hand

with knife.

Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas (before

1576).

Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas (before 1576).

Figure 22:The Flaying of Marsyas,

detail, head of Midas.

Figure 24: Albrecht Dürer, Melancolia I (1514,

engraving, 9.5 x 7.3 in.[24 × 18.5 cm]). The

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Figure 23: The Flaying of Marsyas, detail,

Midas.

Figure 25: The Flaying of Marsyas, detail,

Midas looking at Marsyas's face.

Figure 26: The Flaying of Marsyas, detail,

Apollo, singing while he works.

Figure 27: Venus with Cupid, an Organist and a Dog (ca.

1550, oil on canvas, 45.3 x 82.7 in. [115 x 210 cm]).

Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

Figure 28: Natura

Potentior Ars, ca. 1562.

Titian's Impresa.

On Painter Titian

Learned painters of diverse eras,

Continuing into our own time,

Designs and images have shown

How art jousts with nature.

Gathered at the glorious peak,

They are deemed heavenly prodigies,

But TITIAN, by the grace of divine

fortune,

Has bested art, genius and nature.

Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas (before

1576, oil on canvas, 86.6 x 80.3 in. [220 x

204 cm]). Archbishop's Palace, Kroměříž,

Czech Republic.

Figure 29: Self-Portrait

(oil on canvas, ca. 1567-

68, 33.9 x 27.2 in. [86 x

69 cm]). Museo del

Prado, Madrid.