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Watch a special series of Facebook Lives and travel from London to Edinburgh and from Boston to Madrid to unite virtually Titian’s complete cycle of mythological paintings, ‘the poesie’, for the first time, ahead of the paintings being reunited physically in our exhibition ‘Titian: Love, Desire, Death’, the first time in more than 400 years.

Hear from experts and curators as they tell us about each work, who owned them down the centuries, and how they are cared for now.

The poesie were originally painted for King Philip II of Spain, the paintings are inspired by stories taken from the Roman poet Ovid’s 'Metamorphoses' and other Classical works.

The 'poesie'

Titian called the paintings ‘poesie’ because he considered them to be visual equivalents of poetry. They show subjects from Classical myths and legends mainly taken from the Roman poet Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’. Painted for Philip of Habsburg, King of Spain from 1556, Titian was probably in his 70s when he completed the commission which marked the high point of his career.

Watch again

Replay the broadcasts on our YouTube channel playlist. Hear from experts in London and Edinburgh. 

And travel on to Spain and Boston.

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Titian: Love, Desire, Death
16 March 2020 — 17 January 2021
Find out more