Titian’s ‘poesie’: The commission

The most ambitious and magnificent works of his career

The ageing Titian met the 21-year-old Prince Philip through Philip's father Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain who was already Titian's patron.

The concept of a thematic group, or cycle, of large paintings, was probably conceived when Titian and Philip met for the first time in Milan in 1548, and subsequently at the Imperial Diet at Augsburg in the winter of 1550–1.

Titian had been summoned by Philip's father to Augsburg to paint portraits of him and also his son: 'Portrait of Philip II as a Prince', (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid). The portrait was a success and the prince became another of Titian's royal patrons.

The subject

The large mythological paintings are inspired by stories taken from Ovid’s (43 BC–17 AD) 'Metamorphoses' and other Classical works. Titian was given free rein by Philip to choose the subjects and to create new and innovative compositions. The six paintings were produced over 10 years from about 1551 to 1562.

The Greek and Roman mythological stories provided Titian with tales from a world where immortals play havoc with the lives of men and women. The paintings share themes of seduction, disguise, and power.

Image: Detail from Titian, 'Danaë', probably 1554–6. Wellington Collection, Apsley House © Stratfield Saye Preservation Trust

Image: Detail from Titian, 'Venus and Adonis', 1554 © Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid (P000422)

Image: Detail from Titian, 'Diana and Actaeon', 1556-9

Image: Detail from Titian, 'Diana and Callisto', 1556-9

Titian, 'Perseus and Andromeda', probably 1554–6. The Wallace Collection, London (P11) © The Wallace Collection, London / Photo: The National Gallery, London

Image: Detail from Titian, 'Perseus and Andromeda', probably 1554–6. The Wallace Collection, London (P11) © The Wallace Collection, London / Photo: The National Gallery, London

Image: Detail from Titian, 'Rape of Europa', 1560–2 © Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (P26e1)

Danaë

One of the first of the cycle of paintings, Danaë tells the story of the daughter of King Acrisius of Argos. She was shut up in a tower by her father as a means of preventing her from ever having a son.

The heirless king had been told by the oracle (fortune teller) that he would have a successor and that this child would be his daughter's son. Good news only in part as he was also told that this grandson would kill him.

Meanwhile Jupiter, an admirer of Danaë and immune to any barrier, reaches her via a skylight in the form of a shower of gold. She goes on to have their child, Perseus, the hero of another of the 'poesie'.

Venus and Adonis

Titian paints Venus, filled with foreboding, clutching for her lover, the beautiful hunter Adonis, in an attempt to stop him from going hunting. However, his fate is sealed. He does not return; gored to death by a wild boar.

Diana and Actaeon

Diana, chaste goddess of hunting is disturbed, while bathing accompanied by nymphs, by the hunter Actaeon. He recoils. His arms raised almost as if to protect himself.

The telling reaction on the nymphs' faces and Diana's dreadful glare indicate that he has - unwittingly - infuriated her. The consequence is fatal. Titian hints at Actaeon's punishment by including a stag being chased by Diana on the skyline. Diana transforms Actaeon into a stag which is savaged by his own hounds.

Diana and Callisto

Here again, Titian retells in paint the story of someone incurring the wrath of Diana. The distraught nymph and hunting companion, Callisto, implores Diana as she is roughly stripped to reveal her pregnancy.

Callisto’s vow not to marry and her subsequent rape by Jupiter (who changed her into a bear) have tipped Diana over the edge. Diana goes on to kill Callisto, not realising that she has taken animal form.

Jupiter immortalises Callisto by transforming her into the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear).

Perseus and Andromeda

Andromeda was the beautiful daughter of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia offended the Nereids, the sea nymphs, by claiming that Andromeda was more beautiful than they.

In revenge, Neptune, god of the sea, sent a sea monster to devastate Cepheus’s kingdom. Andromeda is chained to the rocks to be devoured by the monster when the hero Perseus flies by and falls in love with her.

Perseus then swoops down to rescue her, his powerful vertiginous descent contrasting vividly with her passive vulnerability. He slays the monster and later marries Andromeda.

Rape of Europa

Jupiter, captivated by Europa, transforms himself into a beautiful bull and joins the herd of cows around her.

Europa approaches the bull and, finding it tame, winds flowers around its horns and jumps onto its back. The bull (aka Jupiter) leaps into the sea and carries her off. Europa clings on in terror, a flailing arm waving desperately at her companions on the beach.

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Metamorphoses - tales of transformation

The tales of the 'Metamorphoses' were as well known as Bible stories in Titian's day and were a popular source of inspiration for artists during the Renaissance.

Ovid's poem is a collection of mythical tales based on the theme of 'change'; 'Metamorphoses' means 'transformations' in Greek.

Made up of 15 sections or 'books', each section of 'Metamorphoses' has a number of myths, for a total of over 250 stories.

In book two, we find the story of Callisto and Arcas which inspired Titian's ‘Diana and Callisto’. A favourite nymph of the goddess Diana, Callisto is tricked by Jupiter into betraying Diana, and suffers the consequences.

Titian’s inspiration for two other paintings, ‘Diana and Actaeon’ and the later ‘The Death of Actaeon’, was the story of Actaeon found in the third book. The hunter Actaeon sees something he shouldn't and, like Callisto, is also punished.

A decade's work

The first two mythologies, 'Danaë' (about 1551–3) and 'Venus and Adonis' (about 1553–4), were variations of pictures Titian had painted before. In 1556, the year Philip was crowned king of Spain, Titian sent him 'Perseus and Andromeda' (about 1554–6), to be joined later by the 'Rape of Europa' (1559–62).

Three years after the 'Perseus', Titian sent Philip 'Diana and Actaeon' and 'Diana and Callisto'. Designed as a pair, they share themes and compositional elements (a stream flows from one to the other), the two paintings have remained together throughout their history.

A seventh painting, The ‘Death of Actaeon’, was intended as part of the cycle but a great part of it was painted later and it was never delivered to Philip. Here Titian, painting in his mid-80s, paints Actaeon, transformed into a stag by Diana, being torn to death by his own hounds.

Image: Titian, 'The Death of Actaeon', about 1559-75

Visual poems

Titian used the term ‘poesie’ for the paintings because he regarded them to be visual equivalents of poetry.

Combining his talent as both artist and storyteller, Titian selected the stories' most dramatic moments; an unexpected and fatal encounter; a shameful discovery; a terrifying abduction; set in atmospheric, enchanted, landscapes. We look on as the gods change the lives of flawed mortals, irrevocably.

Like poetry, the paintings touch our emotions and imagination through their rhythm of colour, language of symbols, and expressive subjects.

However, despite their beauty, there’s a deadly element to these images; love and passion, but also desperation and death.