£ 30,000 for Titian’s sketch worth millions

EDINBURGH. The National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh has opened the exhibition Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Art, which presents for the first time a new drawing by the great master. The curator of the gallery, Aidan Weston-Lewis (Aidan Weston-Lewis) saw the work during the next auction of the auction house Sotheby’s. In the catalog, the charcoal drawing, which depicts three male figures in the shade, was described as “attributed to Jacopo Bassano”. Gallery acquired the work for only 30,000 pounds. Soon, there was evidence that the black and white drawing refers to the work of the greatest Italian artist of the Renaissance Titian.

The art dealer of the gallery was given permission to bid, up to a price increase of up to £ 30,000, and when he went to Sotheby’s auction in London, he was accused of a too modest offer for work dating back to 1550. Fortunately for the gallery, their offer was the best.

Aidan Weston-Lewis believed that work could cost several million pounds due to its rarity. The drawing could turn out to be one of the less than 50 known sketches of Titian, while his analogue does not exist anywhere in the world.

The search for "treasures" in catalogs and auctions began after two months ago gallery staff discovered the original Rembrandt etching, previously considered only a copy.

Now, the drawing takes pride of place in Titian’s new exhibition, which presents the artist’s masterpieces owned by the gallery for more than 70 years - “Diana and Acteon” and “Diana and Callisto”, as well as another picture from this series - “The Death of Actaeon” rented from the National Gallery in London. Note that the National Gallery of Scotland had to find almost 100 million pounds in order to buy the first two paintings from the former owner - the Duke of Sutherland.

These three paintings presented at the exhibition belong to the famous series of Titian, consisting of six works and created for the King of Spain Philip. The inspiration for the entire cycle was the work of the Roman poet Publius Ovid Nazo, better known as Ovid.

Although the figures on the discovered sketch do not exactly repeat on any of Titian’s famous paintings, they bear a striking resemblance to his other drawing, “Praying for the Chalice”, which is exhibited at the Uffizi Gallery, in Florence.

Aidan Weston-Lewis, curator of the Scottish National Gallery, confirmed that a number of leading experts on the work of Titian, including those from the National Gallery in London and the British Museum, agreed with the findings of the curator and confirmed the authenticity of the work.

Weston-Lewis said: “Little is known about the past of the drawing, since it was part of the collection of the famous master of draws, the German collector Wolfgang Rijen. He bought it somewhere in the 1960s, and in the 1990s, the drawing reappeared in Sotheby’s catalogs. ”

“I did a lot of work on the drawings of the Venetian masters in 2003, during the preparation of the corresponding thematic exhibition. By the time I came to the auction, I had perfectly studied the styles of Italian artists of the 16th century. When I saw this illustration in the catalog, it was obvious to me that this is Titian. "

“There is no way to prove its authenticity; no documents or signatures have been preserved. But I immediately went to London to bid, which exhibited a drawing. I examined it well and immediately gave our art dealer the task of filling out an application on our behalf. Of course, I had to spend a lot of effort to convince our leadership that most likely this is the work of Titian. "We discussed in detail the artist’s work with experts, and as a result, we are very glad that we purchased it."

Anna Sidorova © Gallerix.ru