In Russia, a new Titian discovery
August 28 2017
Picture: Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts
The Art Newspaper has news of a newly discovered Titian unveiled in Moscow. The painting, a version of Venus and Adonis, was thought previously to have been a copy when it was bought by a French dealer in 2005. But then a Russian collector, Vladimir Logvinenko bought the painting and had it restored, when it was apparently discovered to be a version by Titian himself.
Says TAN:
The collector would not reveal how much he paid for the painting but said that it was “much more” than the €50,000-€70,000 the previous buyer forked out. Logvinenko contacted the Pushkin's chief researcher and custodian of Italian paintings, Victoria Markova, to help restore the painting, but he was in for surprise. After a quick look, Markova judged the work to be by Titian.
“When a painting has three layers [of paint] it’s difficult to determine if it’s an original. Marina had a look at it, made certain technological and radiographic research, and concluded it was an original”, Logvinenko says. “However, Marina and I realised we couldn’t restore the artwork in Russia as there aren’t enough Venetian art restorers here”.
They sent the Venus and Adonis to Italy where the country’s Ministry of Culture, Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, and Madrid’s Prado Museum backed up Markova’s research. The painting was restored in a Venetian art gallery and eventually sold by Logvinenko to “a group of collectors who are not Russian”.
For a long time it was believed that Titian’s Venus and Adonis on show at the Prado Museum was the earliest edition still in existence, painted in 1554 for King Philip II, but this may no longer be the case. “The Prado decided to study [the Moscow painting] and found a preliminary drawing under the colourful layer of the canvas, thus it should be considered the first version of the famous composition, which served as both the model for the Madrid canvas and numerous repetitions,” Loshak says.
The version in the Prado is dated 1554, but Titian is first thought have made a Venus and Adonis in the 1520s, which was long presumed lost. Is the Moscow painting it? The Pushkin museum is now trying to raise the money to buy the painting, for a figure reported to be between $10m and $20m.
