Titian
Women, Myth & Power
August 12, 2021 - January 2, 2022
Hostetter Gallery
Between 1551 and 1562, Titian created a series of monumental paintings for King Philip II of Spain. Celebrated as landmarks of western painting, the six poesie — or painted poetries — envision epic stories from classical Antiquity. Titian reimagined these familiar tales and used his modern style of painting to shape the future of western art. For the first time in over four centuries, Isabella Stewart Gardner’s fully restored Rape of Europa is reunited with its five illustrious companions in the exhibition’s finale and its only American venue on an international tour including to the National Gallery, London and the Museo del Prado, Madrid. This exhibition explores each painting's story, its drama, raw emotion, and complex consequences illustrated in each painting, reconsidering what the poesie meant in their own time and how they resonate now. Newly commissioned responses by contemporary artists and scholars engage with questions of gender, power, and sexual violence as relevant today as they were in the Renaissance.
Two new works developed in response to Titian’s paintings are on view in both the Fenway Gallery and on the Museum’s Facade. In the Fenway Gallery, Artists-in-Residence Mary Reid Kelly and Patrick Kelley give voice to the central figure of the Gardner’s Titian painting: Europa. On the facade, Barbara Kruger’s Body Language uses a detail from Titian’s Diana and Actaeon to challenge dynamics of gender and power.
Titian: Women, Myth & Power explores themes of sexual assault and violence.
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Titian-Related Programs
We invite you to enjoy a suite of digital and in-person programs exploring art historical themes and contemporary issues related to Titian: Women, Myth & Power and the new works by Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley and Barbara Kruger.
Titian Room Restoration
The grand Titian Room on the third floor is being restored to Isabella’s original vision with textured silks in deep reds and golds, dark wood flooring, and recently conserved furniture and objects. The project will be capped off with the return of Titian’s The Rape of Europa to the room at the close of the exhibition.
The lead sponsors of Titian: Women, Myth & Power are Amy and David Abrams and The Richard C. von Hess Foundation
The presenting corporate sponsor is:
This exhibition is supported by the Robert Lehman Foundation, Fredericka and Howard Stevenson, and an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Additional support is provided by an endowment grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Museum receives operating support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Media Sponsor: The Boston Globe.
