Pursuit of the whole
L. D. ETTLINGER
Problems in Titian, mostly iconographic Erwin Panofsky (Phaidon 100s) 'Titian! Now there is a man who seems to be enjoyed by those who are growing old.'
Delztcroix was only fifty-six when he noted this observation in his diary. Professor Panofsky, whose interests spanned an un- usually wide range of European art, rarely spoke of Titian until he was well into his seventies, when he delivered the Wrights- man Lectures. They were in the press at the time of his death in March 1968.
Fortunately this book preserves the flavour of the spoken word, and readers will feel the continued presence of an acute and sensitive mind even before they realise the wealth of Panofsky's erudition. For the book has the moving qualities only found in the works of the old age of great men.
It is rich, yet simple, spontaneous and at the same time full of reminiscences and allusions to earlier writings. Its mellowness is the fruit of life-long contemplation of a deeply loved artist, with whom the author must have felt an affinity; and it has the wisdom of restraint in suggesting interpreta- tions of Titian's subtle and complex genius. With a characteristic understatement Panofsky told his New York listeners at the outset: 'I shall confine my discussion to a few special problems, mostly icono- graphic, which have aroused my curiosity and which I present to this gentle audience in the fond hope that this curiosity may be shared.' Indeed at a first glance the book seems to be little more than a loosely strung together series of iconographic readings of selected Titian paintings. But this super- ficial impression is deceptive, and we soon realise that the whole is more than the sum of the.parts. For the discussions of famous and often puzzling pictures follow each other in a subtle order, leading in the end to a deeper understanding of Titian's ori- ginality.
Without for one moment letting out of sight the rare qualities of Titian's handling of paint. Panofsky makes us see that he was more than a painter's painter or a virtuaso capable of satisfying every whim of his patrons. `No other great artist,' he remarks, `appropriated so much while mak- ing so few concessions; no other great artist was more pliable while utterly remaining himself.'
Greatness is a matter of experience and can hardly, if ever, be explained in rational terms. At best the scholar can bring his sensibility combined with knowledge to play on the uniqueness of artistic creation. It is sometimes said that preoccupation with iconographic problems is irrelevant to this task, that it may even blind us to the truly artistic values. But Panofsky's book—like the earlier ones on Darer and Early Nether- landish Painting—belies this assertion. More- over, in a famous essay which has become a basic text for students of the history of art, he insisted that `intuitive aesthetic re-creation' —that is the experience of a picture or sculpture as a work of art—must go hand in hand with `archaeological research' so as to form 'an organic situation' since the two processes mutually qualify and rectify one another.
A brief passage occurring—hardly for- tuitously—exactly midway through these lectures offers the key to his absorption in Titian: 'Unlike so many other painters of the Renaissance and the Baroque—Leon- ardo, Diirer, Michelangelo, Poussin, Salvator Rosa —Titian was neither a peintre philo- sophe, nor a peintre poete, nor a peintre scientifique. nor a peintre savant; it is dilli- cult to imagine him writing poetry or com- posing a treatise—even a letter—on art- historical or mythographical questions. But that he was not a litterateur does not mean that he was illiterate, that he was not an intellectual does not mean that he was un- intelligent, that he was neither a scholar nor a philosopher does not mean that he . was out of touch with scholarship and philosophy . . . And his own paintings bear witness to his personal involvement with the basic and interconnected problems of human existence: the nature of life and death, the nature of time and—for him the problem of all problems—the nature of beauty and love.'
If we bear this passage in mind, the aim and structure of the book become at once meaningful. Its concern is not with a num- ber of iconographic conundrums, but rather with Titian's public and private art, with his highly individual response to the challenge of commissions, with the imagery determined by his own mind, with an artist
who always treated human problems in a human way.
The first chapter, too modestly called 'Introduction', speaks only briefly of the bare facts of Titian's life. Its core is an extended analysis of the painter's colourism, and it is a fine example of 'aesthetic re-crea- tion' without which the following chapters on Titian's subject matter would be meaning- less.
These fall into two easily defined groups: those dealing with 'Some Biblical and Hagiological Problems' and 'Medieval and Classical Formulae in Disguise' treat of Titian's handling of commissions, while those entitled 'Reflections on Time' and 'Reflections on Love and Beauty' introduce and interpret the images the master created in a more private world. The final chapter, 'Titian and Ovid', synthesises these two aspects by showing how personal the ren- dering of time-honoured mythological themes could become. For Titian, as Panofslcy points out, had a special relation- ship to the Roman poet, whose writings were for most artists little more than a handy textbook of classical fables. Titian 'must have felt an inner affinity to an author pro- found as well as witty, sensuous as well as aware of mankind's tragic subjection to destiny. And it was precisely this inner affinity which enabled Titian to interpret Ovid% text both literally and freely, both with minute attention to detail and in a spirit of uninhibited inventiveness.'
'Uninhibited inventiveness.' That is the ground bass running through Panofsky's lec- tures, and in the case of an art historian whose second great love was music, this metaphor should be allowed in describing the composition of a book. Delacroix had spoken of 'simplicity' and a 'complete lack of affectation' when he wrote one of his enthusiastic appraisals of Titian, but he was thinking of the master's painterly qualities. Panofsky, on the other hand, has shown that these very qualities were at the centre of Titian's personality, that for him content and expression were that miraculous indivisible whole which is given only to the greatest.
The book is well produced, but it may come as a surprise (considering current fashions) that it lacks colour plates. In the author's own words, the illustrations 'were made from the best available originals and are all in black and white, not in spite but because of the fact that Titian was the greatest "colourist" who ever lived.' Another sign of the sensitivity of a great historian— and a moral for publishers.
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