Riches of an Italian master

Fisun Guner|Metro11 April 2012
The Weekender

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Titian, the great 16th-century Venetian artist, lived to his late eighties, so any extensive overview could include or leave out any number of works. The National's show features around 45 paintings but you'll find more riches here than in many other 'blockbusters' that leave you feeling dazed by the effort.

The absence of the Venus Of Urbino, for instance - that reclining nude based on Sleeping Venus by Titian's mentor Giorgione - doesn't really matter: instead, we get the equally sensuous and erotic Danai, showered with gold coins by her would-be suitor Jupiter.

Perhaps because they speak so eloquently to our modern age, Titian's portraits, particularly his male portraits, are the paintings that seem to hold the strongest fascination. A Man With A Quilted Sleeve, said to be a self portrait, shows a young man with a steady, penetrating gaze. Titian is also said to have invented the child portrait and, as well as the toddling, brighteyed Clarissa Strozzi, there is the wonderful and tender portrait of 12-year-old Ranuccio Farnese.

The later rooms show Titian pushing his technique further and, so loose is the brushwork, there is doubt as to whether many of the later paintings are actually finished.

Painted in 1570, around six years before his death, the showstopping Flaying Of Marsyas, combines this dazzling late style with one of the most horrific scenes in classical mythology. Fisun G¸ner

Until May 18, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square WC2, daily 10am to 6pm (Sat to 9pm), £9, £7 concs. Tel: 020 7747 2885.

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