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Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese – Artistic Rivalry in Venice: A Three Part Course with Dr. Thomas Dalla Costa
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Born in different years and places, coming from different social and educational backgrounds, the three painters developed distinct and complementary styles. However, many points of contact unite them, such as the fact that they worked for all the most important churches of the Venetian lagoon, and for important exponents of the contemporary political world. All three, moreover, were in charge of very active workshops, following the Venetian tradition of a family setting.
Scholars have studied these undeniable points of contact and cooperation, yet historians have tried to read their coexistence according to the topics of rivalry and competition. This narrative simplifies a much more articulated and complex reality, which saw these men occupying different segments of the art market, addressing different categories of clients, and various social strata.
Led by Art Historian and Curator Thomas Dalla Costa, a Venetian Sixteenth-century specialist, this course aims to question the assumption of the alleged rivalries, trying instead to highlight through a comparative method the similarities and peculiarities of the style and artistic language of each of these masters, and inserting their activity in the correct historical, social and economic coordinates.
In the sixteenth century, Venice was a rich, cosmopolitan city, a crossroads of cultures and economic interests, as well as one of the most populous on the continent. The constant demand for works of art from local as well as international clients made the city a center of attraction for many artists trained in the hinterland provinces, who poured into the lagoon bringing their own figurative traditions. It is in this variegated reality that the masters who most of all contributed to the creation of "Venetian painting" emerged–namely Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese.
Lecture Two – A Dynamic Trio: Their careers, style, and lives in comparison
Born in different times and places, coming from different social and educational contexts, Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese developed distinct styles and languages. Nonetheless, they observed each other, studied each other, entered into a silent dialogue that certainly led them to think and make precise and personal stylistic choices, but always without forgetting their common cultural roots. In this second part, we will therefore learn more about the difference in style, composition, and meaning in religious and mythological paintings produced by the three masters.
Lecture Three – Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese: A Rivalry for the Ages
In this lecture, we will try to understand where the idea of fierce competition and rivalry among the three artists comes from. Through the selection of some thematic groups of works, this third part aims to question the assumption of the alleged rivalries, trying instead to highlight through a comparative method the similarities and peculiarities of the style and artistic language of each of these masters, and inserting their activity in the correct historical, social and economic coordinates.
Thomas Dalla Costa holds a PhD in Art History from Verona University. He is a specialist in Italian Renaissance Art, in particular on Sixteenth-century Venetian paintings and drawings. In 2014 he was Assistant Curator for the exhibition ""Paolo Veronese. L'illusione della realtà"" (held in Verona, July-October 2014). In 2015 he was Post-doctoral Researcher at Verona University, with a project on Titian's celebrated series of Venus and Adonis. The outcome of this research has been recently published in a book (Venice, April 2019). As a Research Fellow for Save Venice Inc., he edited a book on Jacopo Tintoretto (Venice, 2018), and contributed to the research for the exhibition ""Tintoretto 1519-2019"" (Venice, September 2018-January 2019) and ""Tintoretto. Artist of Renaissance Venice"" (Washington, March-July 2019). In 2017 Thomas curated the exhibition ""Venezia Rinascimento: Tiziano, Tintoretto, Veronese"" (Moscow, June-August 2018). Between February 2019 and December 2020 he was Curatorial Fellow at the National Gallery in London, where he assisted the curator of the exhibition ""Titian. Love, Desire, Death"" (March-December 2020). He has published a number of articles on Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese's workshop. He has a strong interest in the artists' creative process, and the pivotal role of drawings to Venetian Renaissance workshops.
This conversation is suitable for all ages.
90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.
This is an excellent course. Dr. Dalla Costa examines the concept of competition vs. rivalry among artists, in this case Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese, as seen in the context of their own time. His approach is that it was the positive aspects of competition, rather than the negative type of jealous rivalry sometimes imagined by contemporary and later art historians, that was mutually beneficial to all three artists. The course is well-organized, and the information is presented in a scholarly but always interesting way. I highly recommend it.
Thomas Dalla Costa is a font of information about 16th century Venice and these artists. His enthusiasm for his topic is contagious -- and the talks were just great!
A must see! Thomas' presentation on Renaissance Venetian art was wonderful. More than just a chronological summary of the works of Titan, Tintoretto and Veronese, Thomas explored the thesis of the supposed rivalry among these artists and his presentation of their works in the context of the history of Venice and Venetian art (including other Venetian artists) was fascinating. I highly recommend this course.
A very scholarly seminar with Dr. Dalla Costa. I learned so much!
The third lecture provides a novel interpretation of the three artists and their time persuasively challenging traditional interpretations. I have studied these artists extensively but learned a good deal from this course.