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The Flight Into Egypt by Titian
Published 3 months ago • 7 min read
The Flight Into Egypt by Titian
Published: Tuesday, 2 July 2024
Titian, aka Tiziano Vecellio, is an important master of the Venetian School, which flourished during the Italian Renaissance from the late 14th to the 16th century. One painting he potentially did as a teenager, TheRest on the Flight into Egypt, is going to auction at Christie’s Old Masters Part 1 sale in London on July 2nd, 2024.
Supported by a Third-Party Guarantee [1], the current estimate is for a sale between fifteen and twenty-five million pounds [2], and the level of interest generated could push the price into being one of the most expensive pieces ever sold at auction.
The painting has had an exciting life already: it’s been stolen at least twice and was once left at a bus stop (that was possible on purpose, though: the bus stop was allegedly the “drop” location for a ransom payment!). It has a rich royal provenance, with ties to English Dukes and Holy Roman Emperors Charles IV and James II, Archduke Leopold Wilhem of Austria (1614-1662), and Maria Theresa Archduchess of Austria (mother of Marie Antoinette), before being looted by Napoleon’s army in 1809.
The painting is also… a bit… well, I don’t want to say “rubbish”, because it’s not. But it’s certainly not in great condition, and not Titian’s best work. It’s also arguably not his work at all.
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, Titian (1485/90-1576),1508/9-1515 oil on canvas, laid on panel, 18 ¼ x 24 ¾ in. (46.2 x 62.9 cm.)
Christie’s noticeably has not made a Condition Report readily available. A Condition Report is a detailed document that assesses the state of an artwork at a specific point in time, prepared by highly experienced experts. They are usually eagerly provided to potential buyers (not least because, pro-tip, the auctioneer builds a good picture of potential demand by examining who has requested the report).
The lack of a report speaks to a larger problem: if any painting is five centuries old and looks as if it was painted in the last hundred years…. Well, part of it probably was… Natural deterioration, accidental damage, exposure to light and air are expected with old paintings and almost always require heavy restoration. Each time this happens less of ‘the original’ remains.
When conservationists restore art, that painting is no longer executed by the hand of that artist alone. You end up with a “Ship of Theseus” problem: at what point does Titian stop being the primary artist of his own work?
[3].
The art world can be an overwhelming, daunting and, frankly, dismissive space. One of my aims in this newsletter is to use my academic training, personal curiosity and many (many) hours spent staring at paintings to improve our collective understanding: I cannot tell you what to see in an artwork, but I can perhaps guide you where to look. With that in mind, there are several important characteristics in Titian’s Flight into Egypt I would like to bring to your attention.
One of the best ways to decipher the original state of an artwork (besides x-ray scans) is to look at other works executed close in date to the original piece. Here are two examples, in different mediums, by two different artists who saw Titian’s Flight into Egypt firsthand:
Engraving
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt Print, Theodor van Kessel after Titian, 1673, etching/engraving on hand laid paper, 30.5 x 24.5 cm. Image has been flipped to better align with the original.
Detail of Teniers’ painting above with Titian’s The Rest on the Flight into Egypt extracted and enlarged.
(To explain what Teniers is up to here: In The Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria in his Picture Gallery in Brussels, Teniers paints a picture of the Archduke’s art collection, including complete replicas of the original works. Fun fact: Teniers goes on to create the Theatrum Pictorium considered the first illustrated art catalog, think of it as a dictionary for art, and van Kessel’s engraving was specifically executed for the Theatrum Pictorium. [4])
Both van Kessel’s engraving and Teniers’ paintings-in-painting were attempts to recreate the original work as they saw it at the time. They reveal important elements and details that are now lost in the surviving version of Titian’s Flight into Egypt.
Start with the physical size and shape of the painting. We know from the Theatrum Pictorium Titian's painting was “3 alta 4 lata''. In other words, 3 palm-widths high and 4 palm-widths wide, an annoying and unreliable form of measurement. This "roughly" equates to dimensions of the painting today. Titian’s painting is nearly a square (short rectangle), while Teniers portrays a longer rectangle in his picture gallery painting. This draws the eye to the far right and left-hand side: revealing the painting currently up for auction is missing key components v. the same painting in its 1652 form.
In both Teniers and van Kessel’s versions there is more landscape and greenery to the right of Madonna's blue robe. There are more tree trunks to the left of Joseph (he is not as close to the border as seen in Titian’s today). You can see the entire curve of the hill revealing more blue sky in the upper right corner that is now completely lost. At the base of the cliff there are two distinct figures which are now barely visible: in van Kessel’s etching, those background figures are set in a respectable pasture than what’s rendered in the surviving Titian. Van Kessel’s etching clearly depicts a perfect linear hillslope from Madonna's belt to the upper corner of the painting, rather than a sharp square drop-off seen today. The hilltop tower and fences have been completely reworked with minimal overhang and additions not represented in the engraving. The engraving clearly depicts a rock in the bottom right corner that overlaps with the blue cloak, the tower stacks directly above the background figures, but in Titian’s painting everything is shifted to the left.
Points of Comparison
Conservators appear to have smudged originally sharp details: Joseph’s hands are now thick blotches of paint, as is the rock face of the hill. The back of baby Jesus is curved rather than straight. Madonna's dress is not highlighted but chipped and faded. The Madonna does not wear a veil as faintly depicted in the surviving Titian, the etching reveals a small translucent drape (like the veil over her head) across her shoulders to highlight the nape of her neck. Compare the blurriness of Joseph’s beard to the sharpness and detail of the tree leaves behind the baby.
[5]
These comparisons initially suggested to me that the right and left portion of the current Titian was cut off and removed, possibly due to poor restoration, or damage from framing. The other blotches and smudges are also egregious: they are unlikely to have been Titian’s mistake, especially since several of his other works feature highlighted central characters crisply portrayed and saturated in colour. Frankly, the painting does not compare to other surviving works by Titian dating to his early career.
[6]
As auction day arrives, I’m reminding my clients that this piece of work is materially damaged, possibly missing a bit, and touched up so much that I don’t even consider this work to be entirely by Titian anymore
[7].
Personally, I would never buy an old master’s artwork regardless of the artist unless it was a sketch, or a painting from their early career with a concrete and reliable provenance (including restoration work) to confirm its authenticity. Based on the condition and conservation alone, I don’t think it's worth its low estimate.
Which is a relief, since I don’t have fifteen million pounds!
[1]Third Party Guarantee- The auction house has provided a minimum price guarantee and has a direct financial interest in the lot. Auction houses often finance this guarantee via a third party. The third party then either buys the piece at the minimum price or gets a financial benefit if someone else buys the piece above the minimum.
[2] A 2002 article from The Guardian states the value of the painting at five million pounds.
[3] To be fair, this is often also the case for art produced during the artist's life. Paintings were material undertakings, so, especially at the height of their fame, assistants would execute many commissions; the master would come in at the end to add finishing touches to receive the recognition that “work” is theirs.
[4] This creates a key source of provenance (i.e. who owned the pictures, and when) for all the pictures involved, plus evidence of what the pictures (and frames) looked like at the time.
[5]
This technique, known as atmospheric perspective, was popular amongst the Venetian school. Titian would have learned and utilised it while working for Giorgione. However, atmospheric perspective creates the illusion of depth in a painting, like blurring details far in the background and using colour to create a hue for changes in light. This would not have been applied to important figures in the foreground integral to the scene.
[6] such as The Holy Family with Shepherd (about 1510), The Gypsy Madonna (1510), and Madonna and Child (1507)
[7] That’s a little harsh, maybe. There are still resounding elements from the master which survived the passage of time. The quality of the piece five hundred years later does not undermine its intrinsic value as an important puzzle piece in the complete genre of the artist's epoch, and the talent he displayed as a young artist barely twenty years old.
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Committed to creating value in the art market. We deepen our market understanding, expand our network, and cultivate a diverse audience. We publish our newsletter targeting intelligent and inquisitive people who are not traditional art world participants. Recognizing a broad demand for insightful critique of art and the art world, plus an under explored dynamic interplay with the growing market for Digital Art, we are developing innovative products to engage and expand our audience and unlock value for our clients.