Last year on a trip to California
I visited the famed Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena to see a
small painting ( 31.7 x 24.1 cm) that the Museum labels, “Head of a Venetian Girl.” The trustees
of the Museum still like to attribute the painting to Giorgione even though the
label indicates that most scholars today give it to Titian.
I revisited the Norton Simon this
January to see an exhibition entitled “Lock, Stock, and Barrel: Norton Simon’s
Purchase of Duveen Brothers Gallery” only to discover that the young Venetian had become the poster girl for the whole exhibition that began last
October and will run until April 27 of this year. In its introduction to the
exhibition, the Museum noted that the young girl or ‘courtesan’ played
a key role not only in the exhibition but in the Museum’s history.
Behind the beguiling Portrait of a Courtesan lies one of the many fascinating tales of Norton Simon’s determination to assemble a remarkable collection of art.
The Museum’s excellent website and
related video, narrated by curator Carol Togneri, give the full story but here is a brief summary. A few years
after the close of the Second World War Norton Simon approached Duveen Brothers
Gallery in New York City in an attempt to buy the aforementioned portrait of
the young woman. Even back then, a Giorgione acquisition would have added
immeasurably to Simon’s collection.
The firm of Duveen Brothers had
been started by the legendary art dealer Joseph Duveen who died in 1939 after a
long career dealing in Old Masters. Although Norton Simon had originally
inquired about the painting of the young woman, he eventually offered to buy
about a half dozen other Duveen holdings. Finally, as the process of negotiation
went on, he offered to buy everything the Duveen Gallery owned including its
Park Avenue mansion. The offer was accepted and except the Park Avenue property everything went west to
California.
Most of the Duveen holdings were
put into storage and only a few of the major ones were ever publicly exhibited. The current Duveen exhibition is the
Museum’s attempt to exhibit a much larger sample of the entire acquisition. It
has been beautifully mounted and displayed. Even the frames are well worth
seeing.
Still, the small painting of the
young woman has been given pride of place. Today even a small Giorgione or
Titian is priceless. Earlier at Giorgione et al… I argued that the young girl or
courtesan depicted in a partial state of undress was Mary Magdalen, one of the
most popular subjects in the art of the Renaissance. I also believe that Giorgione portrayed Mary Magdalen in a similar pose and state of undress in the
painting usually labeled “Laura”.
However, I would just like to add
some words on the subject of the attribution. I agree with those scholars who
give the painting to the young Titian who worked with Giorgione on the fresco
decoration of the exterior walls of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. I am not good at stylistic analysis but
I would say that the face of the young woman in the Norton Simon painting bears
a close resemblance to the face of the adulteress in Titian’s “Christ with the
Adulteress”, an early Titian now in the Glasgow Museum. Indeed, contemporary Venetians tended
to lump all the sinful women of the gospels into Mary Magdalen.
Secondly, the Norton Simon woman
wears a multi-colored striped shawl over her shoulder. The same shawl can be
seen in one of Titian’s much later depictions of Mary Magdalen. Can this be
just a coincidence?
During his long career Titian became the most prolific painter of Mary Magdalen. In my paper on the Sacred and Profane Love I have argued that the two women in that painting now in the Borghese Gallery both represent the Magdalen; one as courtesan and the other as repentant sinner. The Norton Simon "Portrait of a Young Girl" could well be Titian's first attempt while still under the influence of Giorgione.
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