Titian
Venetian, 1490–1576 ca.

Christ and the Adulteress, 1508–10 ca.
Oil on canvas
54 13/16 x 71 1/2"

Glasgow Museums, Archibald McLellan Collection, purchased 1856
181

COMMENTS

This is one of the most important works in Glasgow’s collections. It is painted in oil on canvas by the Venetian master Tiziano Vecellio, usually called Titian. It is an early work, dating from about 1509, when the young Titian’s developing style was still close to that of his teacher, Giorgione. Another work now in Glasgow’s collection, the Head of a Man, originally formed part of this same painting, but was cut off at an unknown date.

The subject is an illustration of the gospel story of Christ being asked to sentence an adulterous woman to death. He replied that all those who even briefly consider the idea of adultery but do not act on it are as guilty as the woman, whom he dismissed, telling her not to sin again.

This painting is important as a rare example of Titian’s early work to be seen outside Italy. It was previously attributed to other Venetian artists, including Giorgione, but almost all experts now agree that it was painted by Titian. It is a key work in Titian scholarship, and much admired by visitors.

- Glasgow Museums Collections Navigator
http://collections.glasgowmuseums.com/starobject.html?oid=166789

The city of Venice was home to many talented painters, but none were more revered or successful than the great sixteenth-century painter Titian. His early training was in the workshop of Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1438–1516), but the paintings of another important Venetian painter, Giorgione (1477–1510), had the most profound impact on Titian’s art. His painting style is expressive and self-assured, and embodies the fundamental shift that occurred between fifteenth-century painting, which is characterized by fineness of finish and bright local color, and sixteenth-century painting, which is marked by a looser technique coupled with a more harmonious color palette.

Throughout his lifetime, Titian painted all genres, including portraits, religious paintings, and mythological subjects. Although he had many patrons within Venice, he also had a prominent international reputation, with many beyond his native country collecting his work, including King Philip II of Spain. As a result, Titian’s workshop was large and his influence was broad, ultimately touching the work of Peter Paul Rubens, Diego Velázquez, Rembrandt van Rijn, and other Baroque masters.

- Of Heaven and Earth: 500 Years of Italian Painting from Glasgow Museums, Milwaukee Art Museum
http://mam.org/of-heaven-and-earth/biographies.php

SBMA CURATORIAL LABELS

According to the story recounted in John 8:2-11, the Pharisees, seeking to trap Jesus into contradicting the law of Moses, brought before him a woman caught in the act of adultery, demanding that she be stoned to death. Jesus disarmed her accusers by saying “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”

This is the most famous painting in the Glasgow collections. It was once attributed to Giorgione, a towering figure in Venetian painting who died young; the current attribution to Titian, Giorgione’s most gifted student, is based on the richness of the colors, the exquisite rendering of textures and play of light on surfaces, and the complex psychological interplay among the figures. The figures wear contemporary clothing, a brilliant touch that makes the story come to life more vividly than ever before, and also suggests that its moral has contemporary relevance. Which it still has.

- Botticelli, Titian, and Beyond, 2015