TITIAN (Tiziano Vecellio)
51 Pastoral Scene
Pen and brown ink, black chalk, and white gouache
heightening; H: I9.6cm(7^11 /i6in.); W: 30.1 cm(n^7 /8in.)
85.00.9 8
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom, inscribed Ti-
tiano in brown ink.
PROVENANCE: William, second duke of Devonshire,
Chatsworth; by descent to the current duke (sale, Chris-
tie's, London, July 3 , 1984, lot 44); art market, London.
EXHIBITIONS: Drawings by Old Masters, Royal Academy
of Arts, London, 1953, no. 89 (catalogue by K. T. Parker
and J. Byam Shaw). Old Master Drawings from Chats-
worth, Manchester City Art Gallery, July-September
1961, no. 60. Italian i6th Century Drawings from British
Private Collections, Scottish Arts Council, Edinburgh
Festival, August-September 1969, no. 46 (catalogue by
Y. TanBunzletal.). Old Master Drawings from Chatsworth,
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and other
institutions, 1969-1970, no. 68 (catalogue by J. Byam
Shaw). Disegni di Tiziano e della sua cerchia, Fondazione
Giorgio Cini, Venice, 1976, no. 46 (catalogue by K. Ob-
erhuber). Old Master Drawings—A Loan from the Collec-
tion of the Duke of Devonshire, Israel Museum, Jerusalem,
April-July 1977, no. 8. Treasures from Chatsworth: The
Devonshire Inheritance, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,
Richmond, and other institutions, 1979-1980, no. 64
(catalogue by A. Blunt et al.).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. A. Strong, Reproductions of Drawings
by Old Masters in the Collection of the Duke of Devonshire at
Chatsworth (London, 1902), p. 14, no. 59; T. Pignatti,
"Disegni di Tiziano: Tre mostre a Firenze e a Venezia,"
Arte veneta 30 (1976), p. 269; W. R. Rearick, Tiziano e il
disegno veneziano del suo tempo, exh. cat., Gabinetto Dis-
egni e Stampe degli Uffizi, Florence, 1976, p. 45; T. Pig-
natti, "Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Esposizioni: Disegni di
Tiziano e la sua cerchia; Tiziano e la silografia veneziano
delCinquecento," Pantheon 35 (April-June 1977), p. 169 ;
M. Muraro, "GraficaTizianesca,"inR. Pallucchini, ed.,
Tiziano e il manierismo europeo (Florence, 1978), p. 140; T.
Pignatti, Tiziano: Disegni (Florence, 1979), p. n, no. 53;
J. Byam Shaw, "Titian's Drawings: A Summing-Up,"
Apollo 112, no. 226 (December 1980), p. 387; T. Pignatti,
Master Drawings from Cave Art to Picasso (New York,
1982), p. 137; J. Byam Shaw, "Drawings from Chats-
worth," Apollo 119, no. 268 (June 1984), pp. 456-457,
459-THIS DRAWING WAS FIRST PUBLISHED BY STRONG AS
by Campagnola (1902) and then went unnoticed until
Byam Shaw attributed it to Titian (1969-1970, no. 68).
Since then it has been accepted as such by all scholars ex-
cept Muraro (1978, p. 140), who proposed the alterna-
tives of Verdizotti or Cort, neither of whom can be
shown ever to have made a drawing comparable to it in
any sense. Strong's attribution to Campagnola may be
dismissed with equal assurance. None of his many draw-
ings possess the subtlety of pen stroke, control of spatial
relationships, or atmospheric suggestiveness of this
sheet.
The drawing fits very easily into Titian's corpus of
drawings and alongside his paintings, as Oberhuber has
demonstrated (1976, no. 46). He has associated it not
only with the landscape drawing still at Chatsworth (inv.
751; 1976, no. 47) but also with the Ruggiero and Angelica
in the Musee Bonnat, Bayonne (inv. 652; 1976, fig. 29)
and the Saint Theodore and the Dragon in the Pierpont
Morgan Library, New York (inv. 1977.46; 1976, no. 44).
They form a group of late landscapes comparable in their
spatial conception and mood. Oberhuber has related the
woman in the Museum's drawing to nudes in late paint-
ings, such as the Venus and Cupid (Cambridge, Fitzwil-
Ham Museum), and the background to that of the Saint-
Margaret (Madrid, Prado). Although its Giorgionesque
character seems to argue for a much earlier moment, Ob-
erhuber's date of around 1565 is correct. It is buttressed
by Titian's interest in Giorgione at that point, best seen
in the Nymph and Shepherd (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches
Museum). Also noteworthy is the daring application of
white heightening on the most prominent of the trees, a
technique in tune with the "impressionism" of Titian's
late paintings.
Oberhuber has proposed that the underlying theme
is Indolence leading to Lust. The drawing was copied in
a number of prints, including one by Le Febre in which
the woman was transformed into a male shepherd. A
partial copy of the drawing, with the area including the
woman and surrounding details left blank, is in the Uffizi
(inv. 502?).124 ITALIAN SCHOOL • TITIAN