“The most beautiful pictures in the world”, according to British artist Lucian Freud, Titian’s Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto (1556–1559), made their debut at the Museum of Fine arts, Houston yesterday, as part of Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting, which brings the works from the National Galleries of Scotland. The tour is part of the Scottish museum’s controversial fundraising effort: they’ve paid £50 million for one of the masterworks, and are collecting money to acquire the second to save it from being auctioned off. Commissioned by King Phillip II of Spain in 1556, Titian’s Diana paintings were “acquired” by the Duke of Orleans from Spain in 1704. After the French Revolution (chop chop!) they “entered” the private Bridgewater Collection in England, and were eventually loaned to the National Galleries of Scotland in 1945 to get them out of London during WWII. Their owner, the Duke of Sutherland, is cashing in, and offered to sell the paintings to the museum for a bargain £100 million, sparking British tabloid The Sun to offer its own, cheaper version of the painting using it’s infamous “page 3 girls.”
Titian’s Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto now at the MFAH: Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting
