Volume 37, Number 13 · August 16, 1990
Titian and the Perils of International Exhibition
By Francis Haskell
Titian 1990 and at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC October 28, 1990–January 27, 1991
an exhibition at the Palazzo Ducale, Venice June 1, 1990–October 7,
Titian
catalog of the exhibition, Introduction by Francesco Valcanover
Prestel/distributed by te Neues, 430 pp., $65.00
A tough dilemma tends to condition the choice of pictures shown at the more ambitious international exhibitions of Old Masters: the institutions that lend the paintings (for the paintings involved now belong almost exclusively to institutions) feel inclined to support such ventures only if they are intended to be 'of genuine scholarly interest.' But the borrowing institutions usually wish to promote exhibitions only if they are nothing of the sort, for reasons of politics and prestige as much as of finance make huge attendances absolutely essential. The ensuing compromises are rarely very satisfactory, though cunning work by departments of public relations can help to disguise this effectively enough.
Review, 4729 words
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