Tizians Perseus und Andromeda. Datierungen, Repliken, Kopien

Abstract

The origin of the Wallace Collection's painting has been controversially placed either in the years 1553-1556 or 1562-1565. Rearick (Artibus et Historiae, no. 33, 1996) regarded the picture as a second version painted in the 1560s after a completely differently composed and today lost first version of the 1550s. Contesting this view the article argues - based e.g. on an etching by Giulio Sanuto hitherto not sufficiently taken into account - that the London painting was shipped in 1556 from Titian to Philipp II in Gent. Furthermore the variant of the painting in Montauban, attributed to Titian's workshop, testifies to the fact that a second, slightly modified version of the canvas in the Wallace Collection remained in Venice even after the picture was delivered. A copy after the painting sent to Philipp II, done in Madrid at the end of the sixteenth century also supports the early date of the London picture. Finally, Luca Giordano's copy painted around 1700 in Madrid - for the first time reproduced here - is based on this version and not on the painting in the Wallace Collection as has been argued.