Leo Steinberg on Titian: Observing Artworks in Their Context

• In Event: Titian II

Abstract

Leo Steinberg (1920–2011) is known as one of the most revolutionary and thought-provoking art historians of the twentieth century. His studies in Italian Renaissance art contributed to expanding the analysis of how images produce meanings beyond symbolism and iconography, thus representing an alternative to Panofskian iconology. While his research on Leonardo, Michelangelo and Pontormo was published between the late 1960s and early ’70s, Steinberg’s contemporary unpublished project on Titian has been relegated to the memory of his private notes. By bringing previously unstudied material to light, this paper seeks to reconstruct the dialogue between Steinberg and Titian. It will highlight how Titian’s painting stimulated Steinberg’s methodological reflections on the dialectic between the artist’s creativity and the cultural and physical environment in which his works originated. Particular attention will be paid to Steinberg’s focus on how Titian’s paintings engage with the spectator in their original Venetian context.

Author

• Giorgio Tagliaferro, University of Warwick