Titianus Cadorinus

The exhibition hosted in the Palazzo della Magnifica Comunità in Pieve di Cadore inaugurates the celebrations for the 450th anniversary of Titian’s death, resonating symbolically with the year of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Milano-Cortina. At its core is an unprecedented dialogue between two pivotal works from Titian’s early career: the monumental Gozzi Altarpiece, exceptionally on loan from the Civic Art Gallery of Ancona, and the remarkable woodcut The Submersion of Pharaoh’s Army in the Red Sea from the Civic Museums of Bassano del Grappa. Though different in technique and function, the two works converge on the terrain of landscape, which for Titian is never a neutral backdrop but a narrative structure charged with symbolic, political, and emotional tension. From the first modern painted view of the Venetian lagoon to the imaginary, northern-inflected city emerging from the waters in the woodcut, landscape becomes the true protagonist and a lens through which historical reality is read.

The project is grounded in a dense network of institutional collaborations that reinforce its scientific and cultural relevance, involving museums, public institutions, and international partners. Emblematic is the exchange with the Diocese of Treviso: during the absence of the Gozzi Altarpiece, Ancona hosts The Annunciation from the Malchiostro Chapel, also dated 1520, activating a further axis of study and comparison. The catalogue plays a central role, bringing together essays that open new interpretative paths, including a significant contribution by Augusto Gentili on Titian’s conception of landscape. Conceived by Bernard Aikema and curated by Thomas Dalla Costa, the exhibition takes the form of a dossier-exhibition: a research-driven platform oriented toward future developments, from the summer exhibition to the international conference scheduled for 2027. An active laboratory that reaffirms the Cadore as a living centre for the study of Titian and his European legacy.

Featured image: Tiziano, Madonna con il Bambino e angeli, San Francesco, San Biagio e il donatore Alvise Gozzi (Pala Gozzi), 1520 – Ancona, Pinacoteca Civica “Francesco Podesti”