Titian’s touch of genius

Walking around this exhibition is a humbling experience. We are privileged to have a display of paintings of this quality in London, and it is an incredible achievement to have obtained loans of such distinction. One of the pictures scheduled for the show is not in fact available, ‘Sacred and Profane Love’ from the Villa Borghese in Rome, but two late additions more than compensate for its absence. One is the ‘Crucifixion with Saint Dominic’ from Ancona (which was so last-minute that it hadn’t yet arrived when I previewed the exhibition), and the other is the magnificent ‘Flaying of Marsyas’ from the Czech Republic. When ‘Marsyas’ was last seen in London at the Royal Academy 20 years ago in The Genius of Venice exhibition, we were warned that we’d never see it again in England. Now, almost at the 11th hour, it has been secured for this exhibition. David JaffZ, the exhibition’s curator, must take a lot of the credit for this, and deserves our gratitude.