Had it been Austin Powers, that swingin' '60s spy, leading a recent preview tour of the High Museum of Art exhibit "Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting: Masterpieces From the National Galleries of Scotland," he would have enthusiastically described some of the works as "very naughty."
But instead the tour guide was Michael Clarke, the erudite and distinguished director of the National Gallery of Scotland, who nonetheless spoke with Powers-like zest about the "very beautiful expanses of flesh" on view.
Specifically, Clarke was referring to Titian's "Diana and Actaeon," a 6-foot-by-7-foot oil on canvas populated by ripely naked nymphs whose bathing is interrupted by the hunter Actaeon. But the description would be apt for several of the 25 works that go on public view Sunday, their pink flesh set off by the gallery walls, freshly painted a shade that might be described as boudoir burgundy.
A bit of background: 1500s Venice was home to a large number of nobility who commissioned art as a symbol of their status. The works created for what Clarke referred to as the elite's "private pleasure palaces" often depicted themes of seduction and sensuality and took inspiration from classical Roman mythology. The naked female body was considered to be the supreme expression of beauty.
"One of the things young men liked was pictures of ladies with no clothes on," Clarke said, before visiting Paolo Veronese's adulterous clutch, "Mars and Venus With Cupid."
The tour group snickered, but it was easy to see why the beautiful paintings and drawings by Titian, Veronese, Jacopo Tintoretto and others are considered the Venetian Renaissance's gift to art history.
"To me, these are simply the most beautiful pictures in the world," the great contemporary British painter Lucian Freud has said of "Diana and Actaeon" and "Diana and Callisto" (both 1556-1559), completed for King Philip II of Spain. "Once you've seen them, you want to see them again and again."
The two monumental paintings, part of a Titian series of six mythological paintings based on the classical poet Ovid's "Metamorphoses," had never been seen in the U.S. before the tour, which will also visit the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
The "Diana" paintings have been on long-term loan at the National Galleries in Edinburgh since 1945. In 2008, the Scottish institution and the National Gallery of London were given the opportunity to acquire the pair from the Duke of Sutherland. In less than five months, the museums purchased "Diana and Actaeon" for a reported less-than-market-value $71.3 million. They are now raising funds to secure "Diana and Callisto."
High director Michael Shapiro heard National Galleries' director-general John Leighton give a presentation on the drive while attending a 2008 Paris meeting of the International Group of Organizers of Large-scale Exhibitions, a confederation of some 40 of the world's leading museums and galleries. He approached Leighton and asked whether he had any interest in sharing the masterworks with the American public. To Shapiro's surprise, he was receptive.
Before Thursday's preview, Leighton explained that he's interested in pumping up the National Galleries' 1.5 million yearly visitation, and to show "there's a lot more to Scotland than golf and whiskey."
High director of collections and exhibitions David Brenneman said he was "completely blown away" by the size, beauty and complexity of the "Diana" paintings when he saw them for the first time two years ago. He hopes Atlantans will have a similar reaction, and said he isn't concerned about how the nudity will go over in the capital of the Deep South.
School groups will be informed in advance, Brenneman said, and given a choice to view or not. He said there's nothing in "Titian and the Golden Age" to which his own 16-year-old and 13-year-old haven't been exposed already.
"When I was a kid, maybe this would’ve been R," Brenneman said, "but now, it's not even PG-13."
Exhibit preview
"Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting: Masterpieces From the National Galleries of Scotland"
Opening Sunday. Through Jan. 2. $18; $15 students and seniors; $11 children 6-17; free for children 5 and younger and members. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; until 8 p.m. Thursdays; noon-5 p.m. Sundays. High Museum of Art, 1280 Peachtree St. 404-733-4444, www.high.org .
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