Titian’s 1935 exhibition in Venice

This paper studies organization, critical reception and impact at scientific level of the important Titian’s monographic exhibition hold in Venice in 1935. Given that the Venetian monographic exhibition must be considered in the context of a wider communication strategy of the Regime, it is also necessary to underline that undoubtedly it had different goals than those of other propagandistic events. Titian’s exhibition represented an essential stage in the development of Titian’s studies, due to the opportunity offered to scholars to rethink on the whole the great Master’s work as well as to review some attributions and to clarify certain aspects of his style. The exhibition was crucial, in particular, to increase knowledge on Titian’s late production and to re-evaluate it: in a bright environment it displayed a considerable number of paintings realized in the period from the late Fifties to the Seventies, allowing scholars to fully capture their stylistic and technical features. The countless reviews on the 1935 Titian’s exhibition, published both in the specialist journals and in the popular magazines, testify that scholars’ thoughts and new acquisitions were spread amongst the general public, promoting at all levels a new interpretation of the artist, which was deeply influenced by the art historians’ fascination with Impressionism, an art movement that was becoming a symbol of a classical modernity.