Against Titian
Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art, 2018

Delivered on November 4, 2018, Stephen J. Campbell addresses the conflicted reception of the Venetian painter Titian outside his home city during a crucial phase in the formation of his reputation—his achievement of celebrity as a Hapsburg court painter and his inclusion in an emerging canon of Venetian and central Italian artists. While Titian’s production for Hapsburg patrons in Spain and other non-Italian destinations shows him performing as the quintessential artist of the Italian "modern manner," by the mid-sixteenth century his work for sites in Italy pursued a different course: artistic and critical reaction suggests that it was found to be inscrutable or alienating. Campbell’s lecture proposes that this reception resulted from a tacit disavowal on Titian's part of contemporary critical accounts—by Lodovico Dolce, Pietro Aretino, and Giorgio Vasari—that increasingly sought to define his work.
Discover more

Video: Look Closer: The Art of Devotion
This video explores powerful stories of devotion, love, and artistic passion through iconic works of art—from religious masterpieces to revolutionary portraits.

Video: Print Like a Great: Elizabeth Catlett
What happens when legacy, artistry, and womanhood collide? LaToya Hobbs creates a stunning woodcut portrait of Naima Mora, inspired by the life and work of legendary printmaker Elizabeth Catlett—Naima’s own grandmother.

Video: End as Beginning: Chinese Art and Dynastic Time
The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts presented by Wu Hung (2019)