[stag_toggle style=”normal” title=”Details about the play” state=”closed”],,Sacred love and profane love”
Maximilian von Schneidt (1858 – 1937)
Copy after Titian
Oil/canvas
167cm x 95cm
4/4 19th century[/stag_toggle]
Within the temporary exhibition,,Harmony and grandeur", visitors to the museum can admire the most valuable Italian art objects from the royal collection: elaborately carved furniture, marble marquetry and semi-precious stones, worked in the "pietra dura" technique, spectacular majolica vases and fascinating Murano crystals. Along with decorative art, the Peleş National Museum brings to the attention of the general public several reference sculptures, as well as a series of paintings copied or inspired by the renowned artists of the Italian Renaissance: Raphael, Correggio, Titian, Veronese, Palma Vecchio, etc. Of all the canvases displayed in the exhibition, we have chosen for illustration "Sacred Love and Profane Love", skillfully reproduced by Maximilian von Schneidt (1858–1937) after the famous canvas of the same name, painted by Titian (1480? – 1576).
An artist of German origin, co-opted by the Romanian Royal House in the vast artistic project at Peleş, alongside Gustav and Ernst Klimt, Franz Matsch, Georg Bregenzer, E. Ritter Gotha and others, Maximilian von Schneidt stands out for his erudition and becomes, probably towards the end of the 19th century, the custodian of King Carol I's art gallery. Of the approximately 100 copies identified to date, made on royal order between 1880-1910, eleven copies after old masters are linked to Maximilian von Schneidt's name, as well as at least one canvas (painted in 1912, with a mythological theme).
The King's predilection for religious subjects being well known, the choice of the canvas "Sacred and Profane Love" seems – at first glance – unusual. Passionate about Venetian painting, Carol I turned mainly to Titian's mature works, especially portraiture. However, the beauty and mystery of the artist's youthful masterpiece seem to have won out. Historically, in 1514, at only twenty-five years old, still a disciple of Giovanni Bellini (1430-1516), Titian received one of the most important commissions up to that time from the great chancellor of Venice, Niccolo Aurelio. Fascinated by the beauty of his future wife, Niccolo Aurelio wanted at all costs a matrimonial union with the young widow, Laura Bagarotto. Laura's fate, however, seems marked by unhappiness: in addition to the pain caused by the premature death of her first husband, she also faced with the imminent loss of her father, accused of high treason by Aurelio himself. A double suffering, which the high official tries to temper, through the mediation of Titian's artistic genius. The reconciliation between the spouses - as much as was humanly possible - was achieved, and in the end, Laura Bagarotto remained in history as the happy owner of one of the most controversial canvases ever made.
Passionate about art and determined to create the most envied art gallery in Rome, Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V (1605-1621), acquired the painting through Cardinal Pallavicini in 1608 and displayed it in the sumptuous interiors of the Villa Borghese. For three centuries, the painting delighted aristocrats invited to the lavish banquets organized by the family. It can still be admired there today, alongside other masterpieces such as Correggio's "Danae", Carravaggio's "Young Man with a Basket of Fruit" and Canova's "Paulina Borghese, in the guise of Venus". Not even the honorable relationship with the Bonaparte family through Camillo Borghese, who became Pauline Bonaparte's husband, persuaded Borghese to give up on the valuable acquisition. In 1807, over 500 objects of art from the vast Borghese collection made their way to Paris and are today precious exhibits at the Louvre Museum. Towards the end of the 19th century, the famous Rothschild bankers offered the heirs of Villa Borghese an astronomical price for Titian's canvas, a price that, of course, King Carol I, an ardent collector, would never have allowed himself. However, Borghese's descendants refused the offer and remained steadfast in preserving what they considered invaluable. In 1995, for the first time, "Sacred Love and Profane Love" reaches the avid gaze of art consumers, as part of an exhibition opened in Rome.
Over five centuries, the canvas has preserved its former mystery unchanged, provoking religious, literary and philosophical controversies, all the more so since the current title is only attested in 1793! Influenced by the painting of Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione, Titian composes a double female portrait, hypostases of the same character, which he places in a delightful bucolic landscape, on either side of a sarcophagus-fountain, decorated with the united coats of arms of the Aurelio and Bagarotto families. A tribute to Love, the canvas emphasizes the sacred-profane dualism, but also the facets of a marriage, with the public, social sphere, strictly delimited from the private, intimate one. The young woman on the left wears the typical attire and accessories of 16th-century brides: a loose dress, a myrtle wreath, a belt, gloves and a bouquet of roses, while the one on the right wears a simple purple drapery over her left hand and a sheer veil around her thighs. Young and beautiful, the woman exposes herself to the viewer without modesty, but also without coquetry. Her splendid face, anticipating neoclassical purity, absently follows the playful winged Cupid. The landscape in the background, sketched with a sure hand, has been identified as Val Lapisina, the painter's temporary residence, the towering tower, San Floriano, and the lake with a mirror-like surface, Lago Morto.
The matrimonial theme is intertwined with allegory, each element of the two women's props being carefully evaluated: the myrtle is the symbol of marital happiness, the sarcophagus, a reference to the unfortunate death of the father, and the opait in the raised hand of the half-naked woman, an allusion to faith. From a literary point of view, specialists brought into discussion Francesco Colonna's work, "Il Sogno di Polifilo", the two women being identified with Polia, the clothed young woman, and Venera, the half-naked young woman. Although she swears to remain chaste, Polia cannot keep her promise to herself and falls into the nets of a young man, becoming an assiduous servant of the goddess of Love. Enjoyed in aristocratic circles, drama was no stranger to the Venetian artist.
Another interpretative vein is the philosophical one and starts from the doctrine of Ficinian Neoplatonism, which is based on the theory of complementarity between terrestrial Venus and celestial Venus. The figure of the half-naked woman is explained as celestial Venus, beautiful as Truth, which is said to be naked. The raised arm symbolizes charity, spiritual knowledge, simplicity and purity. Terrestrial Venus is the symbol of motherhood, of the regenerative force of Nature. In full accordance with the symbolism of the two characters, the landscape in the background appears half shrouded in semi-darkness, half bathed in a divine light. A colorist of great strength, Titian confirms in "Sacred Love and Profane Love" that value does not wait for the number of years: with fine, sensitive touches, the artist created life, brilliance, beauty. With a sparkle of genius, he dosed the color and produced accents full of drama.
Maximilian von Schneidt's work from the Peleș collection does not mechanically reproduce the original, but rather imprints something of the 19th century sensitivity, as well as of the romanticism of his personality. With "Sacred Love and Profane Love", as with the other Italian art objects, the "Harmony and Grandeur" exhibition invites you on an imaginary journey into the universe of the golden ages of European humanist culture, pausing for a moment at its sources.