TITIAN! new publication from yours truly. I contributed an extensive section on prints after Titian to this catalogue of the collection of pictures by, after, and around Titian in the collection of Alec Cobbe at Hatchlands Park.

Often neglected, prints designed or sanctioned by the artist, or made after his work either during his lifetime or in the centuries following his death are a rich visual source for understanding his work and its reception, and sometimes they’re even great works of art themselves.

It’s been a pleasure to write these entries and thus to contibute to a still mostly ignored field of study. The book is published by the Colnaghi Foundation. Look it up!

Michelangelo & Sebastiano, with Dr Matthias Wivel and Dr Piers Baker-Bates from Colnaghi Foundation on Vimeo.

It’s Christmas time, so here’s a treat for the two and half people who might care. I was searching for something else and happened upon this video through the Colnaghi Foundation website. It records a conversation I had at their premises in London in the spring of 2017 with my colleague Piers Baker-Bates on Sebastiano del Piombo, his relationship to Michelangelo and his fortuna critica in Spain (a particular specialty of Piers’). Of course the impetus was the exhibition I had organised at the National Gallery, to which Piers had provided invaluable assistance.

I was aware at the time that it was being filmed but forgot all about it, so it’s nice to see it’s been online for a while. It’s very nerdy, but that was also kind of the brief, and frankly a relief at a time when I was doing many more general — and also enjoyable! — introductions to the subject. Plus, it’s always nice to chat with Piers. Enjoy!