Perseus and Andromeda

Titian's Perseus and Andromeda from 1554-1556, now in the Wallace Collection, was one of his poesie for Philip II of Spain — a visual poem based on Ovid's Metamorphoses showing the hero descending on his winged horse to rescue the princess chained to the rocks as sacrifice to the sea monster. The subject combined the visual drama of the heroic nude in violent action with the display of the restrained female nude in distress — a pairing that allowed Titian to address both the heroic masculine tradition of Italian Renaissance figure painting and the more specifically Venetian tradition of the sensuous female. Rubens, who knew this painting through his Roman years and through the Spanish royal collection, returned to it repeatedly; his Diana and Callisto and other mythological works show the direct influence of Titian's compositional solutions for the poesie. The Wallace Collection, assembled by the Marquesses of Hertford in Paris during the nineteenth century, holds this work as one of its greatest Italian Renaissance treasures.

The dramatic diagonal of the plunging hero contrasts with the chained vertical figure of Andromeda, with Titian's increasingly free late brushwork creating atmospheric effects in the stormy seascape.

Part of the "poesie" series for Philip II of Spain, Perseus and Andromeda is now in the Wallace Collection, London. The painting has been cleaned and restored, revealing the dynamic composition and Titian's increasingly free handling. The canvas has been relined. The palette of this late work is darker than the earlier poesie, reflecting Titian's evolving approach. Some areas show wear, but the principal figures are well-preserved.