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La bella (copy of Titian)
William Etty·c. 1805
Historical Context
Etty's copy after Titian's famous La Bella in the Palazzo Pitti, painted around 1805, documents his intense study of Venetian painting during his Italian travels of 1822-24. Copying Old Master works was a standard part of artistic education, but Etty pursued it with particular devotion to the Venetian colorists, spending months before works by Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto. The Ferens Art Gallery in Hull holds this tribute to the master whose flesh painting Etty sought to emulate throughout his career.
Technical Analysis
The copy reproduces Titian's rich chromatic harmonies, with the sitter's sumptuous costume rendered in deep blues and golds. Etty's brushwork inevitably differs from Titian's, tending toward the broader, more impasto handling characteristic of nineteenth-century practice. The exercise of copying allowed him to analyze the master's layered glazing technique from the inside, knowledge he applied to his original compositions.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice Etty copying Titian's famous La Bella from the Palazzo Pitti — documenting his intense study of Venetian painting during his Italian travels of 1822-24.
- ◆Look at the rich chromatic harmonies reproduced in the sitter's sumptuous costume of deep blues and golds.
- ◆Observe Etty's brushwork inevitably differing from Titian's, tending toward the broader, more impasto handling characteristic of nineteenth-century practice.
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