The Lion in Great Age: Titian's Last Painting

December 2012 - Sydney J. Freedberg, Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Fine Arts emeritus, Harvard University, and chief curator, National Gallery of Art. In honor of the exhibition Titian: The Flaying of Marsyas on view at the National Gallery of Art from January 17 to April 20, 1986, chief curator Sydney J. Freedberg revealed how he arranged this special showing of Titian's last painting in the United States. In 1983 the work had been lent by the State Museum in Kromeriz, Czechoslovakia, for the first time in 300 years to the Genius of Venice exhibition at London's Royal Academy of Arts. Freedberg persuaded authorities to permit the painting to travel to the National Gallery of Art, in what he described as its second emergence from exile. In this lecture recorded on January 26, 1986, Freedberg provides the context for The Flaying of Marsyas (c. 1550-1576) and the later years of Titian's career.