MADONNA WITH SAINTS AND
MEMBERS OF THE PESARO FAMILY
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c. 1519~26, 478*266cm, Oil on canvas
The picture was intended as a token of thanksgiving for a victory over the Turks by the Venetian nobleman Jacopo Pesaro,
and Titian portrayed him kneeling before the while an armoured standard-bearer drags a Turkish prisoner behind him.
St Peter and the look down on him benignly while St Francis, on the other side, draws the attention of the Christ Child
to the other members of the Pesaro family, who are kneeling in
the corner of the picture. The whole scene seems to take place in an open courtyard, with two giant columns which rise into the clouds where two little angels are playfully engaged in raising
the Cross. Titian's contemporaries may well have been amazed
at the audacity with which he had dared to upset the old-established rules of composition. They must have expected, at first, to find such a picture lopsided and unbalanced. Actually it is the opposite. The unexpected composition only serves to make it
gay and lively without upsetting the harmony of it all. The main reson is the way in which Titian contrived to let light, air and
colours unify the scene. The idea of making a mere flag counterbalance figure of the Holy would probably have shocked an earlier generation, but this flag, in its rich, warm colour,
is such a stupendous piece of painting that the venture was a complete success.
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