Old Art, Powerful Subject Matter, and New Ethics In Gardner Museum Show

Many ancient works of art commonly recognized as wonderful masterpieces dealt with subject matters that are currently not so much en vogue. Over time, ethics, aesthetics, and politics can and do shift.

Holland Cotter, reviewing the “Titian: Women, Myth & Power,” show at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, notes that in the #MeToo era the six Titian paintings from the 1500s could be charged with victimizing innocence and rape for the male gaze. Looking strictly at technique, they are amazing, but the moral context can make the experience somewhat awkward.

One way to deal with the situation is for galleries to better explain the context in which the art was made to assist us with learning what we can. He makes the case that art a human endeavor, showing us at our best as well as our worst.

Titian: Women, Myth & Power

The show runs through January 2 at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. For more information, call (617) 566-1401, or click through to the gardnermuseum.org.

Flora by Titian, 1515~1520, public domain