Titian's three‐altar project in the Venetian church of San Salvador: strategies of self‐representation by members of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco

Abstract

In the Venetian church of San Salvador there are two altarpieces by Titian, the Transfiguration and the Annunciation. A third altarpiece by him, a Crucifixion, was also planned, but never erected. Together they were supposed to display a christological programme. The paper argues that the three altarpieces were co‐ordinated by Titian and the patrons of the two side altars. These patrons were non‐noble merchants, involved like Titian in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. Many members of this lay confraternity desired a tomb or an altar in San Salvador, an important church near the Rialto. A history of the commissions for these altars and tombs reveals how cittadini acted in an area traditionally dominated by patricians. Their strategy of adapting to Venetian traditions on the one hand, and of developing their own modes of representation on the other, is most evident in Titian's patrons. A closer examination of Titian's Annunciation demonstrates how the painter and the patron dealt with such a crucial theme for the myth of Venice. Titian affirmed the traditional iconography of the Annunziata, but provided it with highly innovative features: the open brushwork and the unusual physicality of the holy figures express the incarnation of the divine Word.