Averoldi Polyptych
| Averoldi Polyptych | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Artist | Titian |
| Year | 1520–1522 |
| Medium | oil on panel |
| Dimensions | 278 cm × 292 cm (109 in × 115 in) |
| Location | Santi Nazaro e Celso, Brescia |
The Averoldi Polyptych is a painting by the Italian late Renaissance painter Titian, dating to 1520–1522 and in the basilica church of Santi Nazaro e Celso in Brescia, northern Italy.
It is signed "Ticianus Faciebat / MDXXII" on the column of the panel with St. Sebastian.
The work was commissioned by Altobello Averoldi, papal legate in Venice, to Titian at the time he was the official painter of the Republic of Venice. The work was delivered in 1522, as testified by Titian's signature in the lower right panel. The large polyptych was placed at the high altar of the church of Santi Nazaro e Celso of Brescia, then part of the Venetian mainland possessions, replacing another altarpiece by Vincenzo Foppa (of which now a Nativity of Jesus remains in the church of Santa Maria Assunta at Chiesanuova, as well as two side panels in the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo).
A first version of the St. Sebastian panel was offered to Alfonso d'Este of Ferrara as a compensation for his late in the realization of the Bacchanalia. The Duke declined the offer, and the early St. Sebastian was perhaps sent to Mantua, where one such painting is mentioned among the artworks sold by the Gonzaga to Charles I of England, although it is no more known afterwards.
Averoldi subsequently also started to complain about the lateness of delivery.
The use of compartment-divided polyptych, a solution rather old fashioned for the time, was surely an explicit demand of Averoldi. Titian obtained anyway a certain degree of unity, although not a spatial or architectural one as in the 15th century polyptychs: the Veneto painter adopted instead a chromatic-dynamic and light convergence towards the central scene.
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