Scotland saves its Mona Lisa but more cash is needed

Published on Monday 2 February 2009 21:07

TRIUMPHANT gallery chiefs confirmed yesterday they had found £50 million to save Titian's Diana and Actaeon for the nation, but they now face the daunting prospect of raising another £50 million for its sister painting in the midst of a deepening recession.

John Leighton, the director-general of the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS), said fundraisers had "broken the piggy banks" to secure the painting, and he pledged to build a long-term "fighting fund" to avoid a repeat of the five-month fight to save the first Titian.

So, is the masterpiece good value for money for Scotland?

He previously said losing losing Diana and Actaeon would be like France having to give up the Mona Lisa.

"I think it would be hard to exaggerate the misfortune it would be. In our terms it would be like the Mona Lisa being taking out of the Louvre, or the Uffizi gallery in Florence losing its Botticellis."

The NGS has also saved the Old Masters collection that forms the backbone of the Scottish national collection.

Mr Leighton and Linda Fabiani, the culture minister, moved to justify the decision to buy the painting, mostly with public cash, and to try to find the same huge sum for the second painting, Diana and Callisto.

Ms Fabiani pointed out that some 1.5 million people a year making a half-day visit to the NGS's galleries "equates to an estimated annual 27 million tourist spend, with the indirect economic impact of this rising to an estimated 50 million a year".

The NGS and the National Gallery in London jointly bought Diana and Actaeon from the Duke of Sutherland, in the biggest public purchase of a work of art in British history.

More than half the money came from the public purse, but Mr Leighton said it was the start of a decades-long effort to secure his galleries' finest paintings.

The NGS raided several funds to buy the painting, including the bulk of its annual acquisitions budget of about 1.2 million for the next three years.

The Duke of Sutherland put the two Titian masterpieces up for sale last August, to "rebalance" his family's assets. However, questions were being raised yesterday over whether the purchase of other, Scottish, works could suffer. Tom Hewlett, a veteran London dealer in Scottish art, revealed he had recently approached the NGS with a self-portrait by FCB Cadell, the Scottish Colourist, for less than 100,000. "They said no, their hands were tied. We were told one of the reasons why they wouldn't consider it was that all their money was going in that direction," he said.

"What happens when something wonderful in a different field comes up? What do the general public want to be able to see when they walk round the National Galleries of Scotland? Do they want to see two Titians, or the whole breadth of work? You think what you could buy with 50 million in this market. You could buy fantastic examples across the board."

Frank McAveety, a former Labour culture minister, questioned the wisdom of spending vast sums on the two paintings, saying: "I do recognise the cultural significance of the Titian paintings, but the sums of public money involved could be put to better use elsewhere."

The money to secure the first Titian was raised in five months, despite the credit crunch and banking crises and in "some of the toughest economic circumstances this country has faced", said Sir Brian Ivory, the chairman of the NGS trustees. "This is a historic day for the NGS, for the National Gallery in London, and a fantastic day for culture and heritage," he said.

The cash raised included at least 25 million in public money, though no exact figure was disclosed. It also included 7.4 million from private trusts and members of the public. The galleries are particularly proud of the 400,000 raised from collection boxes, sales of badges and direct mailings.

The painting will be in Edinburgh until September and will then move between the two capitals about every eight months for the first few years. Eventually, it will spend several years at a time in each city.

The NGS also secured the loan of the Sutherland family's world-famous 26 Old Masters for 21 years. Previously, the paintings had been on a rolling six-month loan. The Bridgewater collection went on show in Edinburgh 60 years ago and includes Poussin's Seven Sacraments, Raphael's Virgin and Child – the "Bridgewater Madonna" – and a Rembrandt self-portrait. Six, including the Titian, have been bought by the galleries in the past 20 years.

The possibility of losing the Titians had revived discussions over how to secure the keystone paintings in the Bridgewater collection, Mr Leighton said.

"What we have now is a recognition that, over a time, hopefully many, many generations, it will be highly desirable that the greatest things from this collection go into public ownership," he added.

The price of purchasing the entire collection has been put at 1 billion. The NGS had tried to set aside money for a fighting fund for major acquisitions, but it was very hard to do, he said.

The galleries have an option to buy Diana and Callisto within four years. But with a deal in place on the rest of the collection, the pressure to buy the second work could slacken. Dr Penny said some pledges towards the next painting were in place.

The prominent role the Sutherland family played in the Highland Clearances has fuelled some public backbiting over the 50 million payment to the duke.

But Ms Fabiani said: "The history of Scotland is there and people recognise it and feel very strongly about it, but what the government has to do is separate the issues and look at the wellbeing for the country."

BACKGROUND

THE biggest public fundraising drive for a single work of art in British history was triggered in March 2007. It was then that the Duke of Sutherland told the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) of his plans to sell part of the Bridgewater collection.

In August 2008, the NGS formally launched the bid to buy the work jointly with the National Gallery in London, the first time they had entered into such a partnership. Neither could have bought the Titian alone, said the NGS director-general, John Leighton.

The NGS knew the Scottish Government backed the purchase, but within weeks it faced the sudden collapse of confidence and share prices in the financial markets.

The milestone grant, staff said, was the 10 million from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the UK fund of last resort for saving art treasures.

With calculations and recalculations, they began to put the pieces together. In early December, The Scotsman reported that most of the 50 million was in place.

IN NUMBERS

7.4 million – donations and pledges from trusts and individuals, including 400,000 from leafleting, collection boxes and sale of badges

2 million – Monument Trust

1 million – Art Fund

10 million – National Heritage Memorial Fund

12.5 million – Scottish Government

12.5 million – National Gallery, London, including 11.5 million from bequests, donations, and investment income and 1 million Grant-in-Aid

4.6 million from National Gallery of Scotland purchase funds, trust funds and reserves.

Your guide to 50m worth of painting

TIZIANO Vecellio, better known as Titian, lived from around 1490 until 1576. He painted Diana and Actaeon, one of six large-scale mythologies inspired by the Roman poet Ovid, for King Philip II of Spain in 1559, the greatest European monarch of the day. The painting shows the moment young hunter Actaeon surprises Diana, the virgin goddess of the hunt, bathing naked in a stream with her nymphs. The furious Diana changes him into a stag, and he is torn to pieces by his own hounds.

The artist

He is one of the greatest painters of western art, at the peak of his powers. He was hugely influential and changed the entire character of painting.

The story

This is a picture that packs a very powerful punch. It is a very moving interpretation. It was a very well-known story during the Renaissance, to educated spectators, who would have been the only people to see it anyway.

It raises all sorts of questions about fate and justice. Actaeon's is an unwitting mistake, he is as surprised as the women are, you can see that by his gestures. He's absolutely astonished as he bursts in. In a way, he is an innocent victim.

But at the same time, Diana is a goddess, an upholder of chastity.This is an outrage, that her sanctum is invaded; he can't be allowed to get away with it.

1. Nudity and voyeurism

Diana and Actaeon is a subject that was perhaps chosen for its erotic possibilities. This is an opportunity for a painter celebrated all over Europe for his depiction of the female nude. You have a gathering of female nudes with the added titillation of an invasion of their precinct by a man. It has a voyeuristic quality.

2. The composition

This shows the novelty with which Titian treated this scene. In the traditional story, Diana splashes water on Actaeon to transform him into a stag. This appears in virtually every other representation. But that requires the two protagonists to be very close. Titian has decided against that; he's bringing his own interpretation to this.

He shows them at opposite ends of the painting, with this kind of magnetic field between them.

Various nymphs are in different stages of responding to the invasion of a man.

Having the (main] figures either side of the canvas makes this a very powerful confrontation. It is very powerfully erotic, but the premonition of the tragedy is very powerful, too.

3. The master at work

As in all Titian's pictures, it is the variety in the handling of the paint that is so expressive. It is not smooth and uniform. In some parts, it's painted very freely and sketchily, in other parts there are details and textures – evocations of textures such as the wonderful pile on the velvet on which Diana sits. Then you have the reflections (in the water].

This is his strength as a painter, the command of transient effects. You have a feeling of wind in the landscape and of moving clouds and air, a changing quality of the light. When you get up close, this isn't a smooth and calculated finish. It doesn't look like velvet at all, it looks like paint.

Here in the water you can see where the paint stands up from the surface, you can see the brushstrokes clearly, the speed with which he's attacked, the mastery of evoking these textures.

This was painted for the most important European ruler of the age, one of the most important patrons of the arts, and Titian is pulling out all the stops to produce a masterpiece for him.

4. The colours

One can see very clearly the richness of Titian's colours. He was already world- famous for this as the chief representative of Venetian painting. Those wonderful deep blue mountains play a very important part in the effect. The slave's dress is spectacular. The accents of red are extremely important.The reds on the left are balanced by a slightly different red on the right.

It's interesting that the big curtain was an afterthought. Investigation by X-ray has shown it didn't become an addition until he was in the process of painting, which demonstrates clearly the improvisatory nature of Titian's technique.

5. The hunt

There are a lot of references here. The nymphs are bathing after their exertions hunting and Diana is having her feet rubbed dry. Up there quite clearly are animal skins, deerskins, hanging on the right. That skull in the centre can be seen as just a trophy, but it does also look forward to Actaeon's fate. If you know the story, it has a chilling quality.

You can see Diana hunting in the distance, pursuing a stag. This is a normal convention of Italian Renaissance painting. It's not a moment in the same story, it's a reference to her as a huntress.

6. The lapdog

There is a light-hearted dimension in this rather silly little dog yapping, though it is beautifully painted.

There's this lapdog, a harmless little creature, yapping away at the hounds; Actaeon is rushing in with the dogs. He's hunting. He's just dropped that bow, it's part of his astonishment. This is almost like an element of comedy such as you'd find in a Shakespearean tragedy. It's almost a minor sub-plot to offset the seriousness of what is going on.

7. The female body

Some critics may claim Diana's head is too small but that is almost beside the point.We know that he had trouble with the figure of Diana because he changed her pose. She was originally seen purely in profile. But he's making a virtue out of it, to good effect in her swivelling round. You can show two sides of her at once. Nobody complained about that in Picasso.

Titian was informed by his own experience of real flesh and blood. He was a widower at this time, in his late sixties. He had been a family man with three children, with a long experience of painting nudes.