Titian exhibition: Art lover’s legacy to Glasgow goes on show

A SHOW of 40 of the greatest Italian masterpieces owned by Glasgow has shed new light on the wealthy 19th-century art lover whose purchases delivered a treasure trove of masterpieces to the city.

Essence of Beauty: 500 years of Italian Art opens at the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery today. The show includes stunning restorations of artworks, some of which have been in storage for decades.

But about half come from the collection of Archibald McLellan, the former coachbuilder and town councillor who left more than 400 pictures to the city when he died, saddled with debt, in 1856.

They include the show’s greatest masterpiece, Titian’s Christ and the Adulteress, now conclusively seen as the work of the Venetian master.

• {View the full details of the exhibition here

The exhibition includes choice works by other Italian masters, such as Bellini, Botticelli, and Rosa, shown in restored frames alongside period Italian ceramics and weapons. One is The Adoration of the Magi, a 16th-century masterpiece by an unknown artist known as the Glasgow Master, unseen in public for about 30 years.

It underwent months of restoration by a team led by Glasgow’s senior conservator, Polly Smith, who removed layers of deeply darkened varnish.

Patricia Collins, the exhibition’s curator, said: “I found it in store, and I wanted to include it, even though it was pretty brown.”

McLellan’s purchases over 30 years included a Nativity scene by the 15th-century Bolognese artist Francia, another highlight that has been carefully restored, as well as a work now attributed to Francesco Vecellio, Titian’s older brother.

McLellan never visited Italy, and tantalisingly little is known about where and how he bought 120 Italian works.

He left his collection to his native city for the “welfare and elevation” of its citizens. But the unmarried businessman died deeply in debt, after losing heavily on the development of property in Sauchiehall Street.

One city councillor called his works a “collection of rubbish” and another complained about the nudity, but far-sighted lord provost Andrew Orr drove through a purchase of the works for £44,500.

A new catalogue of all Glasgow’s major Italian paintings by Peter Humfrey, the leading authority on Titian’s work, has confirmed that, after decades of controversy, Christ and the Adulteress is indeed by Titian. A small minority of experts still think it is by Giorgione, to whom the painting was attributed for a century, but opinion has conclusively shifted.

Mr Humfrey said: “I’m completely round to the view this is early Titian.”

The McLellan legacy is still pivotal for Glasgow, he notes in his book, although mystery still surrounds him, “where he bought from, and his motives”.

Mr Humfrey added: “He died quite suddenly in embarrassed financial circumstances, but always meant to leave his collection to the city. In the event, they had to buy it, but at a knockdown price.”

• {View the full details of the exhibition here