New National Gallery App
For anyone who is stoically enduring the great ‘HIT PAUSE’ on their anticipated Gallery visits this spring, there is a chink in the clouds. Those gleefully awaiting Titian: Love. Desire. Death at The National Gallery in London, will be able to virtually sway along with this poetic set of paintings through a newly minted App.
PhilosophyArts is delighted to announce the imminent launch of their first virtual tour, created with The National Gallery and Titian: Love, Desire, Death. The (delayed but not cancelled) exhibition – a highlight of the 2020 calendar – is more than a just promise for the future. You can now experience at least one of the major works, Diana and Actaeon, up close and personal, 24/7, and without so much as having to glance away from your nearest web enabled device. Packed with philosophical, curatorial, art historical, critical and technical insights, the app has been specially created so that you can see all Titian's poesie in incredible detail while accessing all kinds of interesting content.
The myth of Diana and Actaeon, which originated in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, is surprisingly woke. A young hunter named Actaeon, encounters the beautiful Artemis, also knows as Diana, goddess of the hunt, while the latter is bathing. Startled by the intrusion, Diana's integrity is protected by transforming Actaeon into a deer. Thus neutralised and muted, the potential predator is turned to prey. He flees but cannot escape the bloodthirsty hounds he himself trained. They track him down and kill him, sensing his loss of authority.
Titan, a genius of storytelling through the visual image, used this and other myths from Metamorphoses, to spin the story of authority and estrangement, communication and misunderstanding, lust and loss, and retributive resolution to create the most ambitious and magnificent works of his entire career. It was Titian who coined the term ‘poesie’ - regarding each of the works developed out of Ovid's narrative as visual equivalents of poetry. After 500 years of estrangement, the paintings are brought together for the first time.
If you are new to these myths, make sure they ‘hit right’ by getting to know Diana and Actaeon with the app.
