Titian’s Early Masterpiece that Illustrates a Political and Moral Controversy

 

While nobody knows exactly when Titian was born, his active professional life started around 1506 and continued to his death in 1576 – that’s seventy years of painting. Titian may have been close to 90 years old when he died of the plague.

He studied art in Venice under Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, and his style was heavily influenced by Giorgione.  Titian became the undisputed master of Venetian painting, receiving orders from the Dukes of Ferrara, Gonzaga, and Urbino, and later from the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V himself.

He became the principal painter at the court of Charles V, and later his son, Philip II of Spain.

What made Venetian painting stand out even among the other masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance was the Venetian approach of prioritizing color, above the line and drawing. The Venetians favored glowing, jewel-like tones. This was made possible by the fact that Venice was an important center of trade at the time, bringing together wares from all over the world. Good canvas and paints were much more available in Venice than in many places around Europe.

The Theme

The Tribute Money is a famous painting by Titian on a rather rare subject. The story is taken from the New Testament – Matthew 22:15-22 and Mark 12: 13-17.

The paintings show Jesus Christ and a Pharisee at the moment when the Pharisee asks Jesus whether it is right to pay taxes to Caesar. Christ replies, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's".

Who was it painted for?

It was commissioned by Alfonso I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara. Alfonso d’Este was at odds with the Papacy at the time. The Pope had claims to some of his territories and did what he could to force the Duke to give them over to him, to the point of excommunicating Alfonso d’Este. 

The Duke saw these actions as grasping and unfair. According to him and many of his contemporaries, the Catholic Church was meddling in very earthly affairs and using its strength to manipulate and bully its subjects.

The theme probably appealed to Alfonso because this Biblical story carried across the message that the Church should concentrate on the matters of the soul, not on meddling in the sphere of rulers and governments.

Many art historians consider this painting one of the earliest depictions of this theme. This version (now in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden) was created ca 1516. Titian would later return to it around 1560, when he painted a second version.

The painting is simple and understated. The painter concentrates on just two figures – Christ and the Pharisee. Their debate is shown very subtly – there are no dramatic gestures that were often used in Baroque art to show the importance of the moment.

Christ’s body is turned away from the Pharisee, as if he has been detained by the Pharisee’s question in midstride and will continue on his way soon. Christ’s halo is discreet – you have to look for it, and he is dressed in jewel-like red and blue, traditional colors for Christ’s clothing from the Renaissance onwards. A curious detail is that Titian’s signature can be found on the Pharisee’s shirt collar.

Why Was it Controversial?

Throughout history this one phrase has been interpreted to mean two completely different things. One interpretation is that Christians are to obey governmental authorities without question. The other that one has to use one’s own discretion to determine what comes under a government’s authority and what under God’s in a person’s life.

Some Christian groups, for example, believe that a government doesn’t have the right to buy, sell, or forcefully end a person’s life, because it belongs to God.

Simplified the phrase would sound, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”. In order to determine to which sphere the paying of taxes belongs, Jesus asks a question of his own - “Whose image is it (on the coin)?” 

Since it was Caesar’s image on the coin, the money was shown to belong to Caesar, the ruler of the Roman Empire. This was the money Israel was using at the time. Being in someone’s image is often interpreted as belonging to someone in the Bible. In Genesis 1:27, it says that people were created in God’s image. Taking this logic a little further, humans cannot belong to another human being (such as a ruler) – they already are God’s.

During the Renaissance these questions came to the forefront of religious and scholarly discussion, resulting in criticism of the Church, and ultimately leading to the division of the Church during the Reformation. 

Bibliography:

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/titian

Titian. Masters of Italian Art. 2007. H.F. Ullmann. Marion Kaminski