Titian and the Art of Color (in Samuel F. B. Morse's "Gallery of the Louvre”)
1 Video View·Oct 22, 2025
In this video, Musée du Louvre curator Jean Habert and Terra Foundation curator Peter John Brownlee explain Samuel F. B. Morse’s particular interest in the “chromatic classicism” of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Venetian paintings, such as Titian’s “Entombment” and Veronese’s “The Wedding Feast at Cana,” among others.
We don't know for sure how Morse decided on his selection of great works to include in Gallery
of the Louvre. Poussin, Rembrandt, Da Vinci. Morse felt that these particular artists exemplified
certain aspects of art that were most important to him. Following his mentor Washington Alston,
Morse was particularly drawn to the Venetian painters including Titian and Paul Veronese
because of their expert use of color in their compositions.
Titian's entombment is given a central position in Gallery of the Louvre.
Titian has created this classicism which is very specific to Venetian painting.
It's called chromatic classicism because of the love of the natural effects of light
and the love of color and that's what you notice in this painting.
You see a colorful contrast between the figures which helps to differentiate each of them.
These contrasts will be pushed further by younger painters like Veronese
in 1563 with the wedding feast at Cana.