"I am especially pleased that this exhibition is dedicated to such a great artist as Titian, and that the exhibition was realised through a loan from the Pitti Palace, which has one of the greatest traditions among Italy's museum-like institutions. This is further proof of the fruitful cooperation between Hungary and Italy," Italian Ambassador to Hungary Paolo Guido Spinelli said.
Axel Vécsey, the exhibition?s curator, called ?The Mysterious Man? one of the outstanding achievements of Italian Renaissance art.
The painting, which the master completed in the 1540s, is the portrait of a mysterious man with grey eyes. Nothing is known about the person who poses so confidently and elegantly for the portrait, although theories abound. Rona Goffen, a renowned Renaissance art researcher, holds that the person is just a model, an embodiment of ideal beauty similar to the women in the countless female portraits of the era.
The painting is the most valuable one ever exhibited in Hungary, insured for HUF 13 billion (EUR 50 million).
The painting, on loan from Florence's Pitti Palace collection, is being displayed together with nine other paintings by Titian?s contemporaries, including Veronese, Dürer, and Tintoretto, from the Museum of Fine Arts? collection. The exhibition is the fourth of six ? organised for the museum?s centennial this year ? which uses a famous art work as a starting point.
?Titian: The Mysterious Man? is open until June 16.
