Recounts the astonishing story of this lost Titian masterpiece, now on view in Venice for the first time since its restoration This book recounts the fascinating history of Titian's unfinished portrait, A Lady and her Daughter (possibly his mistress Milia and their daughter), which dates from the early 1550s. After Titian's death in 1576, it was repainted in his studio with a more saleable image of Tobias and the Angel. Often presented as Titian's work but in a style which made the attribution suspect, the painting has had a succession of owners. It belonged to Tsar Nicholas I for a short time, and ultimately to the art dealer René Gimpel, who hid it with other artwork in a warehouse in London during World War II, where it miraculously survived the Blitz. It was not until the mid-20th century that an x-ray examination uncovered the beautiful painting underneath, an undisputed work by the great master himself. The painstaking restoration process, begun in 1983, took 20 years. Notable art historians and conservators have contributed essays that offer an in-depth examination of this exceptional and mysterious painting.
About the Author: Larry Keith is the Head of the Conservation Department, and has managerial responsibility for Art Handling, Framing and Collection Registrars. His work is the conservation, restoration and technical study of Old Master paintings, working in collaboration with colleagues from the Gallery's Scientific and Curatorial Departments. He received a post-graduate diploma in the conservation of easel paintings from the Hamilton Kerr Institute, Cambridge, following a BA in Art History from Oberlin College. He joined the National Gallery in 1991 after working with Hebert Lank in London and John Brealey at the Metropolitan Museum. He is a member of the International Advisory Board of Studies, Department of Conservation and Technology, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. He is an external examiner for that programme, and for the post-graduate easel painting conservation course of the Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge. He is an advisor for the Bank of America Art Conservation Program, the Heritage Conservation Trust, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Wallace Collection Reynolds Project. He was recently a member of the international Commission for the Restoration of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne by Leonardo da Vinci, organized by the Département des Peintures du Musée du Louvre with the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des musées de France. Jaynie Louise Anderson FAHA, OSI is an Australian art historian, writer and curator of exhibitions, who is renowned for her publications and exhibitions on Giorgione and Venetian painting. She is Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne. Anderson has been Herald Chair of Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne from 1997 until 2014, and was President of International Committee of the History of Art (Comité International d'Histoire de l'Art, CIHA) from 2008.