Tiziano Vecellio (1485-1576), after - Angelo con tamburello

Oil on copper plate – A Tribute to Titian Vecellio’s “Angel with Tambourine” (circa 1508)

Delicate and with great charm, this oil-on-copper painting, realizable in the mid-19th century, constitutes a faithful and sensitive homage to one of Titian’s most evocative early works: the Angel with Tambourine (oil on panel, ca. 1508), today housed in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome and recently reevaluated by critics as a fragment of a polyptych executed for the church of Santa Maria dei Servi in Ferrara.

The subject depicts a full-length putto, seated on an architectural corbel or stone base, with blue and white wings, curly ash-blond hair, face lifted upward in an expression of ecstasy and sweetness. He wears a yellow-gold tunic with soft, luminous folds, tied at the waist, and supports a tambourine with a red frame with both hands. The dark, sober background sets off the figure, while the brick floor and architectural details give depth and compositional solidity.

The nineteenth-century artist, trained in and still linked to the academic tradition and the revival of the great sixteenth-century masters, has carefully reproduced the dynamic pose, the fluid drapery, and the chromatic vivacity of the Titianesque model, translating them into the technique of oil on copper, a support particularly valued in the XIX century for its smooth surface and its ability to enhance bright colors and minute details.

Elegant carved wooden frame gilded with gold leaf, in a Neoclassical-Baroque taste with volutes and acanthus leaves at the corners, in good condition and fully consistent with the painting’s era.

Conservation status: Overall good. The painted surface shows slight craquelure and some signs of age, typical of its age, with no evident invasive interventions. The copper plate is stable; the frame shows minor wear and losses of gilding, consistent

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