A musing on Titian's "Flaying of Marsyas" painting, left in his studio at the end of his life (1576), entering the art historical record in the early 20th century.

1. Titian
In the End
From Wholesome Flesh
To
Disintegrating Skin
© Deborah Feller
December 12, 2017

2. How many artists does it take to complete a
painting?

3. How many artists does it take to complete a
painting?
6

4. How many artists does it take to complete a
painting?
6
1 to do the painting

5. How many artists does it take to complete a
painting?
6
1 to do the painting
&
5 to drag her away from the canvas when it's
finished.

6. Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas
(before 1576, oil on canvas, 86.6 x
80.3 in. [220 x 204 cm]). Archbishop's
Palace, Kroměříž, Czech Republic.

7. Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas (before
1576). Figure 3: Venus of Urbino (1538,
oil on canvas, 46.85 x 65 in. [119
x 165 cm]). Galleria degli Uffizi,
Florence.
Figure 2: Nymph and
Shepherd (early 1570s, oil
on canvas, 59 x 73.6 in.
[149.7 x 187 cm]).
Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna, Austria.

8. Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas
(before 1576).

9. Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas
(before 1576).
‘No! no! He screamed,
’Why tear me from myself? Oh, I
repent!
A pipe’s not worth the price!’ and
as he screamed
Apollo stripped his skin; the
whole of him
Was one huge wound, blood
streaming everywhere,
Sinews laid bare, veins naked,
quivering
And pulsing. You could count his
twitching guts,
And the tissues as the light
shone through his ribs...”

10. Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas
(before 1576).

11. Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas
(before 1576).

12. Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas (before
1576).
Figure 4: The Flaying of Marsyas,
detail, blood dripping.

13. Figure 5: Compositional analysis of
The Flaying of Marsyas.

14. Figure 7: Anonymous, after Titian's
Flaying of Marsyas. Private collection.
Figure 6: Flaying of Marsyas, X-ray of
upper left part of Kroměříž painting with
sketch of lyrist in red. From Sylvia Ferino-
Pagden, Late Titian and the Sensuality of
Painting, 235.

15. Figure 9: Attributed to Pothos Painter,
Apollo and Marsyas Compete (ca. 430-
410 BCE, attic red figure krator).
British Museum.
Figure 8: Apollo and Marsyas, (ca.
290–300, panel of a sarcophagus).
Paris, Louvre Museum.
Figure 10: White Marsyas or
Marsia Appeso (hanging) (200-
100 BCE, Roman copy of Greek
original). Florence, Uffizi
Gallery.

16. Figure 11: Giulio Romano, Apollo Flaying Marsyas (1527, pen, ink and wash over
chalk, 19.8 x 26.1 in. [50.2 x 66.3 cm]). Design for a detail of the frieze in the Sala
di Ovidio, Palazzo del Te. Louvre, Paris.

17. Figure 12: Agostino da Mozzanega and Anselmo de Ganis,
after a design by Giulio Romano, Apollo Flaying Marsyas (1527,
fresco). Sala di Ovidio, Palazzo del Te, Mantua.

18. Figure 13: Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Raphael) and
assistant, Apollo Ordering the Flaying of Marsyas (1510-11,
fresco). Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican.

19. Figure 15: Giulio Romano,
Apollo Flaying Marsyas,
detail.
Figure 14: Raffaello
Sanzio da Urbino
(Raphael) and assistant,
Apollo Ordering the Flaying
of Marsyas, detail, inverted
view.

20. Figure 16: Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola
(Parmigianino), Apollo Overseeing the Flaying
of Marsyas (ca. 1527-30, red chalk, partly
outlined in pen and ink). Uffizi Gallery,
Florence.
Figure 18: Andrea Meldolla (Andrea
Schiavone) after a lost drawing by
Parmigianino, Apollo Overseeing the
Flaying of Marsyas, (mid-16th century,
point of brush, wash, over chalk, with
heightening, cropped at left). Royal
Library, Windsor, England.
Figure 17: Antonio Fantuzzi after
Parmigianino, Apollo Overseeing the Flaying
of Marsyas (ca. 1545, etching). Bibliotèque
Nationale, Paris.

21. Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas (before
1576).
Figure 11: Giulio Romano, Apollo Flaying Marsyas
(1527).

22. Figure 19: Giulio Romano, Apollo Flaying
Marsyas, detail, reverted Marsyas head.
Figure 20: The Flayin
of Marsyas, detail,
reverted Marsyas hea

23. Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas (before
1576).
Figure 11: Giulio Romano, Apollo Flaying
Marsyas (1527).

24. Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas (before 1576).
Figure 21:
The Flaying
of Marsyas,
detail,
Phrygian
flayer's hand
with knife.

25. Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas (before
1576).

26. Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas (before 1576).
Figure 22:The Flaying of Marsyas,
detail, head of Midas.

27. Figure 24: Albrecht Dürer, Melancolia I (1514,
engraving, 9.5 x 7.3 in.[24 × 18.5 cm]). The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Figure 23: The Flaying of Marsyas, detail,
Midas.

28. Figure 25: The Flaying of Marsyas, detail,
Midas looking at Marsyas's face.

29. Figure 26: The Flaying of Marsyas, detail,
Apollo, singing while he works.

30. Figure 27: Venus with Cupid, an Organist and a Dog (ca.
1550, oil on canvas, 45.3 x 82.7 in. [115 x 210 cm]).
Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

31. Figure 28: Natura
Potentior Ars, ca. 1562.
Titian's Impresa.
On Painter Titian
Learned painters of diverse eras,
Continuing into our own time,
Designs and images have shown
How art jousts with nature.
Gathered at the glorious peak,
They are deemed heavenly prodigies,
But TITIAN, by the grace of divine
fortune,
Has bested art, genius and nature.

32. Figure 1: The Flaying of Marsyas (before
1576, oil on canvas, 86.6 x 80.3 in. [220 x
204 cm]). Archbishop's Palace, Kroměříž,
Czech Republic.
Figure 29: Self-Portrait
(oil on canvas, ca. 1567-
68, 33.9 x 27.2 in. [86 x
69 cm]). Museo del
Prado, Madrid.