The Italian Renaissance artist Titian’s “Rest on the Flight into Egypt” painting might sell for nearly $32 million in a July auction. The Titian painting was discovered at a London bus stop in 2002 after being stolen seven years before.
Tiziano Vecellio, or Titian, displayed remarkable artistic talent as a child, even painting a Madonna with flower nectar as a baby.
Recognizing his gift, his family sent him to Venice at around 10 years old to apprentice under Giovanni Bellini, the city’s leading painter.
Venice, Europe’s richest and most dazzling city, must have greatly influenced young Titian from the countryside.
As the poet Jacopo Sannazaro said, “Great men built Rome, but Venice was built by gods.”
Titian’s early paintings were small and detailed, with careful brushwork, unlike his later, more expressive style.
On July 2, 2024, one of these early masterpieces, “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt,” will be featured at Christie’s Old Masters Part I sale in London.
It is one of the last early Titian paintings that were in private hands.
The painting, inspired by a story from the Gospel of Matthew (2:13-23), depicts Joseph taking Mary and Jesus to Egypt for safety after being warned in a dream about King Herod’s plan to kill Christ.
The Titian painting shows the Holy Family resting during their journey in a rural setting.
They are positioned in the center-left against a bright sky with a pastoral landscape.
Despite its small size, the figures appear monumental, especially the Madonna, whose solid form resembles other women in Titian’s works from the same period, like Mary Magdalene in “Noli me Tangere” (circa 1514).
The painting shows the Madonna holding Jesus in a tender embrace at the center, with Jesus leaning into his mother and tugging at her hair.
Joseph sits nearby on a rocky bank, looking exhausted with a hunched pose and aged face.
In Titian painting, “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt,” the Madonna holds Jesus protectively. At the same time, Joseph sits nearby, displaying exhaustion.
Painted when Titian was likely in his late teens or early twenties around the early 16th century, the artwork shows his early grasp of emotion and humanity.
Mary and Joseph appear contemplative, with a sense of foreboding, hinted at by the white cloth on Mary’s knee, foreshadowing Christ’s future burial shroud.
The painting purchased by the 4th Marquess of Bath in 1878 was stolen from the Longleat estate in 1995, as reported by the auction house, according to PEOPLE.
Seven years later, Charles Hill, a former Scotland Yard officer renowned for his expertise in art recovery, found the painting in a plastic bag at a bus stop in Greater London.
Christie’s confirmed it was discovered without its frame after offering a reward of £100,000 (about $127,000).
Aside from being stolen in the mid-1990s, Napoleon’s troops also took the Tatian painting from Belvedere Palace in Vienna in 1809.
“This sublime early masterpiece by Titian is one of the most poetic products of Titian’s youth,” said Orlando Rock, Chairman of Christie’s U.K.
Rock stated that the painting holds the rare distinction of being stolen twice.
He expressed honor in overseeing its sale in London in July, emphasizing its significance and craftsmanship.
Andrew Fletcher, Christie’s global head of the Old Masters Department, described the painting as the most important Titian work to be auctioned in decades and one of the few masterpieces by the artist still held privately.
Fletcher emphasized that the painting demonstrates Titian’s groundbreaking use of color and depiction of human figures in natural settings.
These innovations established Titian as the first Venetian artist to achieve widespread fame across Europe in his lifetime, solidifying his legacy as one of the greatest artists in Western history.
See the twice stolen Titian painting, “Rest on the Flight into Egypt,” below:
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